Question

Susie takes a bite of her whole wheat sandwich in the cafeteria at lunchtime. in your own words Describe the process of carbohydrate digestion beginning in the mouth. Be sure to include ALL of the organs and enzymes involved for full credit

Answer 1

The process of carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth where the saliva moistens the food and the enzyme salivary amylase, starts the breaking down the polysaccharides in the carbohydrates of the food.

The swallowed food passes through the esophagus. The mixed food i.e. enters the stomach and it is known as chyme. The acid in the stomach destroys bacteria in the food and the action of the salivary amylase stops.

The chyme enters the duodenum where the pancreas releases the enzyme pancreatic amylase, which breaks the polysaccharide down into a disaccharide, i.e. only two sugars linked together. The small intestine produces enzymes known as the; lactase, sucrase, and maltase, which break down the disaccharides into monosaccharides. Carbohydrates that are not digested by the small intestine reach the colon where they are broken down by intestinal bacteria.