FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9TH, 2011
Open Class 4:30pm / 5:30pm
Athena Class 3:30pm
NOTE: If you want to come workout and absolutely cannot make it to one of the open class times and need to come in later please text me or email me and let me know and I will see about making arrangements for you to come in.
DIGESTION AND YOUR GUT...KNOW YOUR PIE-HOLE
Today we'll get through the last little piece of digestion and then we'll follow that up with absorption in the next nutrition post, leading us straight into the fun stuff FINALLY! At least what is fun for me. I know your eyes are probably glued to the screen with this stuff (if you're anything like me they actually are), but if you stop and think about it for a second this stuff actually pertains directly to your goals. It is imparative that you understand how these mechanisms work within your body to understand what you need to be eating when or why it is vitally critical that you don't eat certain things or don't eat certain things during certain times. Trust me, your success (or failure) depends on these basic concepts.
Last time we covered part the nutrition gamut we took a quick look at an introduction to
Digestion and The Gut. Here I briefly covered some of the structures of the digestive tract and their basic functions. Today we're going to briefly go over some of the key players in digestion.
The small intestine is the part of the gastrointestinal tract where a majority of the chemical digestion and absorption of food (and food's associated nutrients and minerals) occurs. It is here that we see the addition of pancreatic enzymes (primarily secreted by - you guessed it - the pancreas), which further digest foods.
Pancreatic enzymes (aka: digestive enzymes) break down the macronutrients - proteins, carbohydrates, and fats - into thier smaller, fundamental building blocks.
Chemical breakdown of proteins begins in the stomach and continues in the large intestine. Proteins are broken down into peptides and amino acids by the enzyme protease. This enzyme helps keep the intestine free of parasites such as bacteria, yeast and protozoa.
Chemical breakdown of carbohydrates begins as soon as we put food in our mouth by way of salivary amylase and are broken down into monosaccharides (simple sugars) such as glucose, galactose, fructose, etc. Carbohydrate not broken down before reaching the intestines get hit with a dose of pancreatic amylase where mainly starchy carbohydrates are broken into oligosaccharides, which are essentially chains of monosaccharides. Anything not broken down by pancreatic amylase at this point gets leveled with what are called brush border enzymes (sucrase, lactase, maltase), with the exception of cellulose - which is not digested in humans.
Chemical breakdown of
lipids (fats) are broken down by the enzyme
lipase into fatty acids and glycerol. Pancreatic lipase teams up with bile salts from the liver and gall bladder to emulsify fats. Bile is absolutely critical for fat absorption as it acts like a
surfactant. It is important to note that if you don't absorb fats you don't absorb essential vitamins and minerals, which could lead to cancer, osteoperosis, atherosclerosis, etc, etc.
To follow this up we'll cover some terms that you all have heard me talk about before in the villi and microvilli lining our intestinal wall. This is where the information starts to get gruesome and begins to "hit home" a little more.
Thanks for staying tuned.
Lucy hits a 55 lb single-arm dumbbell snatch!...
With both the left AND right arm!
Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com
Coach Justin 
Coach Justin 
Coach Justin 
Coach Justin
Coach Justin 
Coach Justin 
Coach Justin 