The intriguing process of digestion involves dismantling the complex nutritional components of whole foods to form simple nutrients

a body can absorb. Many juices and physiological molecules contribute to gastrointestinal function during the passage of food through the digestive tract.

 Enzymes, protein-based molecules that facilitate and hasten physiological processes, are necessary constituents for maximal digestion of lipid, protein and carbohydrate.

 The digestive process begins in the mouth. The tongue and teeth perform mechanical digestion, spreading food to increase the surface area on which enzymes act. Three salivary glands within the oral cavity donate watery mucus and enzymes to the food mixture.

 Alpha-amylase enzyme facilitates digestion of amylose and amylopectin, two types of carbohydrate. Amylose and amylopectin are starches, or polysaccharides, consisting of thousands of chemically-joined glucose (sugar) molecules that must be disassembled into single glucose particles in order to be used by body tissues.

 The initial activity of salivary amylase is limited to the time food spends in the oral cavity.

 The pH (acidity) of the gastrointestinal tract regulates digestion in that it activates or deactivates enzymes. Amylase is active at a relatively neutral pH, around 6, characteristic of the mouth and small intestine.

 The extreme acidity of the stomach, about 2, generally is believed to deactivate amylase through denaturation, a process in which amylase's protein strands unravel, permanently destroying the enzyme's capacity to digest carbohydrates. Amylase may survive stomach passage if sheltered by dietary starch, and it may contribute to digestion in the small intestine.

 Regardless, because amylase is disabled at a low pH and no additional carbohydrate-digesting enzymes are released within the stomach, chemical digestion of carbohydrates is suspended until food leaves this organ.

 The small intestine is responsible for finalizing chemical digestion and handling nutrient absorption. Chyme, the digestive conglomeration leaving the stomach, enters the small intestine slowly, ensuring maximal function of the final set of digestive enzymes contributed by the pancreas.

 Pancreatic amylase dismantles starches to either single glucose molecules or to small saccharides (maltotrioses or maltoses), which subsequently are acted on by enzymes specific to simple carbohydrates. Collectively, these enzymes are referred to as alpha-glucosidases and include sucrase, the enzyme that digests the familiar table sugar called sucrose.

 Finally, in the presence of lactose (milk sugar), lactase (a beta-galactosidase enzyme) performs digestion.

 Any nutrients failing to be completely digested will not be absorbed but will exit the body during defecation. Fibers are excellent examples of such food constituents. Fibers are similar to starches in that they contain chains of glucose molecules, but they are different by way of the chemical bond arrangement between glucose molecules.

 The body lacks the enzymes required to break these specific chemical connections, deeming fibers an indigestible, unabsorbable form of carbohydrate. Raffinose and stachyose are examples of undigestible oligosaccharides (carbohydrates consisting of three to 10 sugar molecules) found in healthful legumes and vegetables.

 These sugars require digestion by enzymes called alpha-galactosidases, which are not produced in the human body. Other fermentable (soluble) fibers including pectin and hemicelluloses found in oats, barley, and a variety of vegetables also escape digestion

 Undigested fibers move through the large intestine, where they are fermented by bacteria, a process known to cause undesirable gas and bloating. As a remedy, supplemental alphagalactosidase tablets may be taken immediately prior to a potentially problematic meal to aid in digestion and reduce lower bowel discomfort.