CHAPTER 3

LESSON 3.1:
NUTRITION AND
METABOLISM
 METABOLISM
Refers to all the chemical reactions
that take place inside an organism’s
body.
 NUTRITION
The intake of food from various
sources and the processes that
convert food substances into living
matter.
 ANIMAL
NUTRITION
Biological Trophic levels
1. Autotrophs
2. Heterotrophs
a. Herbivore
b. Carnivore
c. Omnivore
d. Detritivore
 THE AUTOTROPHS
- self feeders
- plants and other
photosynthetic organisms that
produce their own food by
converting inorganic
components into organic
molecules.
 THE HETEROTROPHS
- Consume organic molecules
from other organisms for
nutrition.
- Primarily animals
 DIETARY
CATEGORY
 HERBIVORES
- Exclusive to eating plants
 CARNIVORES
- Exclusive to eating flesh
 OMNIVORES
- Eat both plants and animals
 DETRITIVORES
- Detritus feeders
- Obtain nutrients from
decaying bodies of plants
and animal.
- Usually break detritus to
smaller pieces before
decomposers act on them.
TYPES OF
DIGESTIVE
SYSTEM
 INTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
- Digestion for unicellular organisms
- Process food inside their cells through food
vacuoles.
- For protists, amoeba, paramecium
- The digestive process is called
PHAGOCYTOSIS
 INTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
- They eat surrounding food particle through
their pseudopods or false feet that fork a
bubble like vacuole.
- The food vacuole will now break down the
nutrients inside cellular body.
- Wastes and other excess water will be
released by a contractile vacuole.
 EXTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
- In most multicellular organism
- Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream
after they have been broken down within
digestive cavity while wastes are excreted
out.
 EXTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
TYPES:

A. Gastrovascular Cavity (Incomplete) – have

single opening where food and waste pass
through.
 EXTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
TYPES:

B. Complex Alimentary Canal – found in higher

form of animal
- Contains one way tube with multiple opening
for the mouth and the anus.
TYPES:

B. Complex Alimentary Canal – the ingested food

stays at different compartments or regions of the
Digestive Tract where ingestion, storage, digestion,
and absorption of nutrients take place.
In humans there are also GLANDS that are
functioning
 The Vertebrate
Digestive Systems
Most animal lack enzyme to digest cellulose.
Some gastrointestinal bacteria are present in their
digestive system to help them digest the food via
converting cellulose into simpler substance.
 RUMINANTS
- Animals that have large stomach that is
divided into four chambers (foregut
fermentation) where they sequentially process
the digestion of grass.
 RUMINANTS
- The plant material first enters the rumen where
it is mechanically process the food and
expose it to bacteria to break down cellulose.
- Next, the food is transferred to the reticulum
where the animal regurgitates and reprocess
the material.
 RUMINANTS
- The finely processed food enters the omasum
for further mechanical digestion.
- The mass of food is now ready to enter
abomasum – equivalent to human stomach
where digestive juice are released to break
down food.
 RUMINANTS

- Cows, cattle, goats, deers

 HINDGUT FERMENTATERS
- Cellulose digestion occurs in the intestine (cecum).
- Horses, rhinoceros, rabbits, rodents.
- Regurgitation is impossible because of the distance
between the cecum and stomach.
- Rabbits and other rodents process cellulose by eating
their feces and passing it through the gut the second
time.
 Feeding
Mechanism
 SUSPENSION FEEDING
- For marine invertebrates.
- Use their body parts to move
water toward a feeding structure to
sift through the food suspended in
water.
 FILTER FEEDING

- Extract food particles suspended in surface

water and sieve it to various filtering structures.
FILTER FEEDING
 FILTER FEEDING

- In clams and oysters, as a film of mucus on their

gills traps tiny bits of food suspended in water while
their gills sweeps this food into their mouth.
 SUBSTRATE FEEDING
- Eat their way through the soil while digesting and
excrete as they crawl.
- In this way, they help the environment by
aerating air and fertilizing the soil with their
wastes.
- Example: earthworms
 FLUID FEEDING
- Ingest their food by sucking nutrient-rich fluid
from a living host that is either plant or animal.
- Bloodsucking mosquitoes, headlice, dog ticks
have needle mouth structures that can pierce
through the skin of their host.
- PROBOSCIS
 FLUID FEEDING

- GOOD FLUID FEEDERS: Hummingbirds and bees use their

needle mouth to such for nectar of plants.
 BULK FEEDING

- They ingest large pieces of food into their mouth going

through their complex gastrointestinal tract and being
eliminated through the anus.
 Stages of
Food Processing
 A. INGESTION
- First stage of digestive process
- Act of taking in food through oral or mouth cavity.
MASTICATION – process of chewing; tearing, grinding,
crushing of food into smaller pieces.
 B. DIGESTION

- Involves the mechanical and chemical breakdown of

large food molecules into soluble or diffusible molecules
that can be absorbed by the cells.
 1. MECHANICAL DIGESTION

- Uses teeth, tongue to tear apart or crush foods into

smaller pieces in preparation for chemical digestion.
 2. CHEMICAL DIGESTION
- Uses enzymes whereby water is added in hydrolysis to
break chemical bonds in food (carbohydrate, protein,
fats)
- Macromolecules shall be converted to its building blocks
or monomer.
 C. ABSORPTION

- Small molecules (in form of the monomer) will be

absorbed by the lining of the digestive tract into the
blood stream into its destination cells for energy.
 D. ELIMINATION

- The undigested food and excess water is removed from

the digestive tract.
 HUMAN
DIGESTIVE
SYSTEM
 Digestive System
(Human)
- Composed of a tubular alimentary canal and its
accessory gland.
- Tubular guts starts from the mouth and ends with the
anus.
 Digestive System
(Human)
1. INGESTION
- Mucin in saliva helps soften the food while the teeth
masticate the food.
- Enzyme in saliva, SALIVARY AMYLASE, begins chemical
digestion of carbohydrate.
- The tongue assists by rolling the food into small, slippery
masses of boli (sing. Bolus)
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (ESOPHAGUS TO STOMACH)
- The bolus proceeds from mouth to stomach through a long
hollow tube called the ESOPHAGUS.
- Peristalsis – rhythmic, wavelike muscular contractions that
moves the food from the esophagus to the stomach
( 5 – 10 secs. Duration)
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (STOMACH)
Sphincters – muscular ring like valves that regulate the
passage of food into and out the stomach.
- Controls food to stay in the stomach within 2 – 6 hours
allowing gastric acid and enzymes to act upon them.
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (STOMACH)
2 Types of Secretory Cell in Stomach
a. Parietal Cells – secretes HCL acid
b. Chief Cells – secretes pepsinogen – a weak enzyme
which is converted to pepsin, a stronger enzyme
which breaks down protein

*** Gastric Juice is a dilute solution of HCL acid plus pepsin

with pH 1.5 – 2.5
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (STOMACH)
Function of HCL Acid:
- Stops action of salivary amylase
- Provides acidic medium suitable for gastric enzymes
like pepsin.
- Stimulate the gastric glands to release gastric juice
- Can kill germs and certain potential parasites.
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (STOMACH)
- Thick slippery mucus coats and protects stomach wall
from eroding from its acidic nature.
- Peristalsis in stomach churns the food and mixes it with
gastric juice.
- The partly digested food liquefies and together with
gastric juices forms chyme which will proceed to
duodenum (the first part of the small intestine)
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (SMALL INTESTINE)

Pyloric Sphincter - a muscular valve that connects the

stomach to the small intestine.
- Controls the passage of food to the small intestine.
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (SMALL INTESTINE)

- Further breakdown of food occurs in the small intestine with

the aid of bile and other digestive enzymes from pancreas.
 Digestive System
(Human)
2. DIGESTION (SMALL INTESTINE)
REGIONS OF THE SMALL INTESTINE
a. Duodenum
b. Jejunum
c. Ileum
 Digestive System
(Human)
- The small intestine is where the terminal digestion and
absorption of nutrients in blood takes place.
- Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars
- Protein into amino acids
- Lipids into fatty acids and glycerol.
 Digestive System
(Human)
THE ANATOMY OF THE SMALL INTESTINE

a. Villi [sing. Villus] – fingerlike structures in the inner lining of

the s. intestine that projects into its intestinal cavity.
b. Microvilli – numerous cytoplasmic extensions of villi.
 Digestive System
(Human)
ACCESSORY ORGANS
1. Pancreas – produces
hormones responsible for
controlling blood glucose
level. (insulin released on its
Islet of Langerhans)
- Releases bicarbonate that
neutralize chime acidity.
 Digestive System
(Human)
ACCESSORY ORGANS
2. Liver – produce an alkaline,
greenish yellow liquid which
contain bile salts and bile
pigments called bile (release to
break down fats) which is further
stored in the gall bladder.
 Digestive System
(Human)
3. ELIMINATION (LARGE INTESTINE)
- The food from the small intestine goes to the large intestine.
- By this time, the food is already out of nutrients
(undigested) except for water.
- Water reabsorption occurs in the large intestine.
- The food is held on the large intestine until it is ready to be
ejected through defecation.
 Digestive System
(LARGE INTESTINE) (Human)
3. ELIMINATION

ANATOMY OF THE LARGE INTESTINE

a. Cecum
b. Ascending Colon
c. Transverse Colon
d. Descending Colon
e. Sigmoid Colon
f. Rectum
g. Anal Canal
 Digestive System
(Human)
3. ELIMINATION (LARGE INTESTINE)
- About 18 – 24 hours the water contained in
undigested food is absorbed. After which it
proceeds to the rectum for temporary storage.
- Nutrients that are not absorbed in the large intestine
forms a solid waste known as feces.
- When the rectum contracts the feces is expelled
through the opening called the anus.
 Digestive System
(Human)
3. ELIMINATION (LARGE INTESTINE)
Egestion or Defecation – the process in which
undigested food is removed from the body.
The two sphincters: Inner involuntary and the outer
voluntary sphincters regulate the exit of feces.
Vitamins
and
Minerals
 Minerals
Are inorganic materials needed by the body to
maintain homeostasis.
Example:
Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
 Minerals
Trace Minerals – minerals that are needed by the body
only in small amounts
Example:
Manganese
Iodine
Zinc
 Vitamins
- Complex organic compound that are not
manufactured by the body with exemption to Vitamin
D which can be synthesized by the skin under direct
sunlight.
 Vitamins
1. Fat soluble Vitamins – A, D, E, K can be stored in the
body for future use.
Thus taking high amount of this vitamins will do no good
to your body.
2. Water Soluble Vitamins – C and B cannot be stored
but are secreted via urine and feces.
You can replenish them as often as you want in your
body.
Balanced
Diet
 Balanced Diet
- Contains the right amounts of carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fluid, and
electrolytes to supply the body with energy for its
activities.
- It varies from person to person, depending on age,
sex, lifestyle, activities, heredity and health
condition.
 Balanced Diet
- The amount of energy is usually measured in terms of
calorie (cal).
- Calorie refers to the amount of energy needed to
raise temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degrees
centrigrade.
- Kilocalories – (1000 cal) is used by nutritionists to
refer to the amount of energy found in food.
Balanced Diet