Nutrition for Health and Social Care (DISCUSSION) - Assignment Example

The sugars that compose carbohydrates are called monosaccharide, and can combine to form very complex carbohydrates. The structure of a simple monosaccharaides is shown below. Digestion of carbohydrates initiates right from the mouth. The food is mixed with salivary amylase which breaks down the polysaccharides in the food. The saliva also assists in moistening of the food to allow it go down the stomach easily. From here the food is moved down to the stomach and is referred to as a chime. Here the stomach produces acids that kills bacteria in the food and stops the action of salivary amylase.

In the pancreas and the small intestine, in the duodenum the pancreatic juice/amylase is added to the chime so as to break the polysaccharide to a disaccharide. In the small intestine, lactose, sucrose and maltose are produced to further break the food into a monosaccharide. These can therefore be absorbed into the lower parts of the small intestine by the villi into the blood system. In the colon, other carbohydrates that were not digested are partly digested by intestinal bacteria n\and the rest excreted as feces (DUGGAN, WATKINS & WALKER, 2008).

Carbohydrates are essential since they provide energy for the body. They are therefore essential for the functioning of the central nervous system, circulatory system and other essential systems of the body. Fats and lipids are a wide group of compounds that are soluble in organic solvents and others in the water. Although there is no definite structure of fats, most of them belong to the triglyceride class, which assumes a three fatty acid glycerol backbone bond. The image of their structure is as shown below.

The major issue to be considered in the digestion of fats is solubility. The digestion of fats is aided through emulsification. Their digestion begins in the stomach where hydrochloric acids, mucus and gastric enzymes are combined to form gastric juice.