iGCSE Biology - Food and Digestion
Five main food groups: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, minerals, and
vitamins.
We also need fibre and water.
Carbohydrates:
Make up 5% of mass of human body.
Main fuel for supplying cells with energy.
Cells release this energy by oxidising glucose, which is a
carbohydrate.
Glucose is found in many sweet-tasting foods.
Fructose is found in fruit.
Lactose is found in milk.
Sucrose is ordinary table sugar.
Sugars can cause tooth decay.
Most of the carbohydrates we use come from starch, which is
insoluble.
Starch is a polymer of glucose.
Starch is found only in plants, and the equivalent of it in animals
is glycogen.
Another carbohydrate is cellulose, found in plant cell walls.
Humans cannot digest this, and therefore forms roughage in
the gut.
Lipids:
Make up 10% of human body.
If solid at room temperature called fats, if liquid at room
temperature called oils.
Fats come from animals, oils come from plants.
Fat is used to insulate the human body as well as to protect
organs by surrounding them.
Lipids are made up of glycerol and fatty acids.
Excess lipids, especially saturated fats such as cholesterol, are
unhealthy and have been linked to heart disease.
Proteins:
Make up 18% of human body.
Needed for growth and repair.
Meat, fish, cheese, and eggs are rich in protein.
Protein deficiency disease is kwashiorkor.
Proteins are polymers, made up of amino acids.
Shape is crucial to function of protein.
Minerals:
Calcium deficiency is rickets.
Iron deficiency is anaemia.
Mineral Amount in an
adult body (g)
Location or role in body Examples of foods rich
in minerals
Calcium 1000 Making teeth and
bones
Dairy products, fish,
bread, vegetables
Phosphorus 650 Making teeth and
bones; part of many
chemicals, e.g. DNA
Most foods
Sodium 100 In body fluids, e.g. Common salt, most
blood foods
Chlorine 100 In body fluids, e.g.
blood
Common salt, most
foods
Magnesium 30 Making bones, found
inside cells
Green vegetables
Iron 3 Part of haemoglobin in
red blood cells, helps
carry oxygen
Red meat, liver, eggs,
some vegetables e.g.
spinach
Vitamins:
Vitamin RDA Use in body Deficiency Source in food
A 0.8mg Making chemical in
retina, protecting
surface of the eye.
Night blindness,
damaged cornea
Fish liver oils, liver
butter, carrots
B1 1.4mg Helps with cell
respiration
Beriberi Yeast extract,
cereals
B2 1.6mg Helps with cell
respiration
Poor growth,
dry skin
Green vegetables,
eggs, fish
B3 18mg Helps with cell
respiration
pellagra Liver, meat, fish
C 60mg Sticks together cell
linings
scurvy Fresh fruit and
vegetables
D 5ug Helps bones absorb
calcium and
phosphate
Rickets, poor
teeth
Fish liver oils
Food tests:
Starch test:
1. Add dilute iodine solution.
2. If it goes blue-black, starch is present.
Glucose test:
1. Place in test-tube, and add 2cm of water.
2. Add several drops of Benedicts solution.
3. Boil the test-tube in a water bath.
4. If it goes brick-red, glucose is present.
Protein test:
1. Add to 2cm of water in test-tube and mix.
2. Add potassium hydroxide solution.
3. Add copper sulphate solution.
4. If it goes mauve, protein is present.
Lipid test:
1. Add ethanol and shake.
2. Add to cold water.
3. If an emulsion forms, lipids are present.
Energy content of food is measured in kilojoules (kJ).
To find the energy content of food do the following:
1. Find mass of food.
2. Place 20cm
3
of water into a boiling tube.
3. Measure the temperature of the water.
4. Light the food in a Bunsen.
5. When it lights, hold under the boiling tube until it no longer burns.
6. Measure final temperature of water.
7. (final temperature temperature at start) x 20 x 4.2
Mass of food (g)
Food is broken down through digestion so that it can be absorbed.
Digestion is speeded up by enzymes.
Digestion can be chemical or mechanical.
Muscles move food along the gut.
There are two muscle layers in wall of the intestine.
Circular muscles and longitudinal muscles contract and relax in
succession, causing narrowing and widening of the gut.
Waves of muscle contraction push food along the gut.
This is called peristalsis.
The mouth, stomach and first part of intestine (duodenum) break down
food using enzymes.
Digested food is absorbed in the last part of the small intestine (ileum).
The large intestine absorbs water from the remains and stores faeces.
Digestive Enzymes:
Class of
Enzyme
Examples Digestive Action Source of Enzyme Where it acts
in the gut
Carbohydrase Amylase Starch maltose Salivary glands Mouth
Starch maltose Pancreas Small intestine
Maltose glucose Small intestine wall Small intestine
Protease Pepsin Proteins peptides Stomach wall Stomach
Trypsin Proteins peptides pancreas Small intestine
Peptidases Peptides amino
acids
Small intestine wall Small intestine
Lipase Lipase Lipids glycerol
and fatty acids
Pancreas Small intestine
Process of digestion:
1. Saliva, containing amylase, moistens the food in the mouth.
2. The chewed food passes through oesophagus to the stomach.
3. Stomach secretes hydrochloric acid, killing bacteria on food.
4. Pepsin breaks down protein in the stomach.
5. Food is held in stomach by a sphincter muscle, and when this
relaxes food is released into the duodenum.
6. Amylase, trypsin, and lipase (all made by pancreas) are added to
the food.
7. Bile, produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder, passes
down the bile duct onto the food, emulsifying it and increasing its
surface area. This means the lipase can act faster on it.
8. Once the food has been broken down, it is absorbed in the ileum.
9. Ileum has very large surface area: very long, folded upon itself,
and contains villi, each with their own microvilli. Villi are small
extrusions from wall of ileum.
10. Most food products enter capillaries in villi.
11. Products of fat digestion enter a lacteal, part of the lymphatic
system, and form lymph. This is later drained into blood
12. Blood vessels in ileum form hepatic portal vein which leads to liver,
which processes food molecules.
13. The food molecules are assimilated: absorbed into cells from the blood.
First part of large intestine, the colon, absorbs water to form faeces.
Faeces stored in rectum until expelled by the anus.
