Digestion and Nutrition | Laparoscopic.MD

Nutrition is a collective term for all sources and processes by which living organisms achieve sustenance required for daily activity. Nutrition is turned into usable building blocks of energy for the human body by the process of digestion.

Mechanical digestion begins in the mouth, where food undergoes its initial break down through chewing and then travels a short trip to the stomach. The stomach further breaks down food before it’s passed into the small intestine. In the small intestine, almost all of the nutrients are absorbed and the remainder then travels to the large intestine to be excreted as waste. The absorbed nutrients and energy are transported by the blood and delivered throughout the body.

The eating habits that people choose to follow can cause changes in digestion functioning. If excess food is regularly consumed, the stomach and corresponding hormonal systems will accommodate and result in increased hunger. This creates a vicious cycle of eating more than the body actually needs. When the body has excess energy that doesn’t get burned, it converts into fat to be stored in the cells. The body habituates to poor health and nutrition choices that require real effort to positively change.

Stomach

The stomach is a muscular sac that lies between the esophagus and the small intestine in the upper abdomen. The stomach is not the only part of your digestive system that absorbs food but rather is a part of the digestive system and important for churning food into a consistency that is easier to digest for the rest of your intestines.

Detailed question

Diverticula are small sacs that occur on your large intestine (also called your colon). Some people think that they must stay away from eating seeds because these seeds can get stuck in the openings of these sacs. Can eating seeds develop or worsen diverticulosis?

Does eating seeds affect my condition of diverticulosis?

The majority of scientific literature does not support the hypothesis that by avoiding eating seeds you can avoid future attacks of diverticulitis.

Detailed question

Are there changes in the digestive system that must be made after gallbladder removal?

What diet changes do I have to make after Gallbladder surgery?

The gallbladder stores about 50ml of bile which is produced in the liver, emulsifies fats and neutralizes acids in partly digested food. After being stored in the gallbladder, the bile becomes more concentrated than when it leaves the liver, increasing its potency and intensifying its effect on fats. Most digestion occurs in the duodenum.

After your gallbladder is removed surgically there are no long term restrictions on your diet. Some people do complain of increased gas or bloating after meals for up to several weeks after surgery but these complaints are similar as to other operations on

Gut Bacteria

The microbial population of the gut, or gut microbiota is extremely dense, predominantly comprising bacteria. Whilst a core community of gut microbes—approximately one third—is common to most healthy adults, the composition of each gut microbiota varies according to factors including genetics, diet, age, state of health and geographical location. Microbes are considered important—but probably not essential—to digestion. This is primarily because the gut microbiota breaks down substances that the gut alone is unable to digest and is also involved in synthesis of vitamins.

Spleen

The spleen is a brownish fist-sized organ located in the upper left side of the abdomen, tucked into a space between the stomach, pancreas and left kidney. It’s one of those organs that people know about, but aren’t sure what it does. Essentially, the spleen is a storage container and filter for blood, though it is part of the lymphatic system. In fact, it’s the largest lymph node in the body. One of its tasks is to remove harmful bacteria and viruses in the blood stream. Its other major task is removing or storing certain blood cells. The spleen is not part of the digestive system however is connected to the blood vessels of both the stomach and the pancreas.

Omentum

The omentum is a membranous double layer of fatty tissue that covers and supports the intestines and organs in the lower abdominal area. The omentum is made up of the greater omentum which is an important storage for fat deposits and the lesser omentum which connects the stomach and intestines to the liver. Milky spots on the greater omentum contain white blood cells that assist immunity by removing cellular debris.

Liver

The liver plays an important role in the digestion and processing of proteins, fat and sugar. The liver helps create some of the building blocks of proteins needed for the body known as amino acids. The liver plays an important role in fat digestion as well as the production of fats needed for the function of different organs of the body. Simple sugars are created in the liver by breaking down both proteins as well as more complex sugars known as glycogen. The liver can also convert simple sugar into glycogen which is better for storage. In this way the liver acts as an energy center for the body. It controls the balance of simple and complex sugar storage and releases sugar stores when needed for energy.

Colon

The large intestine carries out the function of absorption of water and electrolytes as well as storing waste until it can be expelled. It is also responsible for maintaining water balance and some absorption of vitamins such as vitamin K. The mixture of remaining food and intestinal juices called chyme in the colon is devoid of almost all nutrients and water; it consists of primarily the undigested food with some amount of water and electrolytes.

Intestine

The small intestine is a long tube that is approximately 18 feet long (6 meters). The small intestine is called small because the diameter or the width of the tube is much less than the large intestine. The parts of the small intestine include the duodenum, jejunum and the ileum. The duodenum is a segment of intestine between the stomach and the jejunum that is very active in digestion where many different enzymes mix from the stomach, liver, gallbladder and pancreas.

Gallbladder

One of the functions of the gallbladder is to concentrate the bile produced by the liver. Mainly by removing water, the bile is reduced from a fifth to a tenth of its original volume until reaching the maximum capacity of the gallbladder at about 50 milliliters. This concentration is a kind of balancing act. If the gallbladder doesn’t concentrate the bile, then there may not be enough active ingredients to break down a heavy load of fat, resulting in digestive problems. If the gallbladder performs too much concentration, the lack of water may stimulate the formation of gallstones around impurities in the high saturation of cholesterol.

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