Digestion. How and Why does is happen?
Digestion in our bodies is the process of breaking down food both mechanically and chemically into substances that can be used by cells. Digestion is necessary for food to be broken down and distributed throughout the body to become energy for our cells and their needs. This is also how we can exact substances like nutrients, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.
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In humans, nutrients is absorbed through the use of villi in our small intestine which increase surface area. These villi even have micro villi which absorb the nutrients directly into the blood stream. Our blood transports the important substances like glucose, amino acids, lipids and more to our cells and other parts of the body. "Glucose, one of the most important nutrients absorbed in our bodies diffuses into our cells to be used for the reproduction of other cells, make up our proteins and nucleic acids." [1] It also helps to repair and grow tissues. Glucose is essential in cellular respiration and the production of energy, the formula is: glucose+oxygen-> carbon dioxide+ water+ ATP(energy) Thanks digestion!
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(This is a picture of the small intestines surface)
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Now For Wombats
These are a few images of the grasses and plants wombats like to eat. Some are tussock grass, poa grass and spear grass
"Wombats are grazing animals. Using their sharp teeth, they feed on grasses and sedges within their habitat."[2]Wombats large digestive tracts that allow them to eat vegetation that might be of lower quality. Because they have such a lower quality diet they also have a very low metabolic rate. This means they have a small but efficient digestive system to get the most if the nutrients without expending too much energy."The small, acidic stomach and simple small intestine of wombats digests plant cell material, while the hind gut houses microbial fermentation, with which wombats digest the fibrous cell walls of plants."[3] That was very complicated but basically means the wombats digestive system can break down the tough sell walls of plants and access the nutrients. "The hind gut consists of a proximal colon (which makes up roughly 60 to 80% of gut contents), a cecum, and the distal colon."[2]
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