Protein Digestion and How it Affects Your Diet

Digestion for proteins is an ornate process that truly begins once we see and smell our food. Just when we begin to smell something appetizing, our body begins secreting various enzymes and stomach acid, so that once we actually ingest the food, our body will be able to more efficiently digest the proteins.

Next, protein digestion is continued in the small intestine where the alkaline pancreatic juices and acidic stomach acids meet so as to neutralize each other and break down the polypeptides into amino acids, which are then absorbed into the blood and taken to the liver.

The absorption rate of protein is very high, with nearly 97% of animal-derived proteins are absorbed whereas 78-85% of plant -derived proteins are absorbed.

Once absorbed into the liver, the body has a few options on how the amino acids will be put to use. One possibility is that the amino acids will be used by the liver to help manufacture its own proteins as well as liver enzymes, lipoproteins, and albumin.

Meanwhile, other amino acids enter the bloodstream where they unite with other recently liberated amino acids that have since been sloughed off in the synthesis/ breakdown cycle. At this point, these amino acids come together to synthesize the amino acids necessary for bodily function.

Without both essential and nonessential amino acids, protein digestion would not be able to take place and amino acids are not able to be stored like excess fat. Instead, they are shipped back to the liver where they are stripped of...

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