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Food to Nutrients: Three Connected Jobs

Distinguish digestion, absorption and transport using a simplified route.

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Digestion breaks food down. Most nutrient absorption happens in the small intestine. Absorption means crossing its lining; blood transports many absorbed nutrients onward. Some products of fat digestion enter lymph first, so one sugar arrow is not every nutrient route.

Worked example

A small sugar moves from inside the small intestine across its lining into nearby blood. The crossing is absorption. Blood carrying it onward is transport, not a whole sandwich entering a vessel.

A simple sugar arrow points from inside the small intestine across its lining toward nearby blood. Absorption is the crossing; blood carries the absorbed sugar onward.
One nutrient route, not whole food moving into blood.

A museum delivery model

A model follows food through mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine. At the small intestine, an arrow labeled simple sugar crosses its lining into blood. The stomach mixes food with digestive juices, but it does not do every job. Use only this paper model. No tasting, diet record, body measurement or personal health information is needed.

Question 1 What job does the simple sugar crossing the intestinal lining show?
Question 2 Which order matches the food route before the small intestine?
Question 3 Where does most nutrient absorption happen?
Question 4 What is blood doing after the small sugar has entered it?
Question 5 Which statement respects the limit of the sugar arrow?