How do bile salts help food digest? How does water help digestion?
1 Answer
Bile salts emulsify the fats and water just provides as a solvent to the food.. this diluting it
Explanation:
Emulsification is the breaking of fats into small particles called micelles.. Micelles are easier to digest. These are then acted upon by lipase and ultimately absorbed by lacteals in the villi.
Water just dilutes the food and allows its smooth passage along with mucus. It is mostly absorbed as the cells need water for various metabolic processes. It also provides a solvent for the digestive juices. Another salient thing about water: it aids almost all the enzymes involved in digestion to perform their catalytic activity.
For example, sucrase i.e brush border enzyme, need watery environment in order to hydrolyze sucrose into glucose and fructose.
