Digestion is the process by which the body breaks down food into its major constituents, which are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. They carry the food’s energy to the body. The gut digests each in an orderly fashion, yet at different rates. It digests simple carbohydrates (sugars) quickly, while fats take longer. Proteins and complex carbohydrates (starches) fall somewhere in between depending on their fiber content.
Any benefits about eating starch and protein food at different meals?
Nature doesn’t support this idea. All plant foods and some animal foods are combinations of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Beans and peas, for example, have quite a bit of protein, and corn has a fair percentage of fat.
To get a pure carbohydrate meal, you would need to eat white sugar or the starchy residue that’s left after removing the gluten from white flour. A pure protein meal could be egg whites or dry cottage cheese curds. For the fat meal, a few tablespoons of butter or cooking oil would do. Pure foods, in this sense, don’t occur in nature, but they can be manufactured.
How does the stomach handle these different food constituents?
During digestion sugars and starches of the carbohydrates become glucose, fats become fatty acids, and proteins become amino acids. The blood then can pick up these smaller substances from the intestines and distribute them.
Only a part of digestion occurs in the stomach. The rest occurs in the mouth and intestines. In an amazingly orderly fashion, carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth with the saliva and continues in the stomach. Protein digestion begins in the stomach and continues in the intestines. Fat is largely digested in the intestines.
Effect of acidic and alkaline foods
The stomach has three basic functions:
• It breaks food particles down to a more uniform size by muscular action.
• It brings the food mass to the needed consistency by adding or absorbing fluid.
• It brings the stomach contents to the necessary degree of acidity by secreting acidic digestive juices. This phase accomplishes those parts of digestion that require an acid medium.
When the stomach contents go on to the intestines, they become alkalinized by juices that the pancreas secretes. The digestive process is completed in the intestines.