Food we eat - may contain carbohydrates such as starch, sucrose, cellulose*
Carbohydrates - digested by carbohydrase’s such as amylase and maltase.
- Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth. Salivary Amylase in the mouth digests salivary amylase into maltose.
- Only a little starch can be digested into maltose as food does not remain for long in the mouth
- No digestion of carbohydrates occur in the stomach. this is because there are no carbohydrase’s here, and salivary amylase is denatured by the low pH2
- Carbohydrates are fully digested into simple sugars in the small intestine.
- starch is digested by pancreatic amylase into maltose, which is further digested by maltase into glucose. (Intestinal Maltase)
end product of carbohydrate digestion → simple sugars which can be absorbed into the bloodstream; small, soluble, simple, diffusible molecules. cellulose - not digested in humans at all.