What is the difference between mechanical and chemical digestion?

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Mechanical digestion
Chemical digestion
How they work together
Small intestine
Large intestine

Chemical vs Mechanical Digestion

The digestive system of human body is made of vacuous organs connected with long and twisted tube from the mouth to the anus. This is also interlinked with various other organs that help the body to break the food particles and helps to absorb the nutrients. Organs like mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and anus play an important part in the process of digestion.

When we consume food, the body needs to break down the food into smaller molecules of nutrients for the system to absorb the nutrients into blood streams. This would be carried to all the cells present throughout the body. Digestion process could be divided into mechanical and chemical digestion.

Mechanical digestion is a process that begins the moment the food particles reach the mouth. The process of taking the food from mouth to the body is called ingestion. The teeth initiates the mechanical digestion by grinding the food and this process is also called as masticating.

When initiating the chemical digestion process, the saliva secreted helps in softening the food into semi-solid lump. Salivary amylase enzyme helps in digesting the carbohydrates and mucus. This way the food particles are made finer for swallowing and chemical breakdown in the digestive track. The food thus made into semi solid lump is then pushed through the throat and esophagus, a hollow tube that connects throat and stomach.

On reaching the stomach the food goes through a series of chemical and mechanical treatment. Inside the stomach mechanical digestion called peristaltic contractions helps to churn the food bolus. The chemical process mixes the bolus with digestive juices released by the stomach lining cells. The food particles go through hours of digestive process passing through various stages of chemical digestion.

The processed food is moved into rectum by small intestine. Then the food gets fermented inside large intestine by the gut bacteria. This aids in digesting the unfinished projects of small intestine.
There are four important hormones that help in regulating the digestion process.

Gastrin ‘“ gastric glands stimulates pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid on arrival of food inside stomach.

Secretin ‘“ this signals secretion of sodium bicarbonate in pancreas. Secretin helps in controlling the acidity of the chime.

Cholecystokinin ‘“ this helps in secretion of digestive enzymes in pancreas. This also aids in emptying the bile in gallbladder. Cholecystokinin is produced when the digestion process needs to handle fats from chime.

Gastric inhibitory peptide ‘“ this helps in decreasing the churning process. This also helps in producing insulin secretion.

Even though the mechanical and chemical digestion processes are very important for the human digestive process, chemical digestion is considered more important. This is due to the complex procedure involved in Chemical digestion.

Summary: 1. Mechanical digestion refers to the digestion process that breaks the food into smaller particles. 2. Chemical digestion is the process where acids, bases and enzymes released into the digestive track responds to semi-solid food lumps.

3. Chemical digestion is more important than mechanical digestion as this is how we get our energy.

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Chemical vs. mechanical
Purpose
Where it begins
Path of digestion
Takeaway

When it comes to digestion, chewing is only half the battle. As food travels from your mouth into your digestive system, it’s broken down by digestive enzymes that turn it into smaller nutrients that your body can easily absorb.

This breakdown is known as chemical digestion. Without it, your body wouldn’t be able to absorb nutrients from the foods you eat.

Read on to learn more about chemical digestion, including how it’s different from mechanical digestion.

Chemical and mechanical digestion are the two methods your body uses to break down foods. Mechanical digestion involves physical movement to make foods smaller. Chemical digestion uses enzymes to break down food.

Mechanical digestion

Mechanical digestion begins in your mouth with chewing, then moves to churning in the stomach and segmentation in the small intestine. Peristalsis is also part of mechanical digestion. This refers to involuntary contractions and relaxations of the muscles of your esophagus, stomach, and intestines to break down food and move it through your digestive system.

Chemical digestion

Chemical digestion involves the secretions of enzymes throughout your digestive tract. These enzymes break the chemical bonds that hold food particles together. This allows food to be broken down into small, digestible parts.

How they work together

Once food particles reach your small intestine, the intestines continue to move. This helps keep food particles moving and exposes more of them to digestive enzymes. These movements also help to move the digested food toward the large intestine for eventual excretion.

Digestion involves taking large portions of food and breaking them down into micronutrients small enough to be absorbed by cells. Chewing and peristalsis help with this, but they don’t make particles small enough. That’s where chemical digestion comes in.

Chemical digestion breaks down different nutrients, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, into even smaller parts:

Fats break down into fatty acids and monoglycerides.
Nucleic acids break down into nucleotides.
Polysaccharides, or carbohydrate sugars, break down into monosaccharides.
Proteins break down into amino acids.

Without chemical digestion, your body wouldn’t be able to absorb nutrients, leading to vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition.

Some people may lack certain enzymes used in chemical digestion. For example, people with lactose intolerance usually don’t make enough lactase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose, a protein found in milk.

Chemical digestion begins in your mouth. As you chew, your salivary glands release saliva into your mouth. The saliva contains digestive enzymes that start off the process of chemical digestion.

Digestive enzymes found in the mouth include:

Lingual lipase. This enzyme breaks down triglycerides, a kind of fat.
Salivary amylase. This enzyme breaks down polysaccharides, a complex sugar that’s a carbohydrate.

Chemical digestion doesn’t just stop with enzymes in your mouth.

Here’s a look at some of the main stops on the digestive system involving chemical digestion:

Stomach

In your stomach, unique chief cells secrete digestive enzymes. One is pepsin, which breaks down proteins. Another is gastric lipase, which breaks down triglycerides. In your stomach, your body absorbs fat-soluble substances, such as aspirin and alcohol.

Small intestine

The small intestine is a major site for chemical digestion and absorption of key food components, such as amino acids, peptides, and glucose for energy. There are lots of enzymes released in the small intestine and from the nearby pancreas for digestion. These include lactase to digest lactose and sucrase to digest sucrose, or sugar.

Large intestine

The large intestine doesn’t release digestive enzymes, but it does contain bacteria that further break down nutrients. It also absorbs vitamins, minerals, and water.

Chemical digestion is a vital part of the digestive process. Without it, your body wouldn’t be able to absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. While mechanical digestion involves physical movements, such as chewing and muscle contractions, chemical digestion uses enzymes to break down food.

Last medically reviewed on September 5, 2018