The_Absorption_Process

The Absorption Process Absorption is the process by which the provisions of digestion are transported into the body’s internal environment, enabling the nutrients to reach the body’s cells. Most absorption takes place in the small intestine, which is composed of three segments: the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum. Together, the small intestine accounts for almost ten feet of coiled tube that lies in a human’s lower abdomen. The lining of the small intestine has hundreds of folds which are covered with villi. Villi are finger-like projections made up of hundreds of cells that increase the small intestines surface area available for absorption of food. Each villus is enveloped with microscopic hairs called microvilli. “Microvilli on the cells of villi provide the absorptive surfaces that allow the nutrients to pass through the body.” (Whitney & Rolfes, 2002, p.75) Between the folds of the villi lie glands called crypts. Crypts secrete intestinal juices into the small intestine which help break down the chyme (a semiliquid mass that food develops into as it is being ground in the stomach) not only physically, but chemically. Nutrients from the chyme are caught among the microvilli which in turn draws the nutrients, system, cells, cell, membrane, villi, small, vascular, diffusion, blood, transport, lymphatic, enter, absorbed, body’s, active, across, water, through, simple, rolfes, intestine, energy, called, body, absorption, 2002, whitney, transported, soluble, proteins, protein, order, microvilli, intestinal