Absorption and breakdown of nutrients: knowing the digestive system and the microbiota

Abstract

We have to eat; we derive pleasure from the act of consumption; eating makes us feel good, the hunger impulse must be satisfied every day. Food assumes a pivotal role in our daily existence, not merely for its sensory appeal and sociocultural significance, but also for its intrinsic importance as a reservoir of essential nutrients, each endowed with specific functionalities within the human physiological framework. Nutrition encompasses any substance, whether solid or liquid, ingested by living beings for the purpose of obtaining nutrients through the process of digestion and the use of the machinery of microbiota microorganisms. But do we genuinely comprehend the composition of the edibles we ingest? What fate befalls them subsequent to consumption? How do they metamorphose within our physiological milieu? How do they transform inside us? What is the function of bacteria? How do bacteria participate in this process? What is the relationship of bacteria with nutrition? In this article, we embark on an exploratory journey to elucidate the trajectory of ingested food and its interplay with the bacterial inhabitants of the gut microbiota.