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🍽️ Digestion and Enzymes

Follow food on its journey through the gut and meet amylase, protease, and lipase, the enzymes that break it down.

lessons

~20 min

to learn

🔬 Science

subject

Teens

level

Start the course →

What you’ll learn

The Journey of FoodDescribe the path food takes through the digestive system and the role of the mouth and stomach.Digestion breaks food into molecules small enough to enter the blood. Food passes from the mouth, where teeth and saliva start physical digestion, down the oesophagus to the stomach, which churns it with acid.
Enzymes at WorkExplain what enzymes do and match amylase, protease, and lipase to the foods they digest.Enzymes are proteins that speed up the chemical breakdown of food. Amylase breaks starch into sugars, protease breaks protein into amino acids, and lipase breaks fats into fatty acids.
Breaking Down and AbsorbingExplain how bile aids fat digestion and how villi in the small intestine absorb nutrients.The pancreas adds enzymes and the liver makes bile, which breaks fat into tiny droplets for lipase. Digested nutrients are absorbed through villi in the small intestine, while the large intestine reclaims water.

Questions this course answers

What is digestion?

Digestion breaks large food into molecules small enough to be absorbed.

Which organ does food enter straight after the oesophagus?

Food travels mouth, oesophagus, then stomach.

What is an enzyme?

Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions like digestion.

Which enzyme breaks down starch?

Amylase is the enzyme that acts on starch.

Protease breaks protein down into what smaller units?

Protease turns protein into amino acids.

Why does bile from the liver help digest fat?

Bile increases the fat's surface area so lipase works faster.

Grounded in trusted sources

BBC Bitesize
Britannica
KidsHealth (Nemours)
NHS

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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