Читать книгу Nutrition For Dummies - Carol Ann Rinzler - Страница 34

Salivary enzymes (like amylases) don’t lay a finger on proteins and leave fats pretty much alone, but they do begin to digest complex carbohydrates, breaking the long, chainlike molecules of starches into individual units of sugars. The following simple experiment enables you to taste firsthand the effects of amylases on carbohydrates.

1 Put a small piece of plain, unsalted cracker on your tongue.No cheese, no chopped liver — just the cracker, please.

2 Close your mouth and let the cracker sit on your tongue for a few minutes.Do you taste a sudden, slight sweetness? That’s the salivary enzymes breaking a long, complex starch molecule into its component parts (sugars).

3 Now swallow.The rest of the digestion of the starch takes place farther down, in your small intestine.