Breaking the Sugar Barrier – Part 1

Hello Friends:

It seems like a tired topic; however, there is always more to learn and a new surprise or enlightenment now and then.

Let’s approach this a little differently: start where nutrients and sugars are first absorbed through the brush border of the small intestines.

A moment of diversion, there are “brush borders,” all made from epithelial cells,  in other organs that are significant for absorption or reabsorption, notably, the kidney, sections of the large intestines, and as on subject, the small intestines. 

However, the brush border structure slightly differs for each of those organs. 

It’s at the “brush borders” where significant, culminating, and crucial action happens. 

Like all or any competent border, it’s axiomatic in the universal principle that a border needs to control, manage, and select what goes in and what goes out to keep the health and vitality of the larger entity, you, in this case, functioning optimally.

Among all the foods we eat, 80 percent of the water and 90 percent of the electrolytes are absorbed through the small intestine. 

However, water reabsorption through the large intestines is a significant function for this organ,  as well as housing our anaerobic bacterial flora and eliminating solid wastes.

The most crucial small intestine brush border enzymes are dextrinase and glucoamylase, lodged right into and attached to the “brush border” tissue itself.  

These very specific enzymes further break down the remaining oligosaccharide units after the amylase from the pancreas breaks down big starch chains we consume from the carbohydrate foods in our diet into smaller units and disaccharides, for the small intestine enzymes to complete the job in ultimately creating monosaccharides, like glucose, fructose, and galactose, for systemic absorption.

The names of the brush border enzymes that break down these disaccharides, maltose ( glucose plus glucose), sucrose ( glucose plus fructose), and lactose ( glucose plus galactose), are, by virtue of their functions, maltase, sucrase, and lactase. 

However, a brief side-bar discussing lactose,   in the case of lactose sugar, lactase is absent or minimal in most adult humans; excess or even minimal lactose is not digested in the small intestine but moves on to the large intestine.

Let’s be clear that lactose intolerance is not being “allergic” to milk–that has to do with protein and its globulins, not the lactose sugar.

https://www.healthline.com › health › lactose-intolerance

 Jan 2019

Lactose intolerance isn’t a true allergy; it can develop at any age. In some people, lactose intolerance may be triggered by another medical condition, such as Crohn’s disease. In others, it can develop without a specific underlying cause.

Types of lactose intolerance

Primary lactose intolerance (an often typical result of aging) is the most common type of lactose intolerance. … 

Secondary lactose intolerance (due to illness or injury) … 

Congenital or developmental lactose intolerance (being born with the condition) … 

Developmental lactose intolerance.

To reiterate, the essence of Part One of this series is on the principle of sugar, water absorption, and other small molecules, emphasizing that it’s at this juncture, the brush border of the small intestines, that monumental events of ultimate digestion and absorption happen.

The fate of our carbohydrate digestion, the fuel substrates, now in the form of elemental monosaccharide sugars, are ready to get filtered through the brush border to the liver and eventually into our cells. 

This brush border, with other forms of enzymes for other macronutrients, such as protein, is also the endpoint of protein digestion, absorption, and transport across the brush membrane, in which various proteins from various foods have been reduced into their transportable elemental amino acids.

“In adults, essentially all protein is absorbed as tripeptides, dipeptides, or amino acids, and this process occurs in the duodenum or proximal jejunum of the small intestine. The peptides and/or amino acids pass through the interstitial brush border by facilitative diffusion or active transport”. Aug 13, 2020 

https://med.libretexts.org

It is important to note a diseased intestinal tract such as in autoimmune or infectious conditions or dysbiosis, which is an imbalance and dysfunction of the microbiome flora, the normal protective barriers and competent brush borders are compromised so that larger molecules and toxins are inappropriately absorbed and can create disease.

This is why the overall health of the GI tract needs attention for the optimal health of the microbiome and flora, as well as suitable and responsive functioning brush border enzymes, which certain probiotics, as will be discussed in the next pending article, can offer help, as part of an all-encompassing holistic health strategy.