BB has taken carbohydrates as the main nutrient in the plain baked potato.
Carbohydrates have three major anatomic pathways that play an essential role in metabolism. For instance, there is the pentose phosphate pathway that involves the changing of hexose sugars to pentose. The next path is glycogenesis which involves the change of additional glucose to glycogen during digestion (Cheng et al., 2020). Finally, there is glycogenolysis, which involves changing glycogen to polymers and later to glucose. Thus, this process is mainly stimulated by glucagon as the main component.
The absorption of carbohydrates happens in the small intestine. The absorption of carbohydrates starts in the mouth with the feat of salivary and gastric enzymes to form the elements of oligosaccharides. Then, the oligosaccharides undergo hydrolysis to form monosaccharides through the action of a specific type of disaccharides. Four major types of disaccharides take part in the absorption of carbohydrates: sucrase-isomaltase, glucoamylase-maltase, trehalase, and lactase-phlorizin hydrolase (Cheng et al., 2020). Therefore, absorption plays an essential role in digesting these food macro-nutrients.
Carbohydrates undergo a complex process to be converted to energy in the body. First, the food components taken as carbohydrates are digested and smashed, creating glucose before they get to the bloodstream. As such, the glucose is transferred to the body cells. After the glucose components are transported to body cells, they create a component called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Therefore, this energy molecule is most used as an energy substance in the body.
If no more energy is needed in the body, carbohydrates will remain in excess in the body. The excess of the macro-nutrient is kept in the arrangement of glycogen in the liver. The elements are further converted to fast.
Reference
Cheng, H. M., Mah, K. K., & Seluakumaran, K. (2020). Carbohydrate digestion: Small intestine as the site of digestion and absorption for dietary carbohydrates. Defining Physiology: Principles, Themes, Concepts. Volume 2, 59-61.