Simulation of phenomena occurring during digestion of foods

The increasing incidence of dietary related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, emphasize the importance to understand digestion and absorption of nutrients and to develop models that could be able to predict the food behavior through the gastrointestinal tract. In order to achieve this, an in vitro Small Intestine Model (SIM) was used to build starch digestion and glucose absorption as function of food viscosity. The effect of mixing and food formulation was evaluated and correlated to changes on glucose absorption. Significant differences on glucose delivery rates were found between the control and fluids containing viscous biopolymers. Results showed that the segmentation motion significantly increases (up to 30%) glucose rate of absorption across the membrane and that the influence of segmentation decreases as viscosity increases. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that addition of about 0.5 % (w/v) guar gum can result in a threefold decrease of absorption rate and mass transfer. Velocity fields obtained using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) showed the effect of segmentation on nutrients absorption. Velocities profiles indicated that concentric contractions results in an increasing of micromixing and thus enhances mass transfer. This in vitro behaviour could be correlated within blood glucose levels in humans to understand the mechanisms by which biopolymers improves glucose tolerance.