Protein Breakdown and Amino Acid Use

Protein digestion starts in the stomach, where strong acid helps unfold protein structure and expose peptide bonds in polypeptide chains. Digestive enzymes then begin breaking those chains into smaller pieces that can be processed by the body.

Pepsin is a protease, which means it is a protein-dig...

Protein digestion primarily begins in the stomach, the strong acidic environment that can disrupt the protein structure, exposing peptide bonds within a polypeptide chain.

For instance, the stomach enzyme pepsin breaks the bonds to form smaller peptide fragments, shorter chains of amino acids. As the peptides move to the duodenum, the en...