Lipid Digestion

Lipid digestion begins in the mouth, where glands on the tongue release lingual lipase. This enzyme starts breaking large fat molecules, mainly triglycerides, into smaller parts.

Next, in the acidic environment of the stomach, gastric lipase breaks down fats. Lingual lipase also becomes more active and continues breaking down fats. Because fats do not mix well with water, they tend to clump together, which slows digestion.

When fats enter the duodenum of the small intestine, bile salts surround the fat droplets and break them into many smaller droplets. This forms an emulsion that disperses the fat droplets throughout the watery environment, increasing the surface area available for pancreatic lipase.

With the fats spread out, pancreatic lipase breaks triglycerides into free fatty acids and monoglycerides.

Finally, these smaller fat molecules are absorbed through the intestinal epithelium for further processing.