10 – Modelling food digestion

Food digestion involves the flow of material and its transformation from entry into the mouth, during passage along the gastrointestinal tract, to its eventual exit from the body. The range of food materials and their complex structures and the range of processes that are used by the human body to liberate nutrients for absorption are varied and complex. Their effectiveness is critical to human nutrition and health. An understanding of the operation of these processes can be improved substantially using advanced computational models. The complexity of this system presents many challenges for such modelling to be realistic and effective. This chapter describes the nature of these challenges and the current status of such modelling.