Question

What Is the Difference Between Absorption and Assimilation?

Answer 1

Hint: Nutrient is a component that is present in food that is used by living beings to perform bodily functions and to survive. As we know in human beings, the food needs to be processed and absorbed in order to obtain these nutrients. The process of digestion consists of five steps which are ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation and egestion.

Complete answer:
There are two different types of nutrients which are macronutrients and micronutrients. So, in order to obtain these nutrients, absorption and assimilation are very important steps in the process of obtaining nutrition.

Absorption	Assimilation
It is the process of absorbing the digested food molecules into our blood to the target sites so that human beings can live and survive.	Assimilation is the process by which the absorbed nutrients from food are being utilised in the tissues for various activities like, to get energy, for growth and repair, after getting transported through blood or lymph.
Small intestine and large intestine are the sites where absorption occurs. The food remains in the small intestine for about three to five hours for digestion and absorption to take place. After the food is digested, water is absorbed in the large system.	The liver is a very important organ in assimilation. Like, it converts glucose into glycogen which is a complex carbohydrate used for storage and also amino acids into proteins.

Note: Assimilation is basically the conversion of a nutrient into the fluid or solid substance of the body, by the processes of digestion and absorption. So, in short, we can say that absorption is moving food into the cells after breaking down the food which is digested, while assimilation is making food part of a cell which occurs after absorption.