incoming nutrients are stored in vacuoles before they are broken down by?

Answer 1

lysosomes

Answer 2

Lysosomes. These are other membrane-encased objects within each cell. They contain numerous digestive enzymes. What happens when the food in the vacuole needs to be digested is this: the lysosome moves toward the vacuole. When the membranes touch, they start to merge. The inner barrier opens up and spews the enzymes into the new, larger cavity. This keeps both the potentially otherwise-harmful enzymes and the food that needs to be digested within a membrane. Think of it this way: o (little sac; lysosome w/ enzymes) merges with o (little sac; vacuole w/ food) to make O (large sac; food being digest by enzymes).

Answer 3

A lysosome is a specialized vacuole containing lysing enzymes.

The things that actually break down incoming compounds are enzymes (ie peroxidase, protease, etc)

Answer 4

before they are broken down by the body and distrubuted among it for various reasons.

but that guy up there ^^ has answered almost every question in bio (super nerd) and i would go with his answer.