Why must starches be digested? Please explain so that a 7th grader will understand! thanks!?

Answer 1

Starch is composed of many smaller sugar molecules (glucose) linked together to form a long chain.
The simplest answer is that when your body needs to extract energy from sugar, it needs to send the small glucose molecule through many parts and places within the cell as it goes through a series of chemical reactions.
So in order to do that, the glucose molecule needs to be free to move around, and not stuck to a big long bulky starch chain. So starches are digested to allow us to properly extract energy from the sugars in it.

Answer 2

The whole purpose of starch is to provide energy to the human body.Most of the foods contain starches.

starch is a complex carbohydrate molecule,which means it is big in size made up of numerous number of glucose units.it has energy.
it cannot enter into cell as such bcause of its big size.Therefore it should be digetsed so that it is broken down into single small units of glucose by the action of enzymes in the digestive system.
After it is digested from complex starch to simple glucose units it is absorbed into the blood stream.the glucose(cos of its samll size)enters into the cell and undergoes metabolic process called glycolysis,kreb's cycle and electron transport chain and releases energy in the form of ATP.

Answer 3

Your body can not use starch. It is too big to get through your cell membranes. Starch is made up of chains of sugars. When starch is broken down into simple sugars (not hooked together) you body is able to use them.