where is lactase found in the digestive system
Lactase Lactase is an enzyme that some people are unable to produce in their small intestine.[5] Without it they can't break down the natural lactose in milk, leaving them with diarrhea, gas and bloating when drinking regular milk. Lactase is added to Lactose Free Milk to neutralize lactose naturally found in milk, leaving it slightly sweet but digestible by everyone.[6] Without lactase, lactose intolerant people pass the lactose undigested to the colon where bacteria break it down creating carbon dioxide and that leads to bloating and flatulence.
Carbohydrate digestion Carbohydrates not digested in the small intestine, including resistant starch foods such as potato, bean, oat, wheat flour, and several monosaccharide oligosaccharides and starch, are digested in a variable when they reach the large intestine. The bacterial flora metabolize these compounds anaerobically in the absence of oxygen. This produces gases (hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane) and short-chain fatty acids (acetate, propionate, butyrate). The gases are absorbed and excreted by breathing or through the anus (flatulence). Fatty acids are rapidly metabolized. Butyrate is used mainly by cells in the colon and acetate is absorbed into the blood and taken up by the liver, muscle and other tissue. Propionate is an important precursor of glucose in some animals, but not humans.