The use of absorbed food materials by the body cells for growth and repair is called

  • A. ingestion
  • B. egestion
  • C. assimilation
  • D. absorption

Explanation

Assimilation is the last stage of nutrition, in which the absorbed molecules are actually built into cell components or oxidised for energy. Absorption is the earlier step of moving them from the gut into the blood, which is the usual confusion. Egestion is the removal of undigested material as faeces and is not excretion, since that waste never entered the body's cells.

Related questions