[NARRATOR:] Like all young mammals,
human infants depend on milk for nutrition.
Milk is rich in lactose, a disaccharide made
from two sugar molecules.
Lactose cannot be directly absorbed in the small
intestine.
To digest lactose, mammals produce the enzyme lactase.
The lactose binds to the active site of the lactase enzyme.
The enzyme hydrolyzes lactose and produces two simple sugars,
glucose and galactose.
These sugars are then absorbed into the capillaries
of the small intestine and redistributed
to the rest of the body.
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