Do whole functional proteins cross from the gut to the blood?
In this thread the OP makes a claim regarding proteins, that would suggest that proteins can be absorbed whole and functional. I didn’t want to hijack that thread with this question.
I was under the impression, perhaps mistaken, that protein is largely denatured in the stomach and broken down by enzymes in the gut to amino acids, peptides and short polypeptide chains and only those were transported into the blood. With anything escaping enzymatic catalysis passing straight through.
Am I wrong?
The thing that makes me wonder is, if whole proteins are absorbed, why doesn’t the blood congeal to a jelly after a protein-heavy meal? Also, why don’t we have massive immune reactions to these foreign proteins?