Like, what exactly happens when you take a pill of vitamin A compared to vitamin D? Or a tiny grain of fentanyl? How exactly do our body recognize these extremely complex substances and not confuse one from another?
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It’s not like your body goes “oh, that is vitamin A! Vitamin A is good for me, therefore I will be happy!” Each chemical has a particular set of effects based on its properties and how it’s digested and absorbed, and sometimes these effects can indeed be similar between chemicals. Nothing is “recognised” unless we’re talking about viral/bacterial infections and immunology, but that’s not digestion. A chemical will react or not in a certain way in your stomach acid plus the various enzymes that are present there, and that process carries on through various chemical environments lower down your digestive tract. At some point, it is absorbed into your bloodstream, where it might do something or it might do nothing. Once it’s in your bloodstream, it is transported everywhere your blood goes, and some cells in your body might absorb it for their internal use or perhaps it sticks to some exterior part of some cells and affects their function.
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