Tool 08Bubble wand · not an enzyme

Bile

Your body’s own soap. Breaks fat into droplets for lipase.

Not an enzyme. Think of it as lipase’s opening act.

Bubble bench

Works on: Big blobs of fat
Leaves: Tiny droplets (nothing gets cut)
Made by: Your liver makes it; your gallbladder stores it.
Works in: Made in the liver, stored in the gallbladder.
Sound: BLOOP!

On the bench

Bile (bubble wand)

Pieces: 1
Amount of fat: The same
Surface for lipase: ×1.0

One big blob of fat. Lipase can only reach its outside. Give it a bloop.

How bile works

Bile is a soap your body makes. Bile salts have a side that likes water and a side that likes fat, so they wrap around fat blobs and break them into tiny droplets.

Bile doesn’t cut anything, which is why it isn’t an enzyme. It makes more surface, so lipase has more to work on. Your liver makes it all day long, and your gallbladder holds it until a meal with fat in it arrives.

AnnouncerThe wand is for show. Bile has never blown a bubble in its life. It makes droplets.

Far-out fact

Bile isn’t an enzyme. It breaks fat into droplets so lipase has more surface to cut.

Splitting a drop into 8 equal droplets doubles its surface. Into 32, it’s a little over three times as much.

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