For example: Alcohol, a starch food, can pass through the entire gastrointestinal tract without beingaltered in any way and yet be absorbed readily. There is no question about the energetic effect it hason some people.4. Vitamins aid the breakdown of nutrients into usable forms. Protective ingredients or vitamins are notconsidered to be a food but they are essential to proper nutrition. Vitamins are a means of triggeringthe chemical reactions that convert the essential nutrients into useable forms in the digestive process.For example, the automobile carburetor converts gasoline from a liquid into a more usable form of avapor of gasoline molecules mixed with a large proportion of air.