emészthetetlen

Emészthetetlen is a Hungarian adjective meaning not digestible by the digestive system. It refers to substances or materials that cannot be broken down by human digestive enzymes and thus cannot be absorbed as nutrients. The term can describe food components, such as certain dietary fibers, as well as substances or objects that pass through the digestive tract largely unchanged. It is also used metaphorically to characterize ideas, experiences, or information that are difficult to accept, process, or “swallow.”

Etymology and usage: the word is formed from emészthető, meaning digestible, with the negative suffix -tetlen. The root reflects the process of emésztés (digestion). In everyday language, emészthetetlen can apply to physical things (indigestible substances) and to non-physical contexts (emészthetetlen hírek or emészthetetlen gondolatmenet), where “unpalatable” or “hard to grasp” connotations are intended.

Examples in nutrition and science: in humans, components such as cellulose and lignin are commonly described as emészthetetlen because they are not broken down by human enzymes; some are fermentable by gut microbiota to a degree, but not digestible in the conventional sense. In materials science or ecology, indigestible materials may pass through the digestive system largely intact or require special processing to be managed.

See also: emésztés, emészthető, rost, víztartalmú étrend.