HOW IS OUR FOOD CONVERTED INTO USABLE ENERGY FOR OUR CELLS TO DO WORK?
Our cells need to do work such as digestion of macromolecules/food, building macromolecules (such as proteins!),
moving cells, or even maintaining our body temperature.
QUESTION: How do you get a gumball if you only have $1? ____________________________________________
Food molecules are the $1000 bill of energy storage in our bodies!
Even when we digest food into glucose, it still contains WAY TOO much energy
for our cells to use at one time.
Our bodies can’t use the chemical energy in the form of glucose,
so it must convert the energy to a useable form for the cell.
The usable form of energy for our cells is called ATP (adenosine triphosphate).
The energy is stored in the bonds between the three phosphates.
When our food is digested, it turns into glucose. Then glucose is broken down and that energy is use to make the ATP
molecule.
Use the above information to PREDICT what needs to happen to the ATP molecule for our cell to use the stored
energy?
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When our cell needs to use energy, it releases a phosphate from the ATP molecule. We are then left with ADP (which
is what we are going to call the old ATP molecule with only 2 phosphates on it now). Then, when we eat more food,
and the food is broken down into glucose, the energy from the glucose is stored between the phosphate and the ADP
molecule to make ATP again. The energy from the glucose is now being stored in the bonds of the ATP molecule! This
cycle continues over and over again. *For every one glucose molecule, 36 ATP molecules are made.
This is summarized in the two diagrams below.
ATP  P + energy + ADP
Going from ATP to ADP, is energy released or
stored? _____________________________
Going from ADP to ATP, is energy released or
stored? _____________________________
ADP + P + energy --> ATP
OR