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Raw Materials from Food Synthesis to Make Energy for Animals

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Animals use the food they eat as a source of energy. Cells within the body use the raw materials from the food eaten to synthesize new molecules to obtain the energy. Cellular respiration is the process that releases energy by breaking down food molecules in the presence of oxygen. The three main stages of Cellular respiration are glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain (Miller, Levine 2002). Glycolysis is the process in which one molecule of glucose is broken in half, producing two molecules of pyruvic acid, which is a three-carbon compound. Although glycolysis releases energy, the cell needs a small amount of energy to start the process. At the beginning of glycolysis two molecules of ATP, adenine triphosphate, are used up for energy. When the process of glycolysis is complete the cell will have produced four molecules of ATP. One of the glycolysis reactions takes four high-energy electrons and transports them to an electron carrier molecule known as NAD+, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. This molecule accepts the electrons and keeps them until they are transferred to other molecules. NAD+ passes energy from the glucose all around the different parts and passages of the cell (Miller, Levine 2002). Thousands of ATP molecules are produced by glycolysis in only milliseconds because the process is so fast. Another helpful factor that speeds up the reaction is that glycolysis does not require oxygen. However, if the cell produces too many ATP

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