Explaining the connection between glucose entering the body and energy created by the body.

So you want to know how glucose can enter our bodies and then somehow we have all this energy to chase after our children? Well here is my attempt to simplify it for a normal human being that doesn't spend their free time folding and bending protein molecules online or watching videos of the metabolism of triacylglycerols. ;)
Glucose is a simple sugar also called a monosaccharide. It is very important, not just to the human body, but to many things such as plants and even bacteria. Glucose is a major form of energy for these things. Humans find a source of glucose in carbohydrates. These carbohydrates enter the body in forms of delicious (mmm moms homemade stuffing), and some not so delicious (yuk, shredded wheat), foods. Once the glucose enters the body it goes through an anaerobic process called glycolysis. Anaerobic simply means "without air" and in this process it means that it is done with out the presence of oxygen.
During glycolysis many changes are made to glucose in the form of chemical reactions. Parts are removed, some things are added, and completely new molecules are created! There are 10 steps to glycolysis and the end result are 2 molecules of pyruvate for every one molecule of glucose.
Pyruvate is important because this molecule can take 3 different pathways. In our case we want it to take the aerobic pathway called the citric acid cycle. During this cycle our body takes these molecules of pyruvate and through this pathway it is able to create 32 molecules of ATP (energy storage molecule) and have only used 1 ATP molecule.
These processes that I have mentioned are happening all the time and even simultaneously. If for every one molecule of glucose that enters our body we get 32 molecules of ATP that is an awful lot of energy our bodies can use to do many other the other amazing and complicated processes that we continue to learn more and more about through new technologies and scientific discoveries every day.

What Knowledge Have You Connected #2

Biochemistry is a field that is constantly changing and adapting due to new discoveries and technologies. It is a science that utilizes many of the other science fields to explain the complicated topics that biochemistry focuses on. Recently we have discussed, in detail, the processes of transcription and translation. Having a background of biology and chemistry is key to being able to understand what eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA is capable of. Their importance to, not only biochemists but also geneticists and other scientists, reinforce how important these topics are to students and is why they are discussed in such detail in a biochemistry course. I can remember studying Okazaki fragments and polymerases in high school and thinking to myself how complicated the process of DNA replication seemed at that time. I now look back and am thankful for the background information I attained, no matter how simplified it was, because it has been extremely useful to me. Not just in aiding the learning of this more complicated version of it but also in realizing the importance of DNA and a cells ability to create and recreate.