Your metabolism is the sum of all chemical reactions that take place in your body. Very simply, as part of your metabolic processes, you break down larger molecules obtained from your environment into smaller building blocks, and then assemble these building blocks into structural and functional molecules within your cells.
Components of Metabolism
Your metabolism divides into two sub-categories: catabolism and anabolism. Catabolism involves reactions in which you break larger molecules down into smaller ones. For instance, when you consume nutrients like proteins, fats and carbohydrates, you use reactions of catabolism to break the nutrients down to provide you with energy, explain Drs. Reginald Garrett and Charles Grisham in their book "Biochemistry." Anabolism, conversely, encompasses the reactions through which you build larger molecules from smaller ones.
Principles of Catabolism
Catabolic processes, in general, result in the breaking of chemical bonds and release of electrons and energy, explain Drs. Mary Campbell and Shawn Farrell in their book "Biochemistry." You can trap a certain amount of this energy to use for various cellular processes. For instance, you trap some of the energy released as you burn nutrient molecules and use it to generate ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, which your cells use as "chemical currency." You can capture and use electrons released in catabolic processes to fuel anabolic processes.
Principles of Anabolism
Anabolism is, generally speaking, a process that requires building new chemical bonds. This requires both electrons and energy. As such, catabolic and anabolic processes depend upon one another; the energy and electrons released through catabolic reactions fuel anabolic reactions, and the building blocks generated through catabolic reactions serve as the precursors or reactants in anabolic reactions. Examples of anabolic products include new tissues, muscle fibers, hormones and other body chemicals.
Other Considerations
It seems intuitive that as you broke down larger molecules into building blocks, you'd get a large variety of different small molecules. Interestingly enough, this is not really the case. Catabolic processes result in the production of many small, similar compounds. For instance, as you process sugars, fats and proteins -- which are chemically very different from one another -- you generate the same molecules in all cases: acetyl-CoA, and eventually carbon dioxide and water.
References
- "Biochemistry"; Reginald Garrett, Ph.D. and Charles Grisham, Ph.D.; 2007
- "Biochemistry"; Mary Campbell, Ph.D. and Shawn Farrell, Ph.D.; 2005
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