It all comes down to energy. In order to live, walk, talk, and even sleep, we have to have energy to burn. We derive energy from the food that we eat, however, we could eat all day and not have enough energy to check the mail if our bodies do not convert this food into energy. This is where our bodies\’ metabolism comes into play. Metabolism is something that occurs on a cellular level in our bodies. Our cells have to jump through a few hoops in order to convert food into energy. The process of change the cells go through to achieve this is called metabolism.

Water Keeps Everything Moving

One of the most important things that you can do to get that metabolism to move, energy to flow and cells to regenerate is to drink plenty of water. Getting our fair share of water every day is, in fact, vital to help your body metabolize the foods that we eat. Without plenty of water, the digestive system slows down and we become sluggish as our bodies draw on reserves to keep digestion moving and metabolism churning. Without water, we cannot digest foods at the rate our metabolism needs to generate energy from the foods we eat.

There are two types of metabolism going on in the body at all times, catabolism and anabolism.

– Catabolism is our bodies\’ way of tearing down the nutrients we feed them and converting those nutrients to energy. When oxygen rich blood flow supplies the body\’s energy molecules with the oxygen, energy occurs. Even digestion needs energy, without it, food would not process properly or quickly enough and we begin to poison ourselves.

– Anabolism occurs when our bodies\’ change nutrients into live material for cells. We have to replace dying cells with live ones constantly in order to survive, otherwise, we would just waste away as our cells die off leaving nothing but a body in decomposition. When you cut yourself, your body uses anabolism to replace the muscle and tissue with live, healthy cells.

Energy And Oxygen Molecules

Again, this takes energy. This is why catabolism and anabolism are essential metabolic processes. Without energy to create new cells, we would waste away. Imagine an energy molecule in your body just sitting there, holding its energy. It is useless to us in its self-contained molecule, or shell. Then along comes an oxygen molecule, carried there by our blood. When these two molecules collide, the shell bursts, releasing its energy to be used to create more living cells. It is a fascinating process that is essential to our continued health.

What It Takes To Just Live

In order for all of this to work, we need a certain amount of calories that are derived from the foods that we eat during digestion. The minimum amount of calories that it takes to create just enough energy to perform a specific task, like throwing a ball or washing our hands is called basal metabolism. However, we also burn calories even when we do nothing at all, so, basal metabolism is the lowest level of calories needed to stay alive when we are lying down, doing nothing but breathing and thinking.

Author Bio: For more information please visit our CPR & First Aid Training website.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: Oxygen Molecules,Anabolism,Catabolism,energy,food,Metabolism