A Wonderleaf question
How does food turn into energy?
a real page from the book
Food turns into usable energy when digestion breaks it into small molecules, then cells use oxygen to take energy from their chemical bonds. Much of that energy is packed into ATP, a molecule cells spend whenever muscles move, nerves signal, or your heart keeps beating.
One sugar molecule can help make dozens of ATP molecules when oxygen is available, and your body makes and uses them constantly. That means a sandwich is not a battery changing shape; it is fuel whose stored energy is transferred into a form cells can use.
Wonder words
- digestion
- glucose
- oxygen
- mitochondria
Try it out
At dinner, name one body job each food might help, like running legs, thinking brains, or steady heartbeats.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
- Who invented pizza?
- How is chocolate made?
- How did people keep food fresh before refrigerators?
- Why do fruits taste sweeter when they are ripe?
- Why do we cook food?
- Why does salt make food taste different?
One more wonder: Why is space so dark?
And the next question?
Ask anything — Wonderleaf writes and illustrates a picture book for it. That's the whole idea.
Ask your own questionThe next wonder, by email
A new question goes up every Sunday evening. We email it to you Monday morning, free to read that week.
One wonder a week, nothing else, ever. Unsubscribe in one click.