Describe The Role Of Energy In The Body

Energy cannot be created or destroyed it is simply transferred from one thing to another. Energy is always used in our bodies, but the amount of energy that one person needs is completely different to the amount of energy that someone else needs. It is all depended on your sex, age and level of activity.

The energy that is in our body whether it is ready to be used or is being stored, will come from the different types of food that we eat. The fuel sources that we consume (carbohydrate, fat and protein), they all yield water, carbon dioxide and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), however they take different metabolic paths through our bodies. An adenosine triphosphate molecule is a high energy compound that will store energy, it is the only molecule in the body that can provide muscle fibres with energy to enable muscle contractions, i.e. movement.

As living things our bodies need energy to allow us to do any activity, whether it be running, sleeping or breathing; without energy we could not do these and as a result we would die.

Also. Energy is used for the growth and repair of damaged cells and to transmit nerve pulses, that enables us to respond quickly to changes in the environment we are in, for example if things are too cold or too hot. In addition, energy is used up in our bodies to build complex molecules i.e. enzymes or hormones from the simple molecules that are produced after food is digested. A complex molecule is on that the body will find hard to understand, this includes anything that we drink or eat, I.e. Protein. One of the most important roles of energy is for breathing to keep us alive. If there is no energy for any of these roles they would fail and the person would die as a