Metabolism is a necessary process of chemical reactions that occur in your body to keep every cell alive. Some metabolic reactions require energy (endothermic) while others release energy (exothermic). The food you consume is the source of energy for your body to conduct these reactions.

There are two crucial processes that are needed for life forms to live. Those are cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Cellular respiration is the process in which an organism breaks down the glucose from the food you eat and turns it into energy, especially ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate. ATP is commonly created in the body as an easy to store energy temporarily. Since ATP is created in this reaction, cellular respiration is known as exothermic. The ATP that is created is then used in another reaction. ATP is comparable to money because they are both to trade for items. ATP is created in one reaction and used in another. Similarly, money is earned, and it basically traded for another item. The opposite of cellular respiration would be photosynthesis which would be an endothermic process. It requires energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into glucose. This glucose that is created will then be used for other metabolic reactions to keep the plant alive. When plants are eaten by animals, the animals get a fraction of that energy which was stored in the plant.

In conclusion, we went over two essential processes to life that are part of the metabolic reaction. Learning these two processes is crucial to understanding how we get energy from eating other plants and animals.