Paul Saladino· MD
And so that's very very microscopic and this is you know when you eat um let's say you eat an apple or you eat a steak that steak is giving you nutrients it's giving you vitamins and minerals. You're getting protein. you're getting amino acids and in a steak you're getting mostly protein which doesn't end us up as an energy substrate but there's fat in the steak. So fat is broken down to create these energy substrates. And if you eat an apple you're getting glucose and fructose and sucrose. If you eat a potato you're getting um longchain uh polymers of glucose like starches and that is energy to your body. And the way that happens is that gets broken down into um little smaller fragments. And those fragments donate electrons to molecules like NADH and FADH2 which move those electrons to this electron transport chain. And that electron transport chain in your mitochondria is where everything happens because as the electrons move down the chain, you create a potential and hydrogen. So protons move across the inner mitochondrial membrane. I know we're very microscopic now. I'll zoom out in a second. Protons move across the inner mitochondrial membrane and then at the end of the mitochondrial membrane they move down a concentration gradient through this little nano motor that makes ATP and ATP runs everything in your body.