Eli5: If every living thing has DNA in its cells, and DNA contains the instructions for functions of life, why do our bodies NOT interact with the DNA that we consume from eating plants and animals?

Question

Eli5: If every living thing has DNA in its cells, and DNA contains the instructions for functions of life, why do our bodies NOT interact with the DNA that we consume from eating plants and animals?

In: 5

Answer 1

There are enzymes in the small intestine that break down DNA and RNA. Even if it doesn’t, there’s still nothing that it can do unless it makes its way into the nucleus of a cell, and there are a lot of barriers to that happening.