eli5 : Why can’t we (humans) eat wood? It contains glucose, and termites can eat it for example! (Even if raw wood would be pretty hard to chew, we could mix it down into some kind of paste or powder, so idk)
In: Biology
Wood is made os cellulose which is a bunch of glucose molecules hooked together. Wood is almost exactly the same as starch but the glucose are hooked in equatorial positions and the starch is hooked in axial positions. Think of equatorial as side to side and axial as up and down. The side to side is more energetically favorable and so requires to much energy for our stomachs to break down. Cows and horses can eat cellulose (grass) because they have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in their guts that break apart the linkages and then they digest the remaining glucose.
This may not sound like a true eli5 but it is the correct answer and it was the most satisfy to me when I had this same question.
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