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)

Question

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

Answer 1

Wood doesn’t contain glucose itself but rather cellulose, which is basically a long chain of glucose molecules. If you want to break the cellulose apart you need a cellulase enzyme and our body can’t produce that. Cows, for example, can produce it though and that’s why they can survive off of grass alone.