General Human Catabolism
The first stages our food undergoes involve the initial breaking up of the actual food stuffs and inital stages of molecular catabolism. Click the "wonderful cheeseburger" below for a general review of these first stages of catabolism. The basic parts of the burger are grossly catagorized based on the major components.
The catabolism of glucose to carbon dioxide and generated ATP is illustrated.
The catabolism of fatty acids to acetyl-CoA, NADH, and FADH2 is illustrated, along with an examination of the total ATP generated by a small fatty acid.