The Cycle of Life and Energy

You are literally running on recycled sunlight. It sounds crazy, but every bit of

energy in your body started ninety-three million miles away. Plants act like biological solar

panels, trapping light with chlorophyll to build glucose during photosynthesis. Then you eat the

plant, and your cells rip that sugar apart in the mitochondria to release the energy

as ATP. That is cellular respiration. It is the exact same chemical equation,

just backwards. We inhale oxygen and burn sugar to survive, while plants take

our exhaust to build their own bodies. We are locked in a perfect, infinite loop with

a salad.