What is a mitochondria? mitochondria is a tiny cell within ourselves. Every single one of our cells have between 200 and thousands of mitochondria per cell. So cells that have a huge energy output, such as our hearts have many thousands of mitochondria. In fact, some sources say up to 10,000 mitochondria per heart cell. Where is something like burn which doesn't have a huge energy output may only have 200 mitochondria per burn.

So interestingly, we inherit them from our mothers only, and our mitochondria have their own DNA or genetic material. And this is how they can look at and see where the mitochondria are inherited from if they look at the genetic material within the mitochondria. How do they work? The digested food, particularly fats and glucose, into the mitochondria and with the help of cofactors such as vitamin B, iron and various other cofactors as well as oxygen, the mitochondria generate a little pocket of energy called ATP. And ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate. But that's a very cumbersome name.

So we'll just refer to them as ATP. And ATP is the only energy currency that the body can actually use. And all of our energy is generated in the mitochondria. So you can see from this, that it's important to keep our mitochondria happy and healthy. Because if the mitochondria die, so to the cells and then of course, ultimately, so do we. This diagram, this sort of pretty soul structure on the slide is a picture of what a mitochondria looks like.

How does the fuelling process work? So we eat our foods, protein, fats and carbohydrates and the body We'll digest them, and the broken down macromolecules are then used for fuel within the mitochondria to generate ATP. The preferred source of fuel is in fact, fats and carbohydrates. Although the body will burn proteins if it's absolutely necessary. Generally though, in a well nourished person, the protein will be broken down into amino acids. And amino acids are like little protein bricks, and they're used to rebuild everything in the body, including our humans, our enzymes, and of course, our organs.

And that rather interesting and attractive ribbon like structure that you can see on the slide is an artist's rendition of what a protein molecule looks like. And every single different type of protein has a different look. So they're all they're all completely different. hormones, enzymes, determines and Minorca factors all play a part in how the body generates ATP. So when you're looking at how much energy is put out in the body so that we can do whatever it is we need to do, depending on what our basal metabolic requirements are. Once again you can see that our mitochondria are key players in this