The term catabolism is a term used in biology and medicine to refer to the organic process by which different elements are reduced to their simplest forms, to the molecules that made them up in a moment before becoming complex. Catabolism, like anabolism and metabolism, are organic processes that living beings carry out in order to be able, precisely, to live and deal in a better way with the environment in which they are inserted and from which they obtain the different resources for their survival.
The term catabolism comes from the Greek language in which the prefix kata means 'down' and the suffix isms means 'process'. Thus, catabolism is the process that goes down the chain of production or assimilation of the different elements that the body takes. This means that if it goes downwards, the catabolism process will be characterized by disarming, by simplifying those substances and elements that the body or the organism takes in order to be able to assimilate them better, transforming them into energy that can be absorbed by the different organs and tissues of the particular organism.
All living beings, even plants, carry out the catabolism process which is a substantial element of survival as it is responsible for the organism being able to obtain its necessary food from outside and then assimilate it. In the case of animals, for example, the catabolism process is the one that takes place during the digestive process: the animal in question consumes some type of more or less complex food and then the organism will be responsible for simplifying that food (for For example, a fruit) into different elements such as sugar, fat, proteins, fibers, etc., at the same time that these substances will in turn be simplified until they are converted into chemical molecules much easier to assimilate.
