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An overwhelming majority of what we eat is made from plants and animals. This means that composition of our almost entire food is chemicals from the realm of organic chemistry (carbon-based large molecules). Water and salt are two prominent examples of non-organic foodstuffs - which come from the realm of inorganic chemistry. Beside some medicines is there any more non-organic foods? Can we eat rocks, salts, metals, oxides... and I just don't know that?

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Interesting question. I had to look up the definition of food, the story version is it's essential body nutrients.

You can synthetically derive some vitamins and things like that. But generally I can't think of anything other than salt and water that's not organic. You can start breaking down food into vitamins and minerals but that's not really the intent.

I know animals will chew/gnaw on bones to get some calcium, maybe that.

[-] Eheran@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Synthetic or not has nothing to do with whether something is organic or inorganic. That used to be the distinction 200(?) years ago, it is a bit outdated now.

this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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