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?

  • Radio_717@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Charcoal and activated charcoal are not amorphous carbon compounds because their structures contain other elements than just carbon.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s a fair point - you’re right that typically charcoal does have bits of hydrogen and oxygen, to the point that its empirical formula is around C₇H₄O, so by textbook definition it is organic. However I think that it falls into a grey area due to the relatively small amount of the “other components”, and perhaps because of the structure?

      • Radio_717@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Im finding that people have strong opinion on what qualifies as organic. Haha.

        I think it’s cool I can talk to people about chemistry outside of work tho. None of my friends understand anything about what I do for a living.