Why would the body preferentially metabolize fats before metabolizing proteins?
a. Fatty acids require fewer ATP molecules to initially activate the process of beta-oxidation
b. Fats are highly reduced molecules, and are thus a richer energy source than proteins
c. Proteins, when broken down into peptides and amino acids, are only recycled to make new proteins or chemically modified to make new amino acids
d. Proteins are larger molecules than fats and are thus more complex to break down into monomeric units
