Final answer:
The term for the process that organisms use to get energy from their food is cellular respiration, a metabolic process that converts food into ATP, the energy currency of cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
How Organisms Get Energy from Their Food
The process that organisms use to get energy from their food is known as cellular respiration. This process involves breaking down food molecules, such as glucose, with oxygen to release energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which cells use to power various biochemical processes. Cellular respiration can be represented by the chemical equation: C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy. Unlike ingestion, which is just the act of taking in food, cellular respiration is a metabolic process that converts the chemical energy in food into a form that cells can use. Similarly, excretion is the process of eliminating waste, and photosynthesis is the process used by plants and other autotrophs to convert sunlight into chemical energy.
Both autotrophs and heterotrophs undergo cellular respiration, although they acquire their food differently. Autotrophs produce their own food through photosynthesis using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. Heterotrophs, on the other hand, consume other organisms to obtain the biomolecules necessary for cellular respiration. In both cases, the stored energy within the consumed food is harvested through the cellular respiration process, providing vital energy for the organism's metabolic activities.