ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Chitosan

Chitosan is a special kind of material that is made from the hard outer shells of shellfish like crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.

Think about how you might eat a peanut and then shell it to get to the nut inside. The shell of the peanut is like the hard shell of the shellfish. When they make chitosan, they take this hard shell and break it down into tiny pieces.

These tiny pieces of chitosan have a special ability to stick to other things, kind of like when you use glue to stick two pieces of paper together. So when people use chitosan, they use it to stick to other things in the body.

For example, when someone has a cut, chitosan can be used like a band-aid to stop the bleeding. It sticks to the cut and helps to form a scab so that the cut can heal.

Chitosan can also be used to help people lose weight. When you eat food, your body takes in a lot of fat. Chitosan sticks to the fat and makes it harder for your body to absorb it. This means that some of the fat just passes through your body instead of being stored in your body as extra weight.

Overall, chitosan is a helpful material that people can use in many different ways to help their bodies feel better.