Cellulose Breakdown Dietary Supplement

Now, I may be completely wrong about this, so feel free to [mfd] this if it's just completely asanine.

Cellulose is a sugar found in plants. While a small variety of animals, such as ruminants (cows, deer, gazelles) can digest cellulose, many others, such as humans, cannot. Ruminants can break down cellulose because of the bacteria in their digestive tracts that have the enzymes to break down cellulose into glucose.

Over the years, we've created supplements to ingest, alongside or before consuming food products that don't necesarily agree with one's system, such as those currently on the market for lactose-intolerant persons. Couldn't the same thing be done for cellulose? Sold in tablet, or liquid form, the consumer ingests a product containing these enzymes.

Now, it is true that cellulose has its purpose in the human diet -- it's the fiber that you consume, or should consume, to keep your gut running like a well-oiled machine. But I envision this sort of supplement could be used, at least on a part-time basis, to get added nutrition from the food one consumes, or to make available carbohydrates from plants that wouldn't otherwise be digestible.