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ᴅ-Glucose is common in nature and ʟ-glucose is synthesized in the lab.

I know that humans can't use ʟ-glucose in their aerobic pathways because it doesn't match the active site of the enzyme, but why can't our cells use ʟ-glucose?

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    $\begingroup$ You can't put a left shoe on your right foot. Same thing here. Enzymes are chiral too. $\endgroup$
    – Ivan Neretin
    Commented Oct 3, 2020 at 18:53
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    $\begingroup$ Alice speaking to Kitty. ‘How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty? I wonder if they’d give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn’t good to drink—' I have always felt that Lewis Carroll was aware of the mirror image world. Is milk (lactose) on the other side comprised of L-glucose and L-galactose? Is that why Alice questions whether it is good to drink? @Ivan Neretin $\endgroup$
    – user55119
    Commented Oct 4, 2020 at 3:18
  • $\begingroup$ Wikipedia has a pretty good answer; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Glucose. It includes one species able to digest L-Glucose, and the information that the taste is the same (which makes you wonder about those chiral taste receptors). $\endgroup$
    – Karsten ♦
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 22:33

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