About Your Diabetes > How our Bodies Use FoodDigestion
Our bodies use the fats we eat for many purposes, such as making hormones, storing energy, padding our organs and insulating nerve cells. Proteins are used to build and maintain muscle tissue, make vital enzymes, and provide a backup source of energy. Our main source of energy comes from the starch and carbohydrate we eat. AbsorptionAfter food is broken down by digestion, the basic substances need to reach all the different parts of our bodies needing fuel. After digestion has occurred, the process of absorption transports these basic substances into the blood where they can be shipped to destinations throughout the body. So, if you eat a sandwich, for example, much of that sandwich ends up circulating in your blood! This is why many blood tests require fasting. Most absorption happens in the small intestine, which is located right after the stomach.
Like all living things, cells need fuel to live. Living things also need a way to get fuel into their bodies. People have a convenient way of taking in food: our mouths. Because cells aren't fortunate enough to have mouths like ours, they need a little more help to take in the fuel they need. This is the role of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas normally secretes into the blood after we eat. Insulin helps cells take in the sugar they need to live. Without insulin, sugar cannot get into cells. Sometimes there is enough insulin, but it does not help cells take in sugar as well as before. When either of these situations occur, sugar stays in the blood, leading to abnormally high blood sugar levels. When cells can't take in sugar to use for energy, they have no choice but to start using whatever is on hand. In this situation, cells start burning the fuel they've stored for emergencies. When this fuel is gone, things get really desperate, cells start burning things that were never meant to be used as fuel. Eventually, when too much has been burned to continue operating, the cell dies. |
In order for our bodies to do anything useful with the food we eat, it must first break it down into pieces it can use. Through the process of digestion, our bodies break down the food we eat down into the basic substances it can use. Fats are broken down into fatty acids and triglycerides, proteins are broken down into amino acids, and starches and carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars.
After carbohydrate is broken down to sugar by digestion and absorbed, it travels through our highway of blood vessels until it reaches its destination: a cell that needs fuel. Cells are little living organisms. Millions of cells work together to make the different parts of our bodies.