These are words I think understand separately, but I don’t understand when juxtaposed.
Is this… good?
In: 0
On its own, it’s neither good nor bad. It’s just a fact that insulin stimulates (causes) the body’s cells to *take up* (to take inside of them) glucose (sugar).
What’s the context here?
The answer is complicated.
It is important to the body that blood glucose be well-regulated. When you eat something with carbs in it, those are digested and make their way into the bloodstream. If the glucose comes in faster than you are burning it, blood glucose goes up.
Insulin is released to deal with the situation. It’s a signal that tells the body to do three things:
1. Switch from burning fat to burning glucose
2. Absorb extra glucose from the bloodstream into the muscles or liver, where it is converted to glycogen, the storage form of glucose. This glycogen gets converted back to glucose when there isn’t enough.
3. If the first two aren’t sufficient – there is only limited space to store glycogen – then the liver and fat cells take glucose and store it as fat.
The first two are better than the third – not only does the third add fat, but it also takes longer and that means the elevated high blood glucose lasts longer, which isn’t desirable.
However, the real issue is when people become insulin resistant. That means their insulin is always high and – see #1 – they have trouble burning fat and – see #2 – their glycogen stores are always full. That means there’s too much fat hanging around which leads to high triglycerides and – in most people – increased body weight.
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