Supposedly it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours to digest food(depending on what you’re eating) so why does sugar give you an almost instantaneous surge of energy?

Question

Does it absorb straight away? Could it be the dopamine rush?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Your body stored some of that extra sugar from your last meal as glucagon, a readily convertible energy source. When your body realizes you’re putting in more fuel, some of that glucagon gets converted as more is being made from your current meal.

Also, while full digestion does take several hours depending on metabolism, some things are processed very quickly and made available for energy within minutes; usually the simpler the sugar the faster this will be. So after 5 minutes you are feeling the Sprite you had with your whole grain toast, while that toast will take a few hours to unravel it’s energy stores.