Why does blood sugar spike after a meal if food is digested in the stomach for several hours before it starts getting absorbed in the small intestine?
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Some liquid where sugar and other things are dissolved can pass through the stomach quicker. If you have a lot of drink with your food, you need to go to the restroom well before 2 hours have passed.
>ELI5: Why does blood sugar spike after a meal if food is digested in the stomach for several hours before it starts getting absorbed in the small intestine?
Glucose isn’t “digested”. It just gets absorbed the moment it enters a solution.
Imagine your body like a machine that needs fuel to work properly. When you eat food, it goes into your stomach, which breaks it down into smaller pieces. Then, it moves to the small intestine, where the good stuff in the food gets absorbed into your body.
Now, some foods have lots of sugar in them, like candy or cookies. When you eat these sugary foods, they quickly break down into sugar in your stomach. But your body doesn’t need all that sugar at once, so it takes the extra sugar and puts it into your blood.
So, after you eat a meal with sugary food, your blood gets a big boost of sugar, and that’s what we call a “blood sugar spike.” Your body will use some of that sugar for energy, but if there’s too much, it can cause problems.
That’s why it’s important to eat healthy foods that have less sugar, like fruits and vegetables. They give your body the right amount of sugar and keep your blood sugar from spiking too much.
Once the carbohydrates have been broken down into its components, glucose enters the bloodstream quickly. Glucose is the basic building blocks of all carbohydrates.
I’m a nurse and I’ve given juices and applesauce to diabetic patients whose blood sugar is low. Their sugars usually will rise back to normal 15 minutes after.
Carbohydrates are one of the quickest things to break down during digestion. They’re literally just strings of sugar. It just doesn’t take that long to absorb. Now, the more complex stuff, that takes several hours
The food moves to the small intestine in waves, always small portion at a time. Imagine squeezing an almost empty tube of toothpaste. Now liquid components travel faster (Its like a VIP pass, the liquid just skips the queue). The first liquidy “batch” of food gets into the intestine fairly quickly, which causes blood sugar to spike.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think food you eat moves along in fixed stages. So while we have ball park figures on how long a meal “stays in the stomach” it’s not like the entire meal stays there for two hours until it’s all broken down, and only **then** moves into the small intestine. I believe some of it will be moved along quicker as it’s not efficient to leave all the stuff, especially liquids, sitting there while the harder stuff gets digested. I assume small squirts of digested food are moved along continuously. But again that’s just my speculation as to why some things are absorbed so quickly.
For those who know more, is it also the case that the stomach itself has some limited absorption capabilities? Can small molecules like alcohol and glucose be absorbed in the stomach as well?
Sugar actually doesn’t even need to get to the stomach to be absorbed. It’s much slower, but you can just park some frosting or honey inside your cheek and the mucous membranes in your mouth will absorb the sugar. It’s what to do if a Type 1 Diabetic has passed out, while you wait for the ambulance. Seconds count.
Your mouth will absorb simple carbs right into your bloodstream.
You can do this to help a diabetic person who’s lost consciousness due to low glucose. A bit of liquid honey in the cheek and some time.
Looks like our body is just really excited to get its sugary fix, kinda like how I am with my morning coffee!
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