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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First, carbohydrates begin digestion via saliva in your mouth.
Second, food doesn’t really sit in your stomach for “hours.” As it is broken down into a mix of stomach acid and food called chyme, it is gradually released into the small intestine.
In the first section of the small intestine, the duodenum, juices from your pancreas break down the carbohydrates further. The walls of this part of the small intestine are lined with little fingers, and those fingers have yet another enzyme that finally breaks down carbohydrates into single molecule sugars and they are absorbed into the bloodstream, and sent into systemic circulation after passing through the liver.
This can all occur rather quickly, especially for things like liquids and well chewed or soft foods.
There’s a thing (enzyme) that starts breaks down sugary food (carbohydrates) as soon as it enters your mouth. It’s called amylase. So by the time the sugary food hits your stomach, it’s already partially digested. Also, not all sugary food is equal – some is very simple, some is very complex. Usually food is a mix of both, unless it’s something like lollies, soda etc. the simple carbs will be digested very rapidly. Also, your stomach can pass some foods/fluids very quickly – sometimes less than 15 minutes! And the gut will start absorbing the sugary goodness very quickly. Everything that your gut absorbs goes straight to the liver and then the blood.
It’s mot just the stomach- it’s your blood stream.
It’s in the word blooood sugar. It hits your blood and you go boooom
Well, I guess glucose really doesn’t like to be fashionably late to the bloodstream party!” 😂👍
iirc starch starts being digested in the mouth and turns into sugar fast. alcohol and sugar don’t need hours to hit your bloodstream either
Great question! Disclamer, I am not a professional at all, but I’ve had advanced/expanded biology classes in a polish highschool so i know a thing or two.
Your body digests food by breaking it down into its basic components with enzymes. Fats are broken mostly in the small intestine with bile from your liver, protein is broken mostly by stomach juices which contain an enzyme called , and sugars are mostly broken down with pepsin, an enzyme in your stomach juices, and sugars (carbohydrates) are mainly digested by saliva amylasis which is an enzyme secreted in the mouth and carried by your saliva.
You know that feeling of your mouth watering when you look at/smell something delicious? That’s the first stage of digestion preparing itself for the work ahead.
If you want to check saliva amylasis in action, try a piece of something you wouldn’t consider sweet, but contains carbs – a piece of bread for instance. Hold it in your mouth and let it get saturated with your saliva. In a few seconds you’ll start feeling a sweet taste in your mouth – that’s sugars from the bread being broken down and absorbed into your body.
I tried to keep it as simple and as through as possible, but if any professional would like to add anything, feel free to comment 🙂
For the same reason medications can be used in sublingual or per rectum. These ends of the digestive tract do have absorption. So does the stomach. This is why foods can be classified by glycemic index – it’s basically a measurement of how much simple sugars and easily digestable sugars a food have and thus how fast it will spike blood sugar.
Simple answer is digestion begins as soon as you put something in your mouth. The levels of digestion go on as it moves through your tract—more complex digestion and breakdowns happen the more it moves on, and full on digestion happens within the 24 hour period—however the first things to usually get broken down are soluble things like sugars, salts, ECT.
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