Monday, December 24, 2012

Glucose in human body

Glucose is the only simple sugar that is transported in the bloodstream and it is commonly referred to as ‘blood sugar’.

Hyperglycemia, or an abnormally high blood glucose level, is the hallmark of diabetes. Even though blood glucose is overly abundant, it is unable to enter starving cells and fuel their needs. It is the chief source of energy in the body and is found naturally in fruits, honey, sugarcane, sugar beets sweet potatoes, parsnip, onions and many other vegetables.

What is glucose? Glucose is known as an aldose sugar because it contains an aldehydes group located on the first carbon atom of the chain.

Glucose is the main component of disaccharides such as sucrose and of starch. Glucose is released when disaccharide sugar in foods are broken down.

The body cells use as much glucose as they can for their energy needs of the moment. Excess glucose is linked together and stored as glycogen until the muscles and liver are full to capacity with glycogen. Glycogen is composed of long, highly branched chains of glucose molecules.

To handle the glucose that’s still coming in, body tissues shift to burning more glucose for energy instead of fat. As a result, more fat is left to circulate in the bloodstream until it is picked by the fatty tissues and stored there.
Glucose in human body

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