Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

GLUCOSE REGULATION AND UTILIZATION IN THE BODY 197
Figure 4.14. A mouse islet of Langerhans, visualized with immunofluorescent microscopy. In this
image, cell nuclei are stained blue, insulin is stained red, and blood vessels are stained green. You
can see that this islet is packed with insulin and sits right next to a blood vessel, so that it can
secrete the two hormones, insulin and glucagon, into the blood. Glucagon is not stained in this
image, but it’s there!
In the figure below, you can see blood glucose and insulin throughout a 24-hour period,
including three meals. You can see that when glucose rises, it is followed immediately by a
rise in insulin, and glucose soon drops again. The figure also shows the difference between
consuming a sucrose-rich food and a starch-rich food. The sucrose-rich food results in a
greater spike in both glucose and insulin. Because more insulin is required to handle that
spike, it also causes a more precipitous decline in blood glucose. This is why eating a lot of
sugar all at once may increase energy in the short-term, but soon after may make you feel
like taking a nap!