How is food used by the body and what is "glucose"?

How is food used by the body and what is "glucose"?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What causes type 2 diabetes?; Does type 1 diabetes only occur in childhood?; Is one type of diabetes worse than the other? and more...

When you look at food, there are three different types that we commonly consume. We consume carbohydrates, fat and protein. Carbohydrates become sugar in the body. Carbohydrates are starches. They're simple sugars. It's honey. It's an apple. It's a piece of bread. It's anything white, more or less, but it really is a lot of the different kinds of food that we eat. When you eat carbohydrate it goes into your bloodstream and it gives you energy. It gives you energy to run a race. It helps you learn, think and read or do mathematical equations. It's the body's fuel. Without glucose, without the ability to have glucose in your blood, you would die. It is vital to life. Fat on the other hand, is a stored form of fuel. In essence, both fat and protein can be broken down into sugar. So, sugar is what we all need to exist, to live our lives, and to have energy. Our bodies are very clever about sugar. For instance, say you decide, “I'm not going to eat any sugar.” If you don't have diabetes and you're normal, what would happen is your body would start making sugar. You can make sugar from your liver. You can bring up sugar from your muscles. You can break down stored glucose, for instance, glycogen that's in the muscles or in the liver. Your body has an incredible ability to maintain normal sugar levels so that we exist.