Re:What happens to your brain when you give up sugar
by strken on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @01:03PM
(#28224111)
My rudimentary understanding is that your body
- converts carbohydrates to glucose on the way in
- stores glucose as glycogen (fast-release energy mostly in the liver and muscles) or storage fat (slow-release energy mostly in dedicated tissue)
- converts glycogen[0] back to glucose when you need energy to burn
You don't need dietary carbohydrates very frequently. Your body will be fine converting glycogen[0] to glucose at an appropriate rate, and you store about a day of glycogen. The problem with dietary carbohydrates is that they always start as glucose and then get stored. If you dump a bunch of simple sugars into your stomach, they all end up in your bloodstream at once (hyperglycemia), your body releases a lot of insulin to cope with the surplus, and then there's a dip (hypoglycemia) afterwards. Once you're through the dip, though, everything should go back to normal.
I think this is the same as what you're saying, just with more detail on why it works that way.
[0] or other things, like fat and protein, in a pinch
- converts carbohydrates to glucose on the way in
- stores glucose as glycogen (fast-release energy mostly in the liver and muscles) or storage fat (slow-release energy mostly in dedicated tissue)
- converts glycogen[0] back to glucose when you need energy to burn
You don't need dietary carbohydrates very frequently. Your body will be fine converting glycogen[0] to glucose at an appropriate rate, and you store about a day of glycogen. The problem with dietary carbohydrates is that they always start as glucose and then get stored. If you dump a bunch of simple sugars into your stomach, they all end up in your bloodstream at once (hyperglycemia), your body releases a lot of insulin to cope with the surplus, and then there's a dip (hypoglycemia) afterwards. Once you're through the dip, though, everything should go back to normal.
I think this is the same as what you're saying, just with more detail on why it works that way.
[0] or other things, like fat and protein, in a pinch