Food - how it affects glucose in the blood

To understand how eating affects your child's glucose levels you need to know a little about how glucose arrives in and leaves the blood.

Where the glucose in your child's blood comes from.

There are two main sources of glucose in the blood:

• Digesting the carbohydrate in food:Carbohydrate foods are sugars and starches such as sweets or potatoes. Carbohydrates from the food your child eats are the main source of glucose in his or her blood. In the gut, carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, mainly glucose, and absorbed into the blood
• Glucose that the body produces:The body can also produce glucose internally from a special store in the liver, called glycogen

Glycogen is the body's emergency glucose store. If a person's blood glucose falls too low their liver immediately starts breaking down glycogen stores to make glucose.(Unfortunately it is unlikely that your child will have glycogen stores big enough to prevent a hypo.)

Where the glucose goes

Glucose is the body's main fuel. The muscles and brain need it, just like a car needs petrol. The blood carries glucose around the body to where it is needed.

To get the glucose out of the blood and into the tissues you need insulin. Insulin either moves the glucose from the blood into muscles and brain for energy or stores it in the liver (as glycogen), or under the skin and around internal organs (as fat).

When your child's diabetes is treated with insulin you try to match the action of the insulin that is injected with the food that he or she eats.