In the liver, they are partially stored as glycogen by the action of the insulin previously released in the pancreas. Once the glucose molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream, they reach the liver by traveling through the portal system. In the small intestine, the digestion of carbohydrates ends to be absorbed, through the enterocytes, into the blood. The digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth with saliva while chewing, but continues in the small intestine because the acidic pH of the stomach inactivates the amylase enzyme that is responsible for breaking them down. First, food reaches the stomach after being chewed and swallowed from mouth. Previously to be absorbed, stomach and small intestine play an important role in digestion every particle ingested. Although carbohydrates are more abundant in the diet, they are digested to be converted into glucose molecules to be absorbed in the gut. It can be as a simple molecule, sugar, or complex molecules, carbohydrates. Glucose is contained in foods rich in carbohydrates like bread, potatoes, rice, and fruits. Physiological aspects and the detailed role of every organ involved in glucose metabolism are described in this chapter. The kidneys assist the liver in insulin clearance in the postprandial state and gluconeogenesis in the post absorptive state. Glucose storage occurs due to the delivery of hormones from the pancreas, which produces, stores, and releases insulin and glucagon, two antagonistic hormones with an important role in glucose metabolism.

Then glucose as a simple substance goes to the liver to be stored as glycogen. Specifically, the stomach and small intestine, organs of the gastrointestinal system, are the first to play an important role in the regulatory system, because it is where carbohydrates are digested and absorbed as glucose into the bloodstream. In this chapter, the main organs involved in such a mechanism and their role in glucose metabolism are described. In the mechanism to maintain blood glucose, several organs are involved but the role of most of them has been disregarded in the literature. When this natural mechanism is broken, many metabolic disorders appear such as diabetes mellitus, and some substances of interest, like glucose, are out of control. The glucose homeostasis cycle is the mechanism to maintain blood glucose levels in a healthy threshold. Sugar, or technically known as glucose, is the main source of energy of all cells in the human body.

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