How digestion works: what happens to food after you eat it
Glycogen: where your body stores sugar for later
After a meal, your body puts away far more sugar than your blood could ever hold. Where does it keep it, and who is allowed to use it? Meet glycogen, the sugar store inside you.
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Before it reaches your muscles, the sugar from your gut makes one stop. The blood that leaves your small intestine does not go straight round your body. It goes to your liver first.
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Your liver takes in a share of the sugar as it passes. The rest goes on to your muscles and your fat cells, where insulin opens the doors. Now all these cells hold far more sugar than they can use.
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