How Your Body Uses Carbohydrates Questions about diabetes, hypoglycemia or other problems frequently center on how the body uses sugar. The following points are important to understanding sugar's role in nutrition. The body's utilization of sugar and other carbohydrates is a natural, well-regulated process. When you eat a sugar-containing food, your body cannot tell whether the sugar came from fruit or whether it was spooned from a bowl. Sugar, regardless of its source, is metabolized in the same way by the body.
All carbohydrate foods become glucose, fuel for the body.
All carbohydrates are made up of one or more molecules of simple sugars. Disaccharides are two monosaccharides linked together. Those common to food always contain at least one glucose molecule. Back to Index Energy From Carbohydrates To utilize carbohydrates for energy, your body converts them to glucose. Monosaccharides are absorbed and carried unchanged to the liver before distribution throughout the body.