Page 37 - The Cell in 40 Topics
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f you eat more sweets than you need, then an exceedingly de-
tailed and flawless system in your body goes into action to pre-
vent your blood-sugar level from rising:
1- First, the pancreas cells detect sugar molecules from among the mil-
lions of molecules in the blood and separate them from the others.
Moreover, they decide whether there are too many of these molecules or
too few, literally counting their number. How can invisibly small cells
without eyes or a brain possess criteria for the proper level of sugar mole-
cules in the blood? That's a matter requiring reflection. (Figure 23).
2- If the pancreas cells determine that there's more sugar in the blood
than needed, they move to store this surplus sugar. However, they do not
perform this storage themselves, but order it to be carried out by other cells
at a considerable distance away.
3- These distant cells do not normally store sugar until they receive a
command to do so—when the pancreatic cells emit a hormone that in-
structs them to begin storing sugar. The formula for this hormone, known
as insulin, has been recorded in their DNA since the instant when pancreas
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