Meal–insulin cycle: A visual summary of the biochemical events between meals

Abstract

In the present article, a scheme that summarizes the biochemical events occurring in the human body after the consumption of a meal is proposed. The scheme illustrates the metabolic sequence as a series of counteracting components occupying opposite positions in a cycle, indicating their opposite actions or physiological states, such as meal versus energy consumption, increase versus decrease of blood glucose levels, and excretion of insulin versus excretion of glucagon. Furthermore, the cycle is complemented by a table indicating the acceleration or inhibition of selected metabolic pathways and actions. Since the cycle demonstrates the effects of a meal and of insulin on metabolism it was named "the meal-insulin cycle." Evaluation of the implementation in the classroom by postgraduate students of Nutrition showed that the proposed summarized visualization improved the understanding of the events between meals of all students, both holders of a Nutrition degree as well as graduates of another science division. Moreover, the representation as a perpetuating cycle throughout our lifespan was new to the students. The students recognized the graphical illustration as the most helpful feature. The proposed scheme may be used in teaching metabolism or biochemistry in a students' course or in a diabetes care course, it can be found on the internet, at the URL www.metpath.teithe.gr/meal_insulin_cycle and is linked to an interactive map of metabolic pathways. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(3):279-284, 2017.