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Nutrition & Dietetics vocabulary · Digestion and Metabolism

Insulin

Meaning in nutrition & dietetics, with examples

/ˈɪnsəlɪn/nounCore term

In nutrition & dietetics, insulin means: A hormone made by the pancreas that helps glucose move from the blood into cells, which lowers blood sugar. It also helps the body store energy as glycogen and fat.

In Turkish: insülin

How it is used

Central in diabetes care and metabolism. You will hear 'insulin resistance', when cells respond poorly to insulin, 'insulin sensitivity', 'insulin levels' and 'insulin injections'. People with type 1 diabetes 'take' or 'inject' insulin and may adjust the dose to the carbohydrate in a meal.

Example sentences

  1. Insulin resistance is common in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.

  2. She checks her blood sugar before each meal to work out her insulin dose.

Common collocations

  • insulin resistance
  • insulin sensitivity
  • insulin dose
  • take insulin
  • insulin levels
  • blood sugarThe amount of glucose in the blood at a given time. The body keeps it within a narrow range using hormones such as insulin and glucagon.
  • type 2 diabetesA long-term condition in which the body does not respond well to insulin or does not make enough of it, so blood sugar stays higher than normal. It is the most common type of diabetes.
  • glycemic indexA scale from 0 to 100 that ranks carbohydrate foods by how quickly they raise blood sugar compared with pure glucose, which has a value of 100.
  • metabolismAll the chemical processes in the body that turn food into energy and into the materials cells need, and that break down and remove waste.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Digestion and Metabolism

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.