How would you explain the connection between glucose and the energy created by the body to a friend.

One of my friends asks me to explain, “How glucose works in the body”. This is a scenario that is very unlikely. If this were to happen though I would explain to them that glucose is a major source of energy that the cells in your body use to function properly. Glucose comes from carbohydrates which are found the foods we eat like vegetables, fruits, grains. Glucose is one the main products of photosynthesis in plants. When you eat a piece of bread your body takes those carbohydrates and breaks them down into simple sugars of glucose. This occurs in your mouth, stomach and small intestine where carbohydrates, a polysaccharide (basically a big bundle of sugars) are broken down into monosaccharides, which are mainly glucose molecules.
Once broken down the body absorbs these glucose molecules into the blood where they travel around the body and used for energy. Glucose is stored in the body by synthesis of glycogen, which can be found in muscle tissue and the liver. Glycogen is like a vine of grapes where is grape is a glucose molecule. When levels of glucose are low in the blood your pancreas excretes insulin which will increase blood glucose levels by the breakdown of glycogen.
Now glucose is used as energy by a process called glycolysis which is the breakdown of glucose. This process takes glucose and breaks it down into 2 pyruvate acid molecules. During this process 2 ATP molecules where formed. ATP is the energy that is used in all in the body, think of it as the body’s own currency that all processes can use for energy in order to function. Glycolysis forms 4 ATP but in order for that to occur it to occur it takes 2 ATP for glycolysis to function. Your body can use this pyruvate to form lactate when oxygen is not available, which will then be transported by the blood to the liver where it can be synthesized back into glucose. If oxygen is available then it can further be turned into more ATP by 2 other metabolic processes.
Glycolysis forms 2 ATP, for every one glucose molecule. That is really not a lot of energy, so pyruvate can further make ATP by turning Pyruvate into Acetyl CoA which is used in Kreb’s cycle. This cycle forms two different molecules NAD and FAD which will be used in another process. These are coenzymes that are used to take the proton H+ and change a chemical gradient within a process called electron transport chain. Here is where more ATP is formed. The H+ chemical gradient creates an electrical gradient that promotes the formation of at least 30 ATP per for every glucose molecule.