How is glucose absorbed by the body?

Glucose is a product of carbohydrate digestion, the absorption of which into the blood stream involves two main stages: 1) Diffusion into the blood: When carbohydrates are first broken down, there's a higher concentration of glucose in the small intestine than in the blood, creating a concentration gradient, so glucose moves across the epithelial cells of the small intestine and into the blood by diffusion. When the concentration of glucose in the small intestine lumen is the same as in the blood, diffusion stops. 2) Active transport: The remaining glucose is absorbed by active transport with sodium ions. Step 1 = Sodium ions are actively transported out of the small intestine epithelial cells and into the blood stream by the sodium-potassium pump. This creates a concentration gradient, as there is now a higher concentration of sodium ions in the small intestine lumen than in the epithelial cells. Step 2 = This causes sodium ions to diffuse from the small intestine lumen into the cell down their concentration gradient via a sodium-glucose co-transporter protein, which brings glucose into the cell at the same time. This causes the glucose concentration in the cell to increase. Step 3 = Glucose diffuses out of the cell and into the blood through a protein channel. This is facilitated diffusion.