The Cast

Main Kitchen (open 7am –10 pm) stomach and intestines

Room Service blood vessels (veins and arteries)

Deluxe Hamburger glucose

Bill for Burger insulin

(Bills given to average guests but NOT VIPs)

Deluxe Burger in Tupperware glycogen (stored glucose)

Food Storage Room in the Basement adipose tissue

Frozen Ground Beef for a Deluxe Burger glycerol/glycerine (triglyceride break down component)

Bag of Cheetos fatty acids (triglyceride break down component)

Average Hotel Guests cells outside the Central Nervous System

VIP Guests (only eat Deluxe Burgers) cells in the brain and spinal cord

VIP Kitchen (open when main kitchen closed) liver

Cook in the VIP Kitchen glucagon

Act I: The Main Kitchen is Open (absorption phase)

Every guest at the Club Met resort and hotel (cells inside and outside of the Central Nervous System/CNS) can order a deluxe burger (glucose) through room service (the blood vessels). Room service will deliver burgers to all guests but there must be a bill (insulin) that accompanies every room service delivery of a burger to an average hotel guest. The average guests must pay for their burgers individually. However, deluxe burgers are included in the package purchased by the spoiled VIP guests (brain and spinal cord), Thus, no bills (no insulin) must accompany the burgers delivered by room service to VIP guests. (In case you are curious and are considering a VIP stay at Club Met, the VIP suites are located at the very top of the hotel in the penthouse and in a rather odd line of rooms that descend from the penthouse suites halfway down the back of the hotel.)

Act II. The Main Kitchen is Closed (fasting phase)

When the main kitchen is closed, average hotel guests (cells outside the CNS) can no longer order a deluxe burger (glucose) through room service (the blood vessels). As you’ll see, even though deluxe burgers are being delivered by room service when the main kitchen is closed, none of these burgers will be delivered to average hotel guests. Remember that average hotel guests must be charged for their burgers with a bill (insulin) and the hotel person responsible for these bills refuses to create them when the kitchen is closed. However, the hotel recognizes that average hotel guests need to have something to eat when the main kitchen is closed. As a compromise, when the kitchen is closed, room service (the blood vessels) will deliver the average hotel guests a free bag of Cheetos (fatty acid) from the food storage room in the basement (the adipose tissue).

It is a different story for the spoiled VIP guests. Even though the main kitchen is “officially” closed (the stomach and intestines are empty), they can still get a deluxe burger (glucose). They can call the VIP kitchen (the liver) and cook there (glucagon), who comes to work at the hotel when the main kitchen is closed, can take out a burger that has been stored in Tupperware (glycogen) and warm it up. Then a waiter (the blood vessels) can deliver it to the VIP guest (brain or spinal cord). If the VIP kitchen runs out of burgers that have been stored in Tupperware, it can call down to the food storage room in the basement (adipose tissue) and have someone take out some frozen ground beef (glycerol/glycerine) and bring it to the VIP kitchen. Once there, the cook (glucagon) in the VIP kitchen (the liver) can use the ground beef to make more deluxe burgers (glucose) for the VIP guests.

Limitations of This Metaphor

· Insulin is also responsible for the conversion of extra glucose to glycogen during the absorption phase.

· Glucagon levels are merely low (not absent) during the absorption phase and insulin levels are merely low (not absent) during the fasting phase.

· In our bodies, the “restaurant” can open and close several times a day, depending on whether or not there is food in our stomachs and intestines.

· This metaphor fails to consider the storage of amino acids (derived from the break down of proteins) and fats during the absorption phase