What happens after a mixed meal
Carbohydrate from a meal is digested to glucose and absorbed, raising blood glucose to a peak typically within about an hour. In people without diabetes, post-meal glucose generally stays below roughly 140 mg/dL and returns toward baseline within a couple of hours. The pancreas responds with insulin, which moves glucose into tissues and limits the rise.
Two phases of insulin and the incretin boost
Insulin release has a rapid first phase from pre-formed stores and a slower sustained second phase. Gut hormones called incretins, mainly GLP-1 and GIP, are released when nutrients reach the intestine and amplify insulin secretion, which is why oral glucose triggers more insulin than the same glucose given intravenously.
In type 2 diabetes the first-phase response is typically blunted or lost and peaks run higher and longer. The specific numbers shown are illustrative thresholds, not diagnostic cutoffs; ranges vary by individual and measurement method. General educational information, not medical advice; diagnosis and management of glucose disorders require a clinician.