Oral glucose is the prime elicitor of preabsorptive insulin secretion.

Seven sugars, two sugar alcohols, and a nonnutritive sweetener were orally administered to naive rats with and without gastric drainage fistulas. Although all taste solutions were ingested, only glucose evoked a statistically significant elevation of insulin levels. This rise was independent of a rise in glycemia. The preeminence of oral glucose as an elicitor of preabsorptive insulin secretion is especially striking, considering that glucose is neither the most intense (as measured electrophysiologically) nor the most palatable (as measured by behavioral preference tests) taste stimulus tested. These results suggest the existence of a gustatory and/or gastrointestinal chemoreceptor that is most responsive to glucose.