Since adding the veggie smoothies to my diet, I’ve become much more sensitive to the effects of what I eat. I normally eat a lot of vegetables and whole grains and feel pretty good around the clock. But when I go out to eat and buy something fatty and carby, I feel my energy plummet about an hour later.
A few days ago Craig and I went out for huge ice cream cones on empty stomachs, and sure enough about 90 minutes later we both fell asleep in the living room. An hour or two later I dragged myself off the couch into my bed and found I couldn’t sleep after all. I guess my post-sugar rush insulin dip finally balanced out.
It’s interesting because I remember so often as a kid getting “second winds” at night, right before I was about to go to bed. I’d feel really tired, go brush my teeth, and then just as I was ready to go to bed I’d suddenly feel wide awake again. Growing up on a diet of Chinese food, I bet it was actually just a nightly sugar low from all the white rice.
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Neils. How do I beat these sleepy periods? It’s killing me. Are you saying high sugar & low insulin makes one fall asleep? Each time I get sleepy I’ll drink a coke and wake up.
Hmm, I forgot to include the “what to do about it” section, definitely better take care of that in another post.
It’s actually the opposite, low sugar and high insulin makes one fall asleep. But a sugar rush from a high glycemic index food (like sugar, white bread, pasta, white rice, etc) induces your body to overproduce insulin, leading to a sugar low and a food coma.
Solution: Remove refined carbs from your diet (if that seems too hardcore, just try it at lunch and see if your afternoon food comas disappear). Try eating a lunch mainly based around fruit and vegetables (you’ll find you’ll need to eat a larger physical volume of food to get enough calories, though, so be warned).