What in this meal could make me so tired that I want to pass out

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickj Sounds like I need to do a food log. Had my blood sugar levels checked several times always normal. Also need to find a happy medium between a few carbs and too many. I feel equally bad when trying to do lo-carb eating.

How often do you have (had) an A1C test? (This is kind of an average of your blood suger level over several months.) (I am unsure what "normal" means exactly. Within an generally acceptable range?)

You do know that you need to maintain any diet change for at least 2 weeks before you body stops complaining. This is what the Atkins folks, for instance, call the "Induction" period. Anything less than that tells you nothing other than you have a "habit."

[haha]

You need to buy a meter and some strips. 90% says you are getting some high readings post meal, that perhaps drop quite low very soon after. By the time you run to a doctor, and convince him to make a test, your blood sugar will have moved on.

Ha

[RonBoyd]

You are correct, Ha. That's the theoretical reason behind the A1C test since it supposedly gives one the averages over a several month period. <chuckle>

Anyway, a good (well, a recent one -- there are many) article on the test strips can be found here:
My 5 Low-Carb Mistakes And How Nutritional Ketosis Rescued Me From Them

[Animorph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonBoyd Would you care to share? I would be particularly interested in what "problem/s" each item caused.

Not that interesting, but you have to record everything and make sure you have enough variations to see everything. For example, condiments, vitamin suppliments, sauces.

I had discomfort or pain in the lower abdomen, pretty much around the navel, in the morning. A few foods (chocolate chips, a few soups) would give me immediate discomfort, but higher up in the chest. Sometimes it was a two morning thing, with pain just under the ribs on the right side the first day and the old usual discomfort the second day. The doc says GERD, but that doesn't seem to cover all of that.

What I've seen so far:

Multivitamin (minerals or no minerals, pill or gummy) - When I stopped taking them I finally had days with no discomfort. That allowed me to find some of the other problem foods. Never suspected this until I went on vacation and stopped taking them for a week. As an added bonus, my calories burned when stationary bicycling for 40 minutes went up by about 30%. I was able to do a lot more while putting in the same qualitative amount of effort. I tested this a few times with different multivitamin types, for each type the calories burned goes way down and the morning discomfort is consistent. I haven't found which vitamin or combo is the problem. I take D3 and B12 separately, so no problems with them. Too much iron could have caused some problems since my original multivitamin included it, along with my Cheerios and regular diet.

Hard chocolate (60% was a favorite, semi-sweet is bad as well), most tomato-based foods (even vegetable beef soup made with tomato puree) - Immediate discomfort, plus the usual morning discomfort or pain. No big problem with chocolate ice cream, supposedly solid and liquid chocolates are different. Or it may be a total dose threshold problem.

Other acidic stuff with vinegar (pasta salad, pickles, BBQ sauces), raw onions, peanuts, artificial sweeteners (which includes pretty much any gum) - No immediate effects, but morning pain can get bad enough that I have to get up early. It can take a couple of days to feel better. I haven't seen a problem with orange juice though.

If I stay away from all this stuff I can wake up in the morning without even thinking about the problem. If I cheat a little, I'll notice it and may have to avoid stretching in bed to avoid additional pain from it. Or get up early if I was bad. I still have some significant dips in my exercise performance which I hope will correlate to some foods, but I haven't looked at the data for that yet.

[BigNick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickj Spicy chicken sandwich diet soda fries sweet sour sauce chocholate chip cookie I get this feeling after eating sometimes, not all the time. Can't figure out what it is.

I don't see any evidence that the meal is causing the problem. The feeling probably also occurs "sometimes" 3-5 hours after you take a shower, move your bowels, etc. Perhaps something else in your previous activities made you tired and that hits after you eat, etc etc. It's very hard to extrapolate even quite reliably population data to an individual case, and there's no a priori reason to believe that the cause of tiredness is the last salient thing that you did beforehand (i.e., eating).

That said, it doesn't sound like optimum nutrition, but that's typically not going to cause
problems in the first couple of hours, unless you have an undiagnosed case of something like diabetes.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickj Spicy chicken sandwich diet soda fries sweet sour sauce chocholate chip cookie I get this feeling after eating sometimes, not all the time. Can't figure out what it is.

I'd say it's either the spices or the sugar in the sweet and sour sauce thata' makes you want to zzzzzz.

That'd get me. Plus onions (expecially raw) and I'd feel like Dorothy on "The Wizard of Oz" when the witch put that sleepy spell on her.

[obgyn65]

+1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Newventurer Have your blood sugar checked