Have you ever experienced extreme fatigue after eating carbs?
This feeling is normal, but it is how often it happens that tells if it has crossed the path to become a cause for concern.
In most cases, the afternoon slump takes a toll on many people, and it always happens when you have your afternoon meal.
Depending on what you eat, the degree of sleepiness varies, but a meal high in carbs will always get you off balance, and wishing you can grab a pillow and a blanket for at least an hour or two.
According to Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietician and CEO of NY NUTRITION GROUP, eating many carbohydrates spikes insulin levels, which brings about a sugar crash effect.
The result is overwhelming tiredness after eating, and in some cases, your sugar cravings increase.
WHAT FOODS CAUSE EXTREME FATIGUE?
Not all foods will bring about the effect of feeling weak immediately after eating.
Extreme fatigue after eating carbs is turbocharged by what nutritionists say is feeding on too many simple carbohydrates that have a lot of sugar.
While carbohydrates act as a major macronutrient that feeds the body with energy, they can be messy.
Simple carbohydrates lack fiber and starch, contained in complex carbohydrates, a much healthier and recommended option.
Foods such as white bread, pasta, noodles, brown sugar, glucose, concentrated fruit juice corn syrup are the real culprits.
They cause extreme fatigue after eating carbs.
Too much simple or refined carbohydrates also cause the brain fog effect. You can’t think straight. For a moment, you are in a stupor.
It is as a result of low energy levels.
10 SURPRISING REASONS FOR EXTREME FATIGUE AFTER EATING CARBS
1. REFINED CARBS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY
Your favorite craving for donuts or pancakes with a syrup layer to make it sweeter is to blame.
Research shows extreme fatigue after eating carbs can be traced directly to products or foods hitting the digestive system.
High-sugar foods cause more pain for the body after amylin, glucagon, and cholecystokinin hormones are released by the body during digestion.
What happens is that your blood sugar levels spike and give the feeling of satiety. This also makes insulin move into cell tissues while the brain produces a serotonin hormone, which is known to trigger sleep.
2. INSULIN RESISTANCE
Insulin resistance refers to a condition where the body produces more insulin than needed.
More often than not, this happens when you take foods that your body cannot cope with. The food could include ice cream, white bread, pancakes, donuts, foods with syrups, among others, which contain refined sugars.
Due to too much sugar, the pancreas, which produces insulin, does this on overdrive to counter the amount of sugar already fed to the body.
Worth noting is that insulin is the transport agent for glucose needed by the liver and muscles.
When the carbs are more, insulin produced reacts with the sugar very fats causing a drastic drop in blood glucose. Low blood glucose deprives your body of energy.
This explains why you experience uncontrollable sleepiness after eating foods high in carbs.
3. HYPOGLYCEMIA
Hypoglycemia is low blood sugar, which comes about as a result of insulin resistance. When a lot of insulin is produced, the feeling of tiredness and drowsiness comes up in what is known as rebound hypoglycemia.
Eating highly refined carbs such as cakes, soda, and sweets gives the body a quick energy shot.
Hypoglycemia causes stress to your body due to low blood sugar. As a defensive mechanism, a hormone called cortisol is produced by the body to deal with stress.
Cortisol works by getting sugar from the cells and direct it to the bloodstream, which raises the blood sugar level. While this is a good thing, the danger lies in repeated cortisol release.
When you continue eating carbs, and hypoglycemia sets in and cortisol is released chronically, its levels are lowered. It causes adrenal fatigue.
4. TAKING ALCOHOL WITH MEALS DURING THE DAY
Alcohol has a substantial amount of calories. When you take alcohol along with a meal with high amounts of carbs, you fire up your body.
Alcohol reduces Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and deprives you of great sleep. It takes away energy, same case as hg carb foods, which lead to insulin resistance.
The aftermath is general fatigue and drowsiness.
5. SEROTONIN HORMONE
Carbohydrates trigger the production of serotonin hormone by the brain. Serotonin makes you sleep better because it triggers drowsiness.
6. AMOUNTS OF CARBS YOU EAT
It all boils down to the number of carbohydrates that you take at the end of the day. The more carbs on your plate, you will likely fall victim to extreme fatigue after eating carbs.
7. ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCE
A certain intolerance to particular carbs or allergies to a set of carbs can trigger tiredness.
This is because they harm digestion and other functions of the body.
The outcome results in general fatigue.
8. READY AND PACKAGED COOKIES
If you have a sweet tooth, you probably have fought the sin of extreme fatigue after eating carbs, which are pieces of packaged cookies.
For many people, cookies are a key snack option. It can be eaten at any time of the day. Some people love them with a dip of soft drinks such as soda, which aggravates the system’s sugar levels.
The minute you are done, the equations shifts to tiredness and fatigue.
9. SUGAR-RIDDEN FRUIT JUICE CONCENTRATE
Fruit concentrates have more carbs and calories compared to fresh juice. In essence, fruit juice concentrate is heavily processed.
Additives and sweeteners rich in sugars give them a sweet taste as natural sweetness evaporates during processing.
Additives are added to improve the taste and shelf life of the concentrate. In all this, more sugars are in the pack.
10. BREAKFAST CEREAL
Are you a breakfast cereal addict? Some cereals contain simple carbohydrates, which contain a lot of carbs.
However, others are low on carbs and have a high fiber and starch content.
For those with a lot of carbs, they will likely make you drowsy.
CONCLUSION
Sugar crash in high carbohydrate diets is a key reason why you feel sleepy or develop fatigue.
It is possible to regulate the working of insulin in the body by ensuring that you regulate the number of carbs that you take.
The takeaway is that the more refine carbs on your plate, the more the chance of developing fatigue.
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