Food and mood

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I've just eaten stuff and now I'm really bummed out. I usually feel 'different' after eating a meal; generally foggy, tired and depressed. It happens with pretty much any food that requires some effort to digest (fruit and similarly 'light' things don't affect me), so all I can figure is that it's just my blood naturally being re-allocated from my brain to my digestive tract and that this response is particularly intense in myself.

Adding a lot of herbs to my food can help keep me from passing out, but often I need to nap for a couple of hours after such a meal, which then means I can't get to sleep later.

I follow a diet free from gluten, casein, refined carbs, 'empty' foods like potatoes and so on, so it's unlikely to be anything to do with the quality of what I'm eating. Here's a couple of typical meals for me:





I usually accompany them with a couple of grams of vitamin C, some citrus fruit, enzymatically rich things like fresh, raw herbs from the garden and 0.5 - 1 litre of water, which I find helps digestion and reduces the unwanted effects somewhat.

Although I only eat one 'heavy' meal a day (sometimes two if I'm particularly phyically active that day), I snack on fruit (kg's of the stuff, not half an apple) throught the rest of the day and drink a lot of green tea.

Anyone have similar problems?

Interesting. Of the meats, I will only eat poultry. I will not eat cow and pig products. This started when I was little.

I used to get sleepy after eating, often to the state of requiring sleep to shake the lethargy. This problem ceased when I switched from eating three regular sized daily meals to six smaller meals spread out over the day. My supper is a slightly larger meal than the rest, but not much more so. Eating frequently in this manner supposedly increases one’s metabolic rate.

This dieting technique has also allowed me to maintain a desirable weight, even while being injured and restricted from most exercise.

Snacking is something I completely avoid and I restrict myself to my regular meals timed every three hours. I also drink green tea, in the amount of four cups per day.

There was a time not long ago when I was combating fatigue multiple times each day. Two or three daily naps were not an uncommon requirement for me at the time. I found that doing cardiovascular exercise in the morning greatly increased my energy for the remainder of the day.

This is a well-known physiological thing: the 'post-prandial' (after eating) effect. It is why some cultures have naps after the biggest meal of the day (siesta after lunch). Basically when your body gets full of food, it turns up its parasympathetic system for (digesting, excreting, body rest/recuperation, etc.), and this turns down the sympathetic system (for action, awareness, awakeness, etc.). So I think your idea is right. This is probably why many small meals avoids the lethargy - your stomach doesn't get full, so the effect isn't big. But I'm no expert, I'm not sure exactly what causes it. Probably you can get a more detailed explanation on the internet somewhere.

I found that hamburger & fries & salad made me get really lethargic for an hour or more, but if I dipped the fries in soy sauce instead of ketchup I wouldn't be sleepy at all! Sadly most fast food joints don't provide soy sauce...I also find that eating sugary/carbohydratey snack foods (like granola bars) gives an energy boost even after an otherwise lethargy-inducing meal.

An interesting question then would be whether the post-prandial effect is conducive to good health, and if attempting to cirumvent it might be the dietary equivalent of popping speed.

Interesting about the soy sauce. By adding lots of stimulating herbs I can offset the fatigue somewhat. I've also found recently that eating some honey before starting on the meal can help.

i generally have a nap after my main meal of the day, although i don't eat "big" meals (i don't eat enough, probably).

by the way, peter - your food looks gorgeous! well, if you take out the bits of dead animal. i ate something not unlike it earlier

Mmmmm...... dead animal bits.....

Actually, I don't eat much meat. The chunk of somewhat overdone cow in the pic was because nobody else was eating it and it was bunging up the freezer. Mostly it's just eggs and a little cold cut meat that I eat. I used to eat lots (very big lots) of fish, but I think I developed mercury toxicity from that and had to discontinue it (my doctor disagrees with me though). I still love king prawn if I'm eating out, especially at Thai restaurants.

My appetite has been rather high today. My metabolism shifts on occasion from high to low states and vice versa, so I'm feeling quite active now and have put on some wearable weights for the first time in ages.

I don't think I'd do well at all on a vegitarian diet, since I have a lot of muscle to maintain and start feeling crappy if I go too long without a high-protien meal.

*edit* Also, a lot of typical vegetarian fare doesn't agree with me at all, like beans, anything with gluten, grain products in general and starchy things like potatoes or rice (though wild rice is ok in moderation). I had chronic indigestion up to the age of 17 from various things in my diet, but have been much better since I cut them out and radically altered my diet (which now happens to be something along the lines of 'the paleolithic diet/hunter gatherer diet').

I tend to graze. Lotsa tea and ciggies.

Last edited by Postperson on 28 May 2005, 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I couldn't even envisage the possibility of a vegetarian diet..... I'm a simply rampant carnivore I'm afraid.

My basic diet at the moment:

Breakfast
======
Beans on Toast (every day )

Dinner
====
Honey Roast Ham butties (white bread naturally - I occasionally have cheese spread for a little change-up)
Couple of apples and cereal bars

Tea
===
Microwave Ready Meal (varies - see, I have some variety )
Tesco's Low-Fat Chocolate Trifle (God I love those things.... *gargle*....)
Tesco's Low Fat Tiramisu or Goodies' Low Fat Fruit Cocktail or Strawberry Trifle

Supper
=====
Cheese spread butties

In addition, I drink gallons of tea (decaffeinated after 8pm) and fresh orange juice. (I used to love Pepsi.... )

At weekends, I generally have a splurge and get a Chinese in on Saturday night (I'm just digesting a lovely Beef in Sea-Spiced sauce as we speak - Mmmmmm..... Chinese - the food of the Gods ), and sometimes an Indian on a Sunday depending how paranoid about my "diet" I happen to be at the time. Apart from that, I eat pretty much the same things all the time, and haven't even so much as looked inside my cooker since I got it.....[/i]

Morning:

1-3 litres of green tea
1-1.5 kg fruit (usually fresh, sometimes also includes dried)
~5 teaspoons honey
Small block of dark chocolate

Afternoon/evening

Large cooked meal or uber-salad thingy.
0.5 kg fruit

Late evening

More fruit
Sometimes more cooked stuff
Occasionally chammomile or hawthorn tea

BTW, I should mention that I've heard the 'post-prandial' thingy explained and am told that it is well-known, but I don't know its actual name, so I just said 'effect'. There is probably some specialized term. Just to clarify.

I don't know if using tricks to avoid sleepiness after eating would have a bad effect. I would naively guess that at worst it makes digestion a bit slower and less nutritive, but I doubt it would e.g. cause a heart attack.

I found a reference that claims that carbohydrates give short-term help to attention & cognitive function, but balanced protein and fats give a better overall effect (over 3 hours total after eating). But the study only tested breakfasts.

"In conclusion, compared with a high to medium glycemic carbohydrate-rich meal, a fat and/or protein-rich meal seems to be more effective in optimising and stabilizing overall cognitive performance as well as hunger and satiety in the morning because of less variation in glucose metabolism. Only for a short transient improvement in attention and satiety, a high to medium glycemic carbohydrate-rich meal might be more or equally appropriate. Individual macronutrients, at least carbohydrates and protein, seem to affect different cognitive functions not in an uniform manner but specifically in relation to their specific effects on metabolism. Similarly, a fixed satiating hierarchy of macronutrients does not seem to exist. Rather, the relative satiating effect of carbohydrates changes with time in relation to postprandial metabolic changes. In addition, for carbohydrates and protein also the existence of a specific appetite or preference is likely."

from "Short-term effects of macronutrient ingestion on postprandial metabolism and cognitive performance as well as hunger and satiety in the morning"

at e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/show?type=diss&nr=14296∂=fulltext

LOL. me too! and coffee.

smokers (a.k.a. "social pariahs") of the board unite!

I personally love meat, and when I smell it cooking I am happy.

Have you been to Number One Tea Studios on the great western road. It had a amazing variety to very good quality green tea.

No, I haven't. I'm not often in the west-end these days, but I'll keep it in mind for when I am.

After reading all of this, is anyone else feeling INCREDIBLY unhealthy at the moment???

Give me processed, or give me death!-- or is that, and give me death?