The Sugar Hangover

Wow, stop eating almost anything sweet other than fruit and all of a sudden you can taste the sweetness in ordinary things. Who knew that almonds were so sweet, and that a carrot could taste like an apple?? Then if you actually eat what would be an ordinary amount of sugar for most folks (a small slice of cake), you can FEEL what it's doing to your body. Last night at my writer's group I ate some fantastic gluten-free chocolate cake made with coconut flour and coconut oil in the frosting. The hostess also went out of her way to make it low glycemic since we have diabetic members, so it probably wasn't even nearly as sugary as a regular cake. To me though, after over a month of eating paleo, it tasted immensely sweet. Of course, that didn't stop me from eating a slice. You see, I have basically no willpower. As long as I keep stuff like that out of the house, I'm fine. But confront me with a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and maple-pecan icing? Fugeddaboudit.

Today however, I paid the price with a walloping sugar hangover. Seriously, it feels like I went on a complete bender last night. It's weird how your body can become so accustomed to ingesting this much sugar that you don't feel it at all, but now that I've gone cold turkey it's like I can feel the toxic effects crawling through my veins. I'd like to think that this sensation will help me avoid eating the next piece of chocolate ganache that stares me in the face. I can't imagine wanting to feel this way again anytime soon.

In the meantime, my latest body fat measurement was 17.8%, the lowest I've been since training for the Ironman, so the paleo eating plan must be doing something right!

If you are interested in an excellent, concise, and very understandable summation of sugar, insulin, fat storage, etc. check out Mark's article The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar & Type 2 Diabetes (and you’ll understand it)