When I wrote about this last time it was in the context of my kids being out of control on sugar (and this is still the case). We limit their intake greatly and of course limit ours too. I have discovered an unfortunate side effect – I now get sugar hangovers! This isn’t brilliant and I had suspected it before, however I have proof now.
Over the last few weeks we’ve been eating normally but I have on several occasions where my eating has been pretty well the same, introduced some sort of sugary stuff for desert (and only desert). The results have been conclusive. If it’s vanilla ice cream, left over Easter Eggs or M&M’s (nut or regular) I end up with a piercing headache, light to severe nausea and generally higher than normal levels of irritability (and I’m usually pretty irritable so you can imagine how much fun that is for others). I drink lots of water and eventually something bland like biscuits to settle things down.
It’s worse than a freakin’ alcohol hangover. I mean it – the symptoms can last all day without let up, whereas I can be over a beery hangover by 10am. God help me if I drink a mixed drink like Cougar and Dry. Possibly I will (want to) die. I definitely steer clear of this and I also steer clear of heavy beers – this is another story though. As I’ve gotten older and ingest less sugar it’s getting worse and I look back now on my younger days and wonder if the long painful headaches I suffered were sugar related? Had I realised this years ago I might have saved myself an enormous amount of pain, discomfort and embarrassment.
I reckon this as a result: if you suffer from headaches periodically and you’re struggling to find out why, cut sugar out of your diet for a while. Don’t give in too soon though – there is a definite de-tox timeframe with that shit. Get through it and then judge it for yourself. For me, I’ve cut down from 3.5 sugars in a mocha or a regular coffee to 1 sugar (and soon to be zero), dropped sugar snacks out of my diet and started watching it a lot more closely. I’m no vegan-like fanatic about it (and I don’t expect anyone to take this information as gospel – do your own testing) so there’s no stress applied to it. The results though have been noteworthy as I’ve decreased the number of headaches or just shitty feeling days by a big margin since cutting sugar right down to almost nothing.
About sugar-free…. I’m not sold on that chemical stuff yet, but to each their own. It might be better than sugar but I can’t confirm or deny for you. Also, I’m totally not starting it just to test – no thanks! Good luck and here’s to feeling better!
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