Sometimes I get sleepy after eating a meal. Does anyone know the cause of this? Food varies. I was real hungry yesterday at around 5pm, ate a bagel with sliced boiled egg and peanut butter, some crackers, chips/salsa, and went into a food coma.
What’s the reason behind this? What’s the reason people get sleepy after a big lunch?
I think it’s because both your insulin levels rise and blood is diverted from other parts of the body aid in digestion.
I pass out after the monkey is spanked. Must be a blood flow thing.
Thanks! Is this the general reason to take small meals multiple times a day instead of taking one big one?
I think you went into a comma because the food hadn’t reached your semicolon yet. Digestion always seems to be punctuated by increased blood flow to required areas.
(I apologize for this insulin response to your question).
Comma? Why not a parenthesis, or a question mark?
Insulin response to carbs. Aka “Food coma”
Look into the the zone diet and the theory behind it. It is all based on the response your body has to various kinds of food (bread is bad).
Thanks. Oops, type on my part. Corrected now.
What is the best way to lessen this food coma effect?
I was real hungry yesterday at around 5pm, ate a bagel with sliced boiled egg and peanut butter, some crackers, chips/salsa, and went into a food coma.
What’s the reason behind this? What’s the reason people get sleepy after a big lunch?
Sometimes it’s caused by an insulin spike from the ingestion of sugars, but more often than not it’s due to the presence of a specific amino acid - tryptophan - in the food you eat that makes you sleepy. Tryptophan increases the levels of serotonin in the brain, and when levels are high enough this serotonin serves as a calming neurtransmitter…a sleep aid.
Think back to the Seindfeld episode when Jerry and George feed Jerry’s girlfriend Turkey, so that they can put her to sleep and play with her toy collection. That’s the principle in action.
The zone diet explains the insulin response, although that depends on the ratio of easily absorbed carbs versus fiber, protein and fat.
For instance, if you eat pure carbs like a tack of pancakes, or a plate of pasta with tomato sauce or a couple of gels (with no caffeine), you’ll feel a similar reaction in your body.
If you want to slow down the absortion rate to avoid the sugar spike and consequent insulin response, just make sure your meals have some fiber, fat and protein. No need to go nuts and ruin your afternoon pastry with a half can of tuna (!), but just go by this general rule. Also, veggies and fruit are a great source of carbs but have fiber to make them not sleep inducing, quite the contrary.
(Note that the nutrition while on the couch is exactly the opposite of what you want out on the race course, where you opt for 90% carbs and just a tiny part of protein and fat, so that you can absorb the calories fast and get the energy without needing to have a lot of blood diverted to the stomach to digest)
However, you might want to also experiment with amounts. If you eat a huge pile of food (and by your post it looks like you did), your blood will definitely be drawn to the stomach to digest - this is true for any food type. Try eating a huge steak and see what happens. The rule is more food, more digesting effort.
I would suggest that you experiment with smaller amounts of food, like maybe just the bagel with the egg and pb and wait for a bit. If you hit the spot with the amounts and the nutrients, the result should be that you actually feel energized around 20 minutes after eating.
Last, 5pm is a time to be tired and if you let your body be hungry for a couple of hours before you eat and are in active training, what happens is that you come to a sort of bonk, where even if you eat, it’s “too late”, so your body comes to a shut down, digests and then you can revive, but all this can take 3 hours or so… so try maybe having a couple hundred calories around mid afternoon when you feel hungry instead of waiting until you’re famished and have to raid the fridge.
Sorry if I sent you a bible, it’s my topic, so I like to write about it…
Good luck.
Barb
Lots! Everything from what (like the L-tryptophan in turkey) to the alkaline tide to the increased GI blood flow, to hormonal level changes.