starchy foods and exhaustion
#173349 - 04/25/05 07:02 AM
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I know other people experience this too. I am wondering if there are any suggestions. The staples in my day are pasta, rice and bread but everytime I eat those I can't seem to stay awake afterwards. I mainly eat those for lunch since I don't eat dinner because I work evenings. How do I stay stable without getting so tired? I would appreciate any suggestions.
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You need to add a good dose of protein to boost your energy. Also, try adding some IF to your diet. The insolubles are good complement to the SF.
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Formerly HanSolo. IBS, OCD, Bipolar, PTSD times 3.
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This is a problem I suffer from too - it's a bit of a catch 22 I'm afraid. By eating lots of low-glycemic carbohydrates like wholewheat pasta and wholegrain bread with lots of veggies and fruits I find I am full of energy and have no blood sugar level problems at all. Unfortunately this involves eating lots of insoluble fibre, which really aggrevates my IBS.
On the other hand eating lots of the soluble fibre carbs that heather recommends such as white bread and rice, reduces my IBS symptoms, but causes blood sugar fluctuations that make me tired and put on weight.
Eating equal quantities of protein and carbs together really does help minimize this effect but I find the more protein I eat the more I bloat - it might work for you though so try it out.
Sticking to the soluble fibre carbs with the lowest glycemic index values will also help - such as basmati rice instead of long grain, wheat tortilla wraps instead of white bread and pasta instead of potatoes. You can find the GI values of foods at www.glycemicindex.com . Low GI foods are those lower than 55.
Best wishes
Em xx
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Yeah eating protein will help. And make sure you're getting plenty of water - even mild dehydration is very fatiguing.
The GI index thing sounds interesting..I knew some foods were better with me than others but never realised why before!  Something like a tuna mayo and cucumber tortialla wrap is less enervating than a regular sandwich for example.
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I was going to mention GI too, cause that's just what this is.
The good news is that adding protein to a meal is an easy way to lower the GI of the whole meal, so you don't get the same blood sugar spike. (Adding fat does the same thing, btw, but you probably don't want to be doing that. Adding IF will lower it slightly as well as most, but not all, IF foods are lower GI than the SF foods.)
As an aside, I don't eat anything without SF but I've stopped eating JUST SF foods (carbs) by themselves and I don't feel that I have much more energy. Generally I eat a small amount of protein with each meal. Leaves me feeling full and energized longer and you don't get that awful "crash" feeling you're referring to.
Hope that helps! 
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