What Happens to Your Body When… You Carb Binge?
Another day, another co-worker’s birthday (and the obligatory cake in the break room). Elaine Benes was right: this is insanity.
You’re into the Primal style of eating, so it’s easy to resist this stuff, right? You ignored the dirty looks when you turned down that piece of fudge-smothered bundt cake offered by your boss’s wife at their employee open house. You don’t mind gnawing on the few anemic carrot sticks left at the annual holiday party. Dessert just isn’t part of your vocabulary.
But would it hurt to indulge this once? This guy’s birthday? Well, you like him well enough, and the cake is a lemon cream after all. And it’s the end of the work day. Seriously, it’s not like you’ll suddenly burst into flame and melt in a fiery, torturous death, leaving nothing but a smoldering spot on the carpet. You’re disciplined. You can more than make up for this later. The worst that can happen is a sugar rush, and you spent half your time at summer camp walking (well, running) around in that state. Those were good times. Oh what the heck, gimme a slice. Yeah, sure, a little ice cream too.
So, what will happen? To your body, we mean. Once the plastic fork (with its spongy contents) hits your mouth. What goes on in there anyway? And why are you suddenly thinking of Willy Wonka and that kid who gets sucked down the garbage chute?
First off, the good news. There’s no purple suited man to pull an ominous lever. Nor is there any other permanent fate awaiting you. You’ll leave work a live, generally functional human being. They’ll be no curse or pox on your house or even truly long-term risk elevation for that matter. Nonetheless, you’ll likely regret your decision.
Within a matter of 10 quick forkfuls, you’ve gone from small doses of quality carbs wisely spread throughout the day to possibly 100 or more grams of pure sugar in one sitting. O.K., some guilt is setting in…. But that’s not all that’s happening.
The Domino Effect
Within a few minutes, your pancreas kicks into overdrive and sends out a flood of insulin to try to sop up all the excess glucose that’s suddenly rushing through your bloodstream. Remember, while glucose is muscle fuel when it’s in the muscles, it’s toxic sludge when it stays in your bloodstream. Your body knows that and does everything it can to get it out of there. Perhaps you’re feeling flushed, a little high, spastic, or nauseous depending on how much you ate, how big you are, what your normal carb load is, and how acutely you tend to “feel” the effects of sugar and other substances. Ironically, if you were insulin resistant, you might not even notice these sensations, but you’re not. You’re a clean-fuel-burning primal specimen.
And it continues. The gush of insulin now creates a see-saw effect. If your glycogen stores have room, some of the sugar goes into muscles. If there’s no more room, the excess goes into fat cells, where it is stored as fat. In reaction to this quasi-emergency that looks like another life-threatening stress, the body steps up its efforts to achieve homeostasis by releasing both epinephrine (adrenaline) and cortisol from your adrenals. Your heart is racing, and you’re starting to feel uncomfortable, maybe even sweating. And we’re still likely within the first hour after you finished off that cake!
A bit more time passes. Burnout settling in yet? That’s called a sugar crash – when all the glucose is gone from the bloodstream and you start to feel sluggish, off-kilter, like the internal circuits are all fried after sparking in a heap of now smoldering wires. Hmm. Maybe that spontaneous combustion image wasn’t so far after all.
But there’s more…. The havoc that sugar rush set off – the swing of glucose and insulin, the cortisol and adrenaline – they’ve sent your immune system into a tailspin. Research has shown that the function of immunity-related phagocytes is impaired for at least five hours after intake of simple sugars. Free radicals have their heyday as well within the first few hours after sugar increases oxidative stress on the body. Your blood even thickens as a response to the stressors.
Wait, you aren’t out of the woods yet. You get home and try to sleep it off, but you toss and turn as your heart continues to beat faster than normal. Hmm. Little surprise there. The old hormonal system is confounding in its interconnectedness. You lay there cursing not just that cake but the entire cultural custom of birthday celebration. As the sun comes up and you roll out of bed, you think you should be done with this sugar business by now. Maybe. Maybe not. Unfortunately, a hefty dose of sugar can compromise the immune system for more than 24 hours. Groan. The images flash before you. The flu your daughter brought home earlier this week. The miserable cold (that incessant cough!) your boss has. Passing plans or reports around the meeting room. Shaking hands with the new clients who came by yesterday. Your toddler’s insistence on drinking from your cup last night. Suddenly you’re seeing your week in a new (and dimmer) light. Your immune system might have handled it all quite easily before the sugar incidence/insult. That’s one birthday cake that keeps on giving!
As bad as this sounds, it could be worse. If you follow the Primal Blueprint regularly and the lemon cream was just a detour, you’re a generally healthy person. You’ll experience the effects, and you may feel them more acutely than you did before you chose the low-carb path. (This isn’t a bad thing.) Nonetheless, after the dust settles, the worst thing you can end up with is maybe a cold you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Your system will realign itself pretty readily. Within a couple of PB style days you’ll be as good as new.
But if this is a normal day? Sigh. This presents a much bleaker picture. That see-saw of insulin and glucose? The process breaks down in your body until you develop insulin resistance. That rush of adrenaline and cortisol? That hormonal havoc over time fries your adrenal system. Your body is constantly in a state of “fight,” and inflammation becomes a constant state of affairs. Enough sugar over enough time (with the lack of exercise to boot), and you’ve gotten yourself into quite a pickle. (Maybe a pickle would’ve been a better snack choice….)
The Primal Blueprint offers up a plan to help guide our everyday choices as well as information to help us weigh the compromises we choose to make along the way. How we take care of ourselves each and every day can ameliorate the more taxing damage from occasional concessions we make for personal and social reasons.
And so we conclude the Willy Wonka journey.
What are your thoughts on sugar shock? PB compromise? Questions? Stories to share?
I Like, Fanboy30, Paradox Blue Flickr Photos (CC)
Further Reading:
The Salt/Blood Pressure Debate
Diabetes is Now a Disorder of the Small Intestine?
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Posted By: Worker Bee
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Excellent post, one again.
I had an In-N-Out burger and fries when I was in LA last month, and your description of what happens is exactly what I experienced. I thought I was going to throw up.
“Perhaps you’re feeling flushed, a little high, spastic, or nauseous depending on how much you ate, how big you are, what your normal carb load is, and how acutely you tend to “feel” the effects of sugar and other substances.”
I hardly ever eat sugar, but at weak moments I do succumb to other carbs. I generally stay away from bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc., but when I eat them, particularly in abundance (sometimes the basket of crusty hot bread at a good restaurant is just too much to take!), for days afterwards I feel bloated, depressed (and I don’t mean “darnit, I shouldn’t have eaten that” depressed; I mean I actually feel actutely depressed), extremely lethargic, and generally awful. It’s really an amazing reaction, and one that truly happens every time I eat starchy carbs.
I just realized: that hot crusty bread, much as I love it, is actually NOT worth it!
The timing of this post is amazing. If you check my blog, you’ll read how I crashed and burned this weekend. The culprit? Birthday cake. I knew the mental disappointment of “falling off the wagon” was going to come, but I was surprised how physically crappy I felt an hour later.
Succumbed to birthday cake (only a half slice) this past weekend after eating clean for about a month. After about 2-3 hours, I felt nauseas and couldn’t fall asleep. To top it off, I had to get up twice during the night in order to use the facilities, heh. It was pretty amazing what a number that cake did on my body. Worst part is, the cake didn’t even taste that great! Lesson learned
I’m curious… how does the picture/cycle change if you are insulin resistant?
hey, mark…this post is awesome, but I have a question. What about honey? does it have these effects on your body? I know when I was battling Candida Albicans it was a no-no, but now I find that a small spoonful with some cinnamon seems to be very good for calming my tortured tummy. I have a lot of food allergies and IBS as a result of the yeast, which is why eating primal is perfect for me!But honey seems to help. That’s about the only time I eat it though,so am I missing the sugar-rushed feeling because I already feel bad, or is honey complex enough not to do this?
hedda, I’ve also wondered about honey. It’s just as much sugar as another source, but raw honey is also naturally occurring instead of having to be processed to be that sweet. I’m curious to research whether there’s some protective factor in honey that makes it slightly better to ingest.
As to cake, I will indulge now and then in very good desserts. I’ll even make them sometimes. But I eat little enough sugar that I instinctively don’t want to eat too much, and feel pretty bad when I do eat it. It’s a nice now-and-then part of life, and one for which I accept the consequences of occasional eating. But even though I’ve never been much of a sugar-eater, it’s getting even less frequent.
Food Is Love
Sugar is an immune system killer over a period of time!
Hi Mark (and Worker Bee),
I have really enjoyed this post as well as your recent overview of the Primal Blueprint. I look forward to your book!
I have a question to ask. What exactly is considered a Carb Binge? Is it possible to set some sort of concrete ballpark figure like ‘100gms or more of simple sugar at a sitting is a considered a binge’?
Also, I have been implementing your recommendation to me of cutting out simple sugars, eating fewer fruits (and even then I stick to berries by-and-large), doing sprint intervals, and lifting heavier weights using more compound motions (I don’t have easy access to a gym anymore, but I have a pull-up bar and other props and I do the best I can to lift my own bodyweight in different ways. My workouts are modelled on the crossfit style, their site is pretty amazing!). This was toward getting a more defined musculature. It has been two weeks now, and there has been no discernible difference. But I will keep you posted on it though.
However, I occasionally (like a couple of times in these two weeks) find myself succumbing to the temptation of a bite or three of hot bread at restaurant. How badly will this sort of thing undermine my above mentioned regime? The truth is that mustering the discipline to cut out this indulgence is an effort which a part of me simply does not want to make! But if it is really detrimental, then I am willing to buckle down and tighten up on this front.
Thanks once more for all the wonderful information that you share with us.
Apurva
Hedda and Apurva,
A little honey or bread here and there won’t derail you. Both become glucose very quickly, so it’s the amount that counts. What constitutes a “carb binge”? Depends. It might be 100 grams for one person and only 40 for another (think: can of Coke).
Beck, the picture for an insulin-resistant person is that they don’t notice the jitters, sweats, nausea or dizziness as much, since they are “used to it” all the time. It’s more dangerous because the sugar lingers longer in the bloodstream (or becomes fat more easily)…but it’s not as noticeable to them as to someone who has been eating clean for a while.
Very good description of sugar shock. Sugar hang over is not fun.
I literally control the amount of cortisol that my body uses. Low cortisol symptoms set in quickly when I’ve eaten something that is causing stress on my body–and I have to stress dose. I can tell you that sugar/grain causes my body a lot of stress. It just isn’t worth it.
Eeesh! So I don’t think I’m insulin resistant…but I know I don’t experience the symptoms you menioned when I eat sweets like that. That’s bad! Suggestions? How do I fix this?
Thanks for the quick response Mark. I guess the simplest way is to avoid simple carbs altogether. Then one will not have to worry about questions like how much is too much, etc.
The simplest solutions always seem to stare us in the face, but I guess it takes a bit of courage to accept them. Hopefully this article and your response will give me the courage I need.
Thanks,
Apurva
Good article. I have felt better and look better since lowering the amount of carbohydrates. I have actually added some back into my diet because I was dragging.
Mark – Art De Vany stresses not eating after working out. What do you think?
For a different point of view — Check out this article on Running Times “The many proponents of diets like Atkins and South Beach would have the public believe that carbohydrates are some kind of poison. Don’t listen to them.”:
http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13397&PageNum=4
Great post!
Slightly humorous, yet informative. I definitely feel the effects when I indulge in a lot of sweets.
This is related to my blog post today. I give 11 strategies for not letting the frequent sweets at the office ruin your healthy diet. Also slightly humorous, but informative.
Thanks,
Jennifer
Ah it’s like you guys are psychic. I’m sidelined this week due to *ahem* excessive exercise (I know, I know, you totally called that one). My thyroid is depressed and so I’m on “active rest” for a while. Anyhow… I decided that now that I’m not doing the crazy cardio every day, it will be a good time to really kick my sugar habit. I did find that today – no exercise – I had very few cravings. And I felt more stable over all. No afternoon crash.
I don’t know that I can give up fruit though.
Thanks for the post! It’s just the kick in the pants I needed.
hi mark, great article. question. wouldn’t eating some kind of high quality protein and/or fat (almonds perhaps) offset the effects of the sugar to a certain degree?
Great post. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on Cyclic Ketogenic Diets, wherein one stays in ketosis for 4-5 days (and then “carb loads” for 2 days).
This approach was developed by Lyle McDonald in “The Ultimate Diet 2.0″ and I should note that it applies to bodybuilders and athletes *only*. The idea is that the glycogen depletion of weight training will send the sugar–>glycogen into muscles, sparing you the nasty effects of the carb crash, provided carbs are ingested at the right time and in the right amounts. I have noticed that post-workout is the only time I’m able to tolerate carbs well, so I usually place my “cheat” meals here, on the rare occasions I have them.
It’s not intended to be a permanent diet, but a cycle one can go on for several weeks to break a plateau of weight loss or muscle gain. In theory, this could be accomplished with starchy/sugary paleo foods such as as bananas, pumpkin, squash, and even gluten-free grains such as quinoa. Banana starch will convert mostly to sucrose, IIRC, which will go straight to muscles rather than being processed by the liver like fructose, which makes it one of the few viable fruits for this approach.
The proposed carb load (1000g+) makes me shudder just thinking about it, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
My question is kinda the same as Justin’s. Sometimes you can’t avoid the slice of cake, so what can you do to mitigate the effects? Eat a handful of almonds? Would a couple of laps around the block flush the glucose?
All I know is that adding FAT to CARBS is a recipe for disaster and weight gain. Carbs should be rarely, if at all, eaten and should be isolated from fat. Read “Primal Body – Primal Mind” by Nora Gedgaudas.
Keenan – The CKD actually goes back to Body Opus….and it’s not pleasant to go through. Unless you have really good insulin sensitivity, you would be better off with smaller carb timing pwo instead of a carb bomb over the weekend (which just may pack back on fat).
Mike,
Yes, you’re absolutely right about it going back further than McDonald. I agree with the super-carb load being a bad idea. I think there is some value in being a little less strict on the weekends, say, having a couple of beers with friends.
The CKD really seems to be a planned, more extreme version of the variation and feast and famine stressed by Art DeVany and others, including the IF protocol.
Thanks for the feedback, and you should know that I frequent your site, too, and always look forward to your posts. Keep ‘em coming!
Phillip,
I’m OK with not eating after a workout for the very reasons cited by the RT article you reference! Controlling certain gene expression pathways. But you can’t do that and run long every day. If you’ve hung out here a while you know that I do not recommend long distance running as a way to achieve health or longevity. If you DO decide to run, more power to you, but you need to appreciate the costs…including a near necessity to increase carb intake. OTOH, if you limit all your workouts to under an hour, you can not only survive, but thrive on a low carb program. So I choose not to exceed long workouts (unless I am hiking like I am right now in Aspen) unless those workouts are very low level aerobic. Remember: humans can live without carbohydrates (the body makes 200 grams a day from fat and protein).
Justin and Lex,
Adding protein to a high carb meal might lower the GI, but doesn’t change the overall glycemic load, so the effect might be spread out over more time…but still less desirable. You could try to go for a jog right afterwards to burn the glucose, but most people who just ate cake or any high carb meal find themselves too lethargic to rally. Like we said, it won’t kill you once, but as a lifestyle it will.
Keenan,
Like Mike OD says, it’s probably better to tailor carb intake to workouts. Remember that Lyle et al are talking to a BB audience about increasing mass while we here are talking about staying lean all the time, balanced strength, power-to-weight ratios, and longevity. As with the runner’s carb-loading, it’s an unnatural process designed to allow you to perform an unnatural feat (volumize muscle which will be expensive to maintain). That’s OK when you are competing, as long as you recognize the compromises. If you are not competing, I ask only one question: what is your goal? Even if it’s to be “huge” and not compete, MDA would not be a good source of info. (I know in your case it’s not to be huge, but to be healthy, lean, ripped, energetic, etc). I see no good to come from a 600-1000 gram bomb. I do see some benefit to an occasional 250-400 gram “upregulation” day with yams, sweet spuds, etc.
Mark,
Thanks for the info. Of course, you know my goals, and your last answer was exactly what I was looking for: “I see no good to come from a 600-1000 gram bomb. I do see some benefit to an occasional 250-400 gram “upregulation” day with yams, sweet spuds, etc”. I agree completely.
I have no interest in loading myself up with 1000g of carbs. I don’t even know where I would *find* 1000g of carbs! I was asking because the CKD is essentially a low-carb diet with planned binges, so the outcomes should be similar. Bodybuilders are always getting sick, so I’m not particularly surprised to see that, though over training and other issues probably contribute as well.
I definitely agree and think that the effect of a smaller, varying amount of “paleo carbs” from time to time (randomness!) would be much more healthful.
Thanks Mark!
OMG, I cannot believe what you just described about sugar crashes! I’ve been extremely hormonal this week, did not go to excercise class one time this and ate like crap most days but have been on “clean” eating for many months now. I cannot believe how nasty I feel now, and to top it off I feel like I have that cold/sinus starting;( I’m amazed at how food effects us.
I was just thinking about this. I’ve been trying to lead an EF lifestyle for the past 5 months or so and have seen incredible results. But I still have the mentality that I should reward my successes with some of the food I used to eat. You can’t really get a decent burger here in Japan, but you can get all the wonderful starchy rice and imported chocolate you want. So on Saturday or Sunday I’ll binge on sushi and top it off with a chocolate bar (or two, yikes).
It’s funny when I think about it. Sushi is considered to be a healthy food. But from reading about the paleo diet and EF, I understand why it isn’t. After last weekend’s binge I asked myself, “Do you feel good? Was it worth it? Has this ever made you feel good afterward?” The answer of course is “no.” I’ll try hard to remember that feeling this weekend, and think of some other way to reward myself.
LOL Evan,
That’s exactly right. I don’t even feel that great afterwards!
I will try and remember this each time I decide to “reward” myself. Isnt it just silly that somehow we learnt that food should be a “reward”?
I really love this website!
However, I can´t avoid to feel that this last article by Mark Sisson was very much an exagerration of how we respond to eating something as common as a piece of cake..
I´m a pro triathlete and I guess that a lot of readers of this site are also highly actice; daily or even twice daily. For all of us that work out a lot have an almost constant deficit of muscle glycogen and we could in fact, in my view and experience, almost benefit from an occasional “treat” like candy, a coke or some birthday cake.
I eat very very healthy (I even wrote a cookbook!)and in pretty good accordance to the Primal Blueprint; i e tons if good fats, lots of meats and fish and very few grains.
So, I feel good almost all the time. And whenever I eat some sweets, breads, pastries or cake, I go from feeling good to feeling great (pleasurehormones..) and than back to feeling good, without any of these terrible “withdrawalsymptoms”.
Jonas,
Good to hear from you. I see you are still “king of the ultras” (For the rest of you, Jonas is a top endurance athlete and winner of many long-distance events. We have been in touch often over the years.)
As you might predict I would say, you are an unusual beast. Your daily energy demands are such that your muscles will gladly sop up any added sugars regardless of how simple or complex. And regardless of how adept at fat-burning you’ve become. It doesn’t surprise me that you are unfazed by a brief sugar surge.
My readers here at MDA most likely assume that I am describing these binge effects on someone who doesn’t train more than 30 minutes or an hour a day and doesn’t get more than 100-150 grams of carbs on an average day. As you can see, many of them acknowledge the negative aspects of such an indulgence.
At some point, I do need to address the specific requirements of a competitve athlete (vis a vis whether it’s even possible to stay “primal”), since I still get inundated with questions about the ideal diet for a 20-hour training week – and even though I am on record as believing such training to be counter-productive to good health. Jonas, maybe you could send me some thoughts on that.
Thanks for writing. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the reply Mark!
I don´t know about “king of ultras”… I just happened to win Ultraman Worlds twice but I´m really more geared to half-IM´s and ITU Long Distance. I guess that´s still ultras in your book though…
I´m 35 now and on my 18th year as a triathlete (12 as a pro) and going on 25 years of elite training (competetive swimming growing up)and I´m still actually still developing my top aerobic speed. I went 1.06.47 for the 20 k run when finishing 2nd at the ITU European Champs last year and I did an 8.20 IM as well.
-On training; I usually work out between 2 and 5 hours per day with spikes of 8 hrs, running is my bread and butter and I run almost daily or even twice daily on trails and in the forest. I attribute my lack of injuries and sustained running performances to my runningprogram.
I´ve never been a mile- or timemaniac training for the journal but rather striving for a purpose with all workouts. I avoid the “in-between-training” i e semi-long and semi-hard. I rather concentrate on doing two or three days back to back with over-distance but with a moderate speed and effort and than doing one or two days with hourlong workouts in every workout on aerobic threshold and race specific.
I don´t do a lot of weights as I feel they stiffen me up and actually restrict my other training. What´s the use of a set of lunges if they make the legs so sore I can´t run my two hours in the forest the following day.
I do follow a pprogram of functional or correctional strength very similar to Egosque with the purpose to align posture etc..
Bottomline, I don´t feel strength is my limiter as an athlete. Since I do a lot of hilly forestrunning, powergears on the bike as well as a balanced swimprogram with paddles, sprints etc I feel I get the sportsspecific strength needed. Maybe when I hit 40:)
-On fatburning and endurancetraining:
I´m acutely aware that hard endurancetraining puts an enormous stress on the body and the demands of the carbintake.
However; with a lot of the testing I´ve done in the laboratory suggest that for an absolute majority of my training I´m hitting very low RQ-numbers (RQ-respiratory quote; an indication of the fuel the body burns) and that I need to go pretty damn hard for my body to hit 1.0 and 100% carbo burning.
Hence, I can get by on a modified primal diet with slightly more carbs to accomodate my output.
Also, simple sugars during exercise, four or five hours in have a positive effect on me. I prefer to drink Coke to end my long rides and I can´t see any insulin respons at that time, rather a boost for the fatburning and a mental pick-me-up.
I might add that I´ve run a 2.44 IM-marathon strictly on Coke feeling peachy all the way to the finish..
I base a lot of my diet on veggies, fats, meats, fish, eggs and berries. I also eat a lot of quinoa. My post-run breakfast today was a bowl of quinoa with fresh strawberries, blueberries, almonds and soymilk.
-On sugarrush
Like I said in my last post; when eating cake, cookies or candy I go from good to great back to good. That´s the case if I eat my regular healthy meals and treat myself to these snacks in-between meals.
I do feel sluggish, fat and bloated if I get out of sync and altering my normal diet and having a huge bowl of pasta for dinner or a lot of white bread and cereal for breakfast… I don´t crash but I feel bloated, and increasingly craving more bread. White flour is the real culprit for me…
Also on cakes etc. Seeing American Supermarket cakes I can see they are pretty bad and often factory-made.
When I eat cakes and pastries they are made in a bakery from real ingredients; butter, sugar, custard, eggs, flour, fruits, chocolate etc. Sure, bad stuff but far better that transfats and preservatives that are prevalent in anything made by a factory..
-On triathlon and health
The racing may be over-kill but the lifestyle is good if one can get over the obsessive-compulsive behavior that make up the psyche of most great athletes.
I have a ot of friends in their 40´s and 50´s that train very consistent and compared to the general population they are far and away better off, on all levels of life. They seem to adhere to the similar philosophy as I do; take time off in the winter, crosstrain even beyond triathlon, don´t race to much, don´t stress, eat well and enjoy the lifestyle!
Obviously we all know of examples where this endurancelifestyle has been counterproductive and led to ill health which goes to show that it´n not about choosing an end of either side of the stick but to find a healthy medium.
In general though; overdoing will be far healthier than underdoing. No rest can heal the body from a passive lifestyle.
-On food
A lot of endurance athletes get stuck in what I call “gel-hell” That is failing to eat real foods and instead succumbing to a diet of bars, meal replacement products, sportsdrinks, gels or just eating breads and cereals and whatever is easy and/or fast.
You do that for 200 days per year and I can see real healthproblems develop in 10 years. No matter the size or strength of the engine. Striving for fitness has overruled the need for health
-On being Swedish
You know, the Swedes invented carbo-loading! That´s why we still have world class xc-skiers who base their diets on bread, grain, cerals and carbs in general. That´s also the reason they have huge engines but still catch colds every month. Swedish skiers are famous for their frequent colds and I´ve talked a lot about the need for an athletes health to match their fitness but they are stuck in the 1960´s…
@Jonas and @Mark,
This is exactly the kind of information I’ve been looking for! But like a junk food addict, now I want more
Hopefully I can repair enough damage from my long term pre-primal inflammatory junk carb diet to line up with King Colting at a Tri some day.
You guys are my heros! The best of the best.
Jonas,
I can relate to your stories because I went almost ten years having a half-gallon of ice-cream every night (and a loaf of bread and a bowl of cereal every day among other things). Because I was training and racing hard, I didn’t notice it outright affecting my performance. But I knew it was doing damage long term.
I applaud your recognition that your carbs need to come mostly from healthier sources. That will, as you state, keep your immune system a little better tuned and reduce some of the AGEs that every endurance athlete experiences.
I see that your training also tries to reflect some sanity in the amount of intensity and overall load. (and I know you take the World’s Highest Potency AntiOxidant formula
)But you are still doing way more than we were designed to do. I totally understand that when you are one of the fittest athletes on the planet, you can’t just stop simply because you fear for your long term health, so I’m glad you have chosen to take the most “Primal” approach possible under the circumstances. It gives me some food for thought when I respond to all those wannabe Primal athletes out there.
Good luck with all the races this year.
I wish more health blogs were like yours! Your blog is proof that one can provide facts, objectivity, and education without taking sides and without being obnoxious and ignorant toward fat people. Those who claim to be giving “touch love” have a pattern of never researching medical studies outside their own comfort zone. They pretend to be curious, but it is actually what they lack: curiosity.
I am fat. My ears are wide open. I am interested in what my doctors and educated people like you have to say.
Thank you for a beautifully written entry. I find your blog a must-read for those whom are health conscious – fat or not.
It’s funny that you post this, because I feel absolutely no effect. Caffeine I feel, sugar/carbs I don’t (I’m fit, active and healthy – by no means a couch potato).
My younger brother on the other hand does: Show him a slice of bread and he’ll fall asleep for an hour, it’s really quite amazing.
Poor guy, can’t enjoy some quality cake…
I am insulin resistant and do feel some effects from sugar. But let me tell you that when I started a healthy eating journey this past January, I was eating zero simple sugars and walking and running every single day. I ended up sicker than I had ever been in my life. I got bronchitis which I never had before and I got every single cold and flu bug that anyone had. I could not understand why when I ate so well that I was so sick. I’ve since fallen off the wagon and have gone back to eating whatever I want and other than gaining the weight back and feeling a little sluggish, I have not been sick since I stopped. I would love to know why!?!!?!?!??!
Jennifer, how much running were you doing? When you cut carbs dramatically all at once and still stick to a routine of “chronic cardio” you overwhelm your immune system. Adaptation to a lower carb lifestyle takes a few weeks. Trying to hammer carb-fueled workouts during that time could cause an immune-dampening effect.
I don’t know about calling glucose “toxic” as sugar is our body’s (and brain’s for that matter) preferred source of fuel. Though the effects of insulin on large amounts of glucose is true. Well put.
Your brain prefers, and runs more efficiently, on ketones, not glucose.
I never noticed the RACING heartbeat until I went primal. Now whenever I give in to temptation and carb binge I really feel my heart pounding. I don’t eat until I’m full, I eat until I’m stuffed. I slip into a “food coma” and usually have to take a nap. All of these things were probably routinely happening to me on the standard American diet, but I just didn’t notice. I thought it was “normal”. Once you clean up and go primal, when you do carb binge, you REALLY notice the negative effects because of the stark difference to how GOOD you feel eating primal. The feeling crappy is is actually a good thing. I notice I carb-binged a lot more in the beginning. I hardly ever do it now because I KNOW how MISERABLE I’ll feel. A couple binges will train you like Pavlov’s dog NOT to do it anymore.
The one thing I think you left out is ravenous appetite for 1-2 DAYS after a big carb binge. Even when I go back to 100% primal, if the carb binge was really big my appetite is through the roof for a day or more.
Same for me. If I carb binge I find myself feeling hungry at all times. Even when I’m somewhat full from my primal meal, I still feel as if I need a sugar/grain fix to fully satisfy me. Of course, I do not fall into temptation every time, but for the next few days (after a carb binge) I struggle to stay on track. But its the struggle that makes you stronger and really makes you realize how much damage you are doing to your body when you carb binge.
Same for me! it takes me a whole week to get my apetite back to normal.
I must say that IF does seem to help get things back to normal somehow.
So what happens when you do a primal binge? Its definitely not as bad as a carb binge, but is it bad to really stuff yourself with so much primal food in one sitting? I ate a hell lot of calories in one day but it was mostly primal foods….
This is spot on. I feel a sore throat coming on as I type. Pierogies, mashed potatoes, and cookies, oh my!
Can this happen if you are on a strict diet of no grains, dairy, sugar, etc., (primal) but then eat a lot of fruit?
Succumbed to bread and pie this Christmas. One thing I noticed is that it made me TIRED. I mean dead tired. At 3 pm. Never again.
i don’t know what everyone is talking about…..i can kill a box of oreos and sleep like a baby for the next 3 hours. wake up feeling sick and swear not to ever do that again(for at least 2 weeks). I gots to get crazy every now and then(for my sanity).
Mark,
You forgot to mention that eating sugar depresses testosterone levels for a number of hours, which is detrimental for maintaining muscle and bone structure.
Bodyfat (thats what you will get when you eat sugar) changes testosterone into oestrogen. An obese male produces more oestrogen than a regular woman! No wonder they start growing breasts.
Nice posting!
Hi Mark,
This website has been very enlightening, but I still have a couple of questions. Usually I eat until I stop and my eating schedule varies dramatically depending on how much I eat, from 3 hour grazings to 24 hour fasts due to one excessive meal. However, I realised that while eating sugary things does make my heart speed up, it also makes me quite happy. I’m 24 and under 5′ (~100lbs); I don’t get sugar crashes and I usually eat under 70g carbs per day or less. Is it too much of a carb allowance? Should I give up the cheesecake/ice-cream/cookies etc? Or is it all right to do a weekly indulgence without causing my body to convert everything I eat to fat…
So I need some desperate help. I’ve been doing Paleo for over a month and was doing quite well actually and seeing good result. But, recently things have seen better days. I’m a college student so things are always tight, and I’m a woman, so sweets are my fall back on a tough day. Like today. Where (knowing better and continuing to indulge) I made dinner with ice cream, brownies, and a all natural root beer. Disgusting right? I know, but I keep having these super cravings for something sweet. I try to subdue them with almond/sunflower seed butter but then I can’t stop myself for that either. What is going on here? Any help!!!! Lol, to much work to let it slip away now.
(I’m going to be feeling all this pain tomorrow I already know it…sigh)
I once went an entire month with eating nothing else but macaroni and cheese. Drinking water. I became sick and laid in bed for another month. I have never physically felt normal again. What has happened and what would you do. This has been 30 years of feeling “under the weather”.
Sometimes I overeat nuts/ seeds and get similar effects, dried fruit/ bananas give me some bad vibes, but I overate sesame seeds this morning (bad bulimia problems) and feel some of these effects.
If I eat refined sugar, I regret it within seconds, so there’s no chance of me eating more, but for me, the carb-like non-carb foods (nuts, seeds) are the real problem.
I LOVE that you folks are so honest.
I too, have a binge purge thing going on.
i can NOT eat bread, dairy, grainy things, but binge on fruit, berries, nuts, shoot,,,fish, meat. water.
anything to put in my mouth!! i HATE it-gum, lettuce for crying out loud.
THEN, I run, and run and run or yoga, or lift or P90X. till my head clears…
But on the upshot, the Paleo diet, binging on that stuff, seems less harmful than sweets, sugary stuff. But the fruit thing. i TRY to do the berries, and less sugary ones. no melons, only one banana after a long hard run…and very unripe plums!
veggies up the wazoo. but still the dumb binge purge thing. can happen on whatever diet you choose!
If i eat cake, cookie, i find that i have to have ten more like NOW. I know it is the sugar.
and then, alas, that lovely crash, and feeling depressed. so not worth it.
but honey does NOT do this to me:) I only have it in small amounts, but I feel good, fine afterwards.
I love this site, and you folks have great insight and info. I “eat it up” haha
For about 2 months I was going strong with the PB lifestyle. But the last couple of weeks I have found myself going from 90/10 to 60/40 and now I feel the same withdrawal affects that I experienced the first couple of weeks switching to the PB. I feel lazy and constantly craving more sugar and, within a week, I have seen my results slowly dissipate. My 6pack abs quickly turned into a flat stomach… It is astonishing what happens to your body if you fall off the wagon slightly. Its time to go back to my PB roots and stick with it! No Excuses!
I’m 4 days into the Primal diet. I haven’t cheated at all. I used to LOVE my sweets and my carbs. But I have given it up. Now I’m very tired and constantly thinking of food (I even dreamed of cupcakes last night). My brother (who is basically Grok) says this will wear off. Errr, sure hope so.
Mark, I do realise that a good story sells better than one that contains all the facts, but sometimes these “primal” stories contain so much leaving out the facts that it´s embarrassing. Why don´t you include the fact that de novo lipogenesis isn´t so easy to achieve and requires a LOT more carb load than what you mention in your stories, and also that the body ramps up carb oxidation along with overconsumption. Etc. Etc.
@juhani, if you’re going to dispute my facts, it’s best you provide back-up of your own “facts”. I stand by mine here.
Mark, regarding de novo lipogenesis (your comment on “excess (carbs) goes into fat cells, where it is stored as fat”) I might refer you to comment on this full text by Jequier & Tappy, in which the authors mention:
“Although it is commonly believed that hepatic de novo lipogenesis is a mechanism by which fat accumulation occurs in humans, recent evidence indicates that only a few percent of glucose carbon atoms are converted into fatty acids and leave the liver as very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) triglycerides. The de novo lipogenic response to a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet is stimulated as compared with a high-fat diet but the total amount of de novo fatty acids synthesized remains low and does not exceed 12 g/day. Furthermore, during carbohydrate overfeeding, the hepatic de novo lipogenesis was found not to exceed 5-10 g fatty acids synthesized per day.”
“Net lipogenesis, corresponding to accretion of lipid stores from carbohydrate, can be documented by the presence of respiratory quotients higher than 1.0. Such a net lipogenesis has been observed in humans only during periods of forced massive overfeeding, a condition which does not occur in everyday life.”
http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/79/2/451
…and we have an illustration as well on how the body ramps up carb oxidation into energy after an overfeeding under hypercaloric conditions – while on the contrary most if not all ingested fat is stored into fat desposits without added oxidation under the same conditions:
http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/79/2/451/F2
While reading your article above, a less informed reader may start to believe that all excess carbs are indeed stored as fat, which is simply not the case. This leads me to believe you may be “simplifying” other facts to your advantage as well, to make your “story” more interesting to the reader.
@juhani, appreciate the detail. The article you cite is a review piece over 60 pages long, written eleven years ago. Much has changed since then. The authors seem to restate CW “assumptions” that are now being seriously questioned by many, including me. I stand by my post above, as do thousands of MDA readers who have altered the composition of their diets (ie lowered carbs) and have lost significant body fat…or who have failed to gain fat even in the face of increased fat intake and no reduction in overall calories.
There´s a lot of evidence as to why carbs would not compromise a weight loss diet. Most if not all long-term (over 6-> 12 month, at least semi-controlled) dietary interventions show no significant difference in body fat reduction between low-carb and low-fat.
I´m sure you´re familiar with the studies.
Carbohydrates are also the most efficient ghrelin suppressant. Your readers who have lost body fat by removing carbohydrates from their diet have most likely also cut calories while doing so.
Could you point me to a study / review that challenges what I quoted above regarding higher oxidation of carbs after overfeeding?
Oh man, this article makes me want to sing “killing me softly with his words, killing me softly, with his song.”
I’ve been eating primal for a while now. I slipped last week. Not quite sure what the heck I was thinking but yes, I ate pasta, bread at my mother in law, had a cappuccino, had way too much fruit and have been paying big time for it.
I can’t sleep at night. Keep on waking up. Am sluggish as heck (no surprise there), feel depressed (and I mean depressed), bloated and the likes…
Ugh…
I have noticed that I am also sensitive to dry fruits and bananas. I made these cookies with dates, dried apples, almond flour and dried coconut and guess what? I crashed just as badly as I would had, had i eaten a piece of cake. Well, with the exception that I did not get a bloated stomach.
Hmm maybe I just ate too many cookies… they may be primal but too much is too much.