After eating junky bad for you food - does anyone else's heart beat fast?? (not crazy fast but - my resting is about 70-80 and after i eat junk food it goes up to 100-110).

I've never noticed this before with me so maybe someone else will have an answer.

If the junk food has a lot of carbohydrate/sugar, then yes, it will increase your heart rate. If chocolate is involved, yes, it will increase your heart rate.

Jay

I've never paid attention, but I'll try to remember to check that the... uh, next time, don't know when that is. Does campus restaurant food count as junk food?

Kery, It's hard to know! I guess "junk food" would be foods with low nutrition, highly processed, lots of fats/carbs/sugar, and high in calories. So... some fast foods fit that category. French fries from BK or McD come to mind. Sugary foods like packaged baked goods at the checkout. You get the idea...

Jay

I used to find this, and it would often bother me. I could actually 'feel' my heart beating more after certain foods. I am happy to not have that happen anymore as I generally don't eat those types of foods. It would be interesting to see what it went up to now though, as my resting heart rate used to be around 60, and since I've lost weight it is in the low 40s, so maybe that would just make it seem normal. I have a LOT of trouble getting it to go really fast when I exercise (but I suppose it IS fast compared to my resting heart rate) and it comes down REALLY quickly, so I sometimes wonder whether I am still burning off many calories after a workout, as I've heard you do.

Hey Zed! If you have a low heart rate to begin with, I would guess you are burning as many calories as you need to with exercise, even if your heart rate seems low. But I am no expert!

Jay

Yes, I have noticed this after a sugar binge. That was one of my big motivators for getting this binge thing under control. I would lie in bed (night-time binger), my heart would race, I would sweat like stink all night, and just have the worst sleep ever.

I also notice this if I have more than a glass or 2 of wine, which is, metabolically, basically sugar. Fortunately for me, beer does not seem to produce the same effect.

The best answer I could find was in Dr. Ornish's book "Dr. Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease". In it, he explains that heart function is closely related to diet, and it doesn't take years for your heart to suffer a negative effect. He says that after a meal high in fat, sugar, and cholesterol, your body reacts immediately by releasing a hormone called thromboxane, which causes the arteries to constrict and the blood to actually clot or thicken. Result: your heart has to work harder (increased heart rate) to move your thicker blood around your body (increased blood pressure). He thinks that this explains the large number of cardiac patients who present to an ER after a high fat/high cholesterol/high sugar Thanksgiving meal!
Hope this helps!

Yikes, that's actually pretty scary, when you see it all factually explained in black and white like that! I'll just think of that physiological reaction the next time I'm having a weak sugar moment!

I remember watching a tv show on health, where they fed someone a typical fast-food/junky type meal, and (I still don't know how they did it) actually SHOWED the clumping blood cells and the constriction of the arteries under a microscope. Don't ask me how, but they did. Scared the pants off me, too.
Thankfully this physiological reaction is short term, but it sure adds up over time!!!!

ew.

that thought is enough to scare me off of it entirely!

gross!!