So we had lunch catered by Boston Market during our lunch meeting at work today and I noticed something weird. While I was the one who picked Boston Market, and I ordered mostly healthy items, I admit I still ate more than I should have of the unhealthy items (corn bread ).

Here is the weird thing. I notice while I was eating that the food was pretty salty (standard for restaurant food, but we basically eat no salt at home so I'm sensitive to it). After the main meal I ate a chocolate chip cookie. That's also not the weird thing. The weird thing is that now, 45 minutes after finishing the meal, I feel like my heart is beating funny, either like it's too fast or too strong. I've noticed this a couple other times after our lunch meetings at work, particularly after eating chocolate chip cookies.

Does anyone else have this? Is all that fat, sugar, and salt giving me heart palpitations? (I guess my body is telling me not to eat too much junk?) Or is there enough caffeine in the chocolate in those cookies to do it? I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine, a cup of coffee will make me feel awful the rest of the day.

For me it's the sugar. I get some severe reactive hypoglycemia, meaning I eat sugar, crash, and get shaky/sweaty/pale/heart-racey. It's gross, and it's worse if I have sugar and alcohol (which I guess drops your blood sugar more).

I am ridiculously sugar sensitive now.

Well, it doesn't happen with just one cookie, but if I eat like 10 cookies, or just a bunch of any really sugary thing, I definitely notice my heart beating faster. There have been a few afternoons in the past few years where I was so tired that instead of heading to the gym after work, I went home to take a nap, with a detour to the store or kitchen for several servings of something sweet. When I lie down to take a nap, I can't sleep b/c my heart will be racing, despite genuinely needing the sleep.

I'm always cold but if I overeat I notice I get quite warm.

I get really bad sugar lows, which can be from a small amount (one cookie etc.). I get so tired when the low hits I can't function.

I've noticed and posted about this before, when I'm cutting calories and work out, I need to get food into me quickly afterwards. If I don't I get so hungry I feel faint and tired, and if it goes that far eating will not solve the problem, I have to wait until I "reset" the next day.

I also don't remember having these problems before I lost weight and cleaned up my diet, except for being cold.

I'm exactly like Amanda and Megan. I get it after sugar or really refined carbs, like white pasta. I break out in a cold sweat and feel shaky, weak, and tired. Sometimes all I want to do is go to sleep. It's what I call a carb coma.

Sometimes it depends on whether I eat a substantial amount of protein and fat along with the sugary/carby foods because those seem to moderate the effect. A pure blast of sugar is major trouble for me.

My guess wouldn't be caffeine because there can't be that much in the chocolate chips in a cookie. I think you're right about it probably being the combination of all the foods you usually don't eat and your body isn't used to.

It can really stink because sometimes even a planned treat can backfire! On the other hand, remembering how awful a lot of restaurant/junky/sugary food makes me feel can keep me away from it.

Happens to me, too. Often after eating something sugary, yes. Dark chocolate doesn't do it, but too much caffeine too fast or too much sugary candy or milk chocolate will do it in a minute. I can feel my heart beat so hard I'm surprised that people can't see it popping out like the cartoons. Oddly, baked goods don't typically have that impact for me.

Didn't have the problem before I lost weight, except during an unfortunate experiment with those Xenedrine diet pills.

Yup! I do get the sugar shakes, especially if I overdo cookies or candy. It's an easy lesson to learn, that's for sure.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It seems like such a weird reaction! I don't get shaky or tired, I just get this weird heartbeat. And you guys know I eat a lot of carbs, including lots of white rice and white pasta, but I never seem to have this reaction to things like that. It also doesn't seem to really happen with homemade goodies, or high quality stuff. But for some reason a chocolate chip cookie and a couple pieces of cornbread from Boston Market made my heart race. I'm still recovering, two hours later. (FWIW, I also ate green beans, potatoes, and chicken.)

I seem to recall this same thing happening last time I ate a chocolate chip cookie from Panera Bread.

I guess it's either some kind of blood sugar issue, or the fast food places are putting speed in their cookies.

Hummm, are you really sure it IS the cookies? You only had one right? Could it be all the MSG that is in the restaurant food, (Mono-sodium Glutamate...aka chemically enhanced salt?) I get the SAME feeling (The hard/loud/fast heartbeats) after I eat things like flavored chips or crackers...which have loads of MSG.

One day around Christmas after a cracker/dip binge I thought I was going to need a trip to the ER. After checking out labels I had eaten a ton of MSG. After awhile I felt better...but a few days later I stupidly did a repeat and the exact same thing happened. Hasn't happened since. Just a thought. With sugar, I get the shakes, (not heart palpitations) and the hard crash and I don't usually get the shakes until a few days later...during what I call "detox".

When you ate the cookie at Panera Bread, did you eat something else...like their soup or deli meats? (also full of MSG)

Lori, that's a really interesting theory! Something else to pay attention to (and another good reason to stay away from junky processed food!)

I often get heart weirdness after eating chocolate, but of course chocolate always has sugar and fat in it. I think it's the combination somehow. I'm sensitive to caffeine, but I don't get that from caffeine unless I have a LOT of it.

My guess would be it's mostly the high glycemic carbs, with a little kick from the chocolate.

Jay

Lori, that is an interesting theory. I checked the ingredients list on the Boston Market website, and while it doesn't specifically list MSG it does have things like "spices" on the ingredients list. When I had the Panera cookie, I had also had a sandwich and some salad.

It is just really weird because in general, other than caffeine, I'm not really sensitive to foods I eat. I don't often have sugar rushes or crashes (unless I ate a MASSIVE amount of sugar) or anything like that. I eat restaurant food once a week and usually have no problem. For some reason it seems like the heart palpitations always occur after restaurant chocolate chip cookies. Like with the Panera example, we get Panera pretty frequently for our lunch meetings, and I have only had an issue when I caved and ate a cookie.

I remember going to Panera once and later looking up the ingredients of what I had eaten (a greek salad, I believe). MSG!!! In a *salad.* Ughhh!

I have experienced the backfires too. You would think that I would learn a little faster. I can handle 1 or 2 cookies, but 10 (like I used to eat) would send me crashing.

LoriBell, I am pretty sensitive to MSG and have been known to develop migraines--usually after a restaurant experience. I tread lightly at Chinese buffets.

And Jessica, I suspect those Boston Market cornbreads are more "cake" than "corn". I haven't had one in a couple of years (we don't have one locally anymore), but I remember that DD and I couldn't get over how yummy they were.

How can you find out about MSG if it isn't required to be listed? This applies to other addiditives as well. Is there a site one can go to?

It happens to me too. My head gets very woozy also. Once I did a glucose fingerstick expecting it to be rocketship sky high, but, it was't.
Jessica, when I read the first post one of my thoughts was msg also. Often times it is labeled as "flavor enhancer".
In any case, when on plan, we all feel great!
Happy Sunday everyone.