Drop Sugar, Gain Headaches?

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2017
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    CrepedCrusader wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    CrepedCrusader wrote: »
    I dropped granola bars, coffee-mate flavored creamer (I made it fit in my calories, but it's a chemical *kitten* storm that had to go), brown sugar in oatmeal, a glass of wine with dinner, etc. I may have been in calorie range but sugar was everywhere. Yesterday was 113 net carbs. The last 4 days I have hit my macros 50/30/20.
    How many calories have you been taking in the last four days?

    This is a good question.

    I honestly don't see how 113 net carbs could lead to a headache, as you are still getting plenty (and carbs get broken down by your body whether they start as sugar or starch).

    1200 calories at 50% carbs would be 150 carbs, so it sounds like 1200 or maybe a bit less, depending on fiber.

    Lot's of fiber in my diet. Basically, having a serving of veg or two every meal if I can manage. I'm new too the macros and net fiber so I hope I'm calculating everything right. And I have been eating between 1300 and 1500 (that's without subtracting exercise calories).

    So far no headache yet today, so fingers crossed they stay away for good.

    The 37 g I estimated for fiber is pretty consistent with a serving or two of vegetables per meal.

    At 50% carbs and 1500 calories 113 net carbs would be 75 g of fiber, which seems unlikely as a combination. You have the numbers, though, and I assume everything varies day to day. 1300-1500 is reasonable and I wouldn't think would be a problem.

    Glad the headache is gone -- I really don't think 113 net carbs should cause any such effect (mine are often around 100 g total (since I don't do net) and no headache). Could just be one of those things. I actually got these weird horrible headaches from weight training for a while, but luckily they stopped.
  • ekardoulias
    ekardoulias Posts: 17 Member
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    I completely cut out suger which means bye bye soft drinks and chocolates. I have been having only water and a fruit smoothie. The only side effect I have had since cutting out suger starting 2 weeks ago is pains in the calves for a few days. Feeling alot better too
  • hazcad
    hazcad Posts: 41 Member
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    It's a withdrawal symptom from the sugar, every addiction has a withdrawal this is just one from sugar and commonly caffeine but people don't realise it. It should pass after a while once your body has adjusted.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
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    Could it be dehydration from lowering carbs? Decreased sodium from eating less processed food could decrease water retention too?
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    hazcad wrote: »
    It's a withdrawal symptom from the sugar, every addiction has a withdrawal this is just one from sugar and commonly caffeine but people don't realise it. It should pass after a while once your body has adjusted.

    Physical sugar addiction is not a thing. I spontaneously go on and off sugar for weeks at a time because the foods I want change, and I have never experienced anything even remotely resembling a withdrawal. In fact I don't realize that I haven't had sugar for a while until one day I think "hmmm, it's been a while since I had sweets, why don't I get some?".
  • ShammersPink
    ShammersPink Posts: 215 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Dehydration would be my first thought, to be honest, because your calories and carbs don't sound too extreme, and you haven't cut out caffeine.

    Apart from the headache, how do you feel? Tired? Cold? Hungry? If you get those along with the headache, then you could just not be eating enough.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    ekardoulias wrote: »
    I completely cut out suger which means bye bye soft drinks and chocolates. I have been having only water and a fruit smoothie. The only side effect I have had since cutting out suger starting 2 weeks ago is pains in the calves for a few days. Feeling alot better too

    Well, presumably you are having other food too, right?

    Anyway, there is sugar in a fruit smoothie, quite a lot, often. (My smoothies are mostly veg and sometimes dairy, and they have sugar too.) Not saying there's no value in cutting down on added sugar or even cutting out foods that contain it (I think sugary soda is a great thing to cut out, personally, if the idea appeals to you), but that from a standpoint of your body reacting to no sugar, it wouldn't, it's still getting sugar.

    Like amusedmonkey, I go through phases where I eat no added sugar, or very little (no sweets or anything, and I never add sugar to stuff myself or buy a lot of savory products with it), and still get at least 30 g or so from veg, often more from fruit and dairy and sweet potatoes, etc. Anyway, I notice no difference.

    It's common to notice a difference if one goes low carb (really low, I mean).
    hazcad wrote: »
    It's a withdrawal symptom from the sugar, every addiction has a withdrawal this is just one from sugar and commonly caffeine but people don't realise it. It should pass after a while once your body has adjusted.

    No, it can't be withdrawal from sugar. Unless you go keto, your body is going to be running on glucose (you will even make some that you need when doing keto). Your body gets the glucose from sugar or starch, it doesn't care, starches get broken down to sugars and added sugars and intrinsic sugars aren't different in this respect. So it just doesn't seem to make any logical sense to have withdrawal symptoms from cutting back on added sugar or even cutting it out. Unless you are going low carb, your body shouldn't care.

    (I drop down to 100 g or so of carbs all the time. Am doing it now. No effect at all, except on my workouts sometimes unless I get adjusted/schedule my meals better. But even if one goes low enough to get low carb flu, that's not withdrawal.)
  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 514 Member
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    I've said before how I had a headache from cutting out sugar, now I don't eat it at all. The headache went away after a week when my body adjusted to being without it. That being said some confusion may lie because many people like myself ate tons of sugar, in things like candy, cookies and cake. Sugar from fruits, or the breakdown of carbs I still have but its different . I'm not so knowledgeable with diet but there is a difference between the two types of sugar and I think when many say they cut it out it the cookie, candy type.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Ming1951 wrote: »
    I've said before how I had a headache from cutting out sugar, now I don't eat it at all. The headache went away after a week when my body adjusted to being without it. That being said some confusion may lie because many people like myself ate tons of sugar, in things like candy, cookies and cake. Sugar from fruits, or the breakdown of carbs I still have but its different . I'm not so knowledgeable with diet but there is a difference between the two types of sugar and I think when many say they cut it out it the cookie, candy type.

    How is it different? The foods it is in are different, no question (although I wouldn't say oatmeal or rhubarb with some added sugar, both of which have fiber, are necessarily more like cake than a banana), but the sugar itself?

    Fruit has (in varying amounts, depending on the fruit) mostly fructose, glucose, and sucrose.

    Table sugar (like in cake and cookies) is sucrose.

    Sucrose itself is made of, yes, you guessed it! fructose and glucose (50/50).

    Your body easily breaks sucrose down to fructose and glucose.

    Your body also easily breaks starches down to sugar.
  • Libellue23
    Libellue23 Posts: 76 Member
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    People on low carb get this even after the start. Most times it is electrolyte imbalances, sodium is a big culprit. Eating low carb (150 carbs or less) is like being on diuretics, you need to up your electrolytes.
    Mine were fine for 2 months after the first week. Now the headaches have come back
  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 514 Member
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    This is how it was explained it to me.. http://www.cancercenter.com/discussions/blog/natural-vs-refined-sugars-whats-the-difference/
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Ming1951 wrote: »
    This is how it was explained it to me.. http://www.cancercenter.com/discussions/blog/natural-vs-refined-sugars-whats-the-difference/

    That's super oversimplified so not entirely correct. You can look up the facts I stated above (like that fruit does not only have fructose, but also glucose, sucrose, and other sugars in various amounts and that sucrose is just fructose + glucose). Even so, if you actually read that article closely, you'll see that it's not actually different sugars are different, but sugar from fruit and veg come with fiber and the fiber slows digestion.

    Why that's incomplete is, of course, sugar in milk doesn't come with fiber and can be digested quite quickly, and sugar added to a higher fiber food (like oats, rhubarb, even a tomato sauce with meat and lots of veg) will also be "processed" by your body more slowly. And, on the contrary, some fruits don't have that much fiber and will be digested quite quickly -- there is a reason why people eat bananas right before/after a race.

    Also, whether it matters if things are digested quickly is that it is being assumed (weirdly, IMO) that they are being eaten alone, and that for some people -- not all -- this makes them not filling. It's not really about health unless you end up overeating.

    IMO, a much bigger factor is that most added sugar people get is from hyperpalatable sweet foods that don't have much nutritional benefits but are delicious and not that filling, so easy to overeat. (I was not hungry after dinner yesterday -- took half my dinner home, in fact -- and yet when offered a bite of dessert by a friend who ordered it I enjoyed it and realized I easily could have eaten dessert because it tasted good and wasn't that filling and was a sufficiently different taste from dinner. Eh, but I just had a bite and we ended up with half the dessert left because she also exercised self control.)

    Anyway, I totally agree with a decision to cut down on added sugar if one eats a lot (although focusing on the specific items and not deciding that you can't add any to oats if you like it -- I don't, but I never added sugar to foods like that so need a hypothetical -- makes a lot more sense to me). I also think experimenting with no added sugar can be valuable -- I did it myself. What I object to, because it's just not true, is pretending like the sugar themselves are meaningfully different, and not what they come with (you know, the foods).

    To your body, and therefore, if we are talking about physical reaction, sugar is sugar (and sugar is a carb, basically), as anyone doing keto no doubt knows. Your body will easily treat any starch or sugar as sugar. Cutting carbs may have an effect, obviously, but not cutting added sugar while continuing to eat plenty of other sugars and carbs. Not physically. Mentally? Who knows.
  • marm1962
    marm1962 Posts: 950 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    hazcad wrote: »
    It's a withdrawal symptom from the sugar, every addiction has a withdrawal this is just one from sugar and commonly caffeine but people don't realise it. It should pass after a while once your body has adjusted.

    Physical sugar addiction is not a thing. I spontaneously go on and off sugar for weeks at a time because the foods I want change, and I have never experienced anything even remotely resembling a withdrawal. In fact I don't realize that I haven't had sugar for a while until one day I think "hmmm, it's been a while since I had sweets, why don't I get some?".

    Some people can do the same with caffeine and nicotine and never have a withdrawal symptom where others have major ones. Every BODY is different, foods and drugs effect different people in different ways.
  • RemoteOutpost
    RemoteOutpost Posts: 44 Member
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    Try adding sugar and see if the headaches stop.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Libellue23 wrote: »
    People on low carb get this even after the start. Most times it is electrolyte imbalances, sodium is a big culprit. Eating low carb (150 carbs or less) is like being on diuretics, you need to up your electrolytes.
    Mine were fine for 2 months after the first week. Now the headaches have come back

    Very true. When carbs are dropped insulin levels fall. When insulin falls, water and electrolytes are lost. Low electrolytes causes headaches, fatigue, brain fog, nausea, BM issues, muscle pain, and eventually muscle spasms once K and Mg are starting to get low too.

    To avoid the elctrolyte imbalance, supplement with 3000-5000 mg of sodium per day. That's 1-2+ tsp of table salt. You can also drink broth, take salt tablets, or just salt your water and chug it back.

    The headaches are fixable with sodium.

    RemoteOutpost wrote: »
    Try adding sugar and see if the headaches stop.

    Adding sugar would probably stop the headaches. Insulin will go up and you'll be back to retaining more water.

  • sgravesmfp
    sgravesmfp Posts: 4 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Agree with others it'll go away in a few weeks.. but. Try stevie in your coffee.. I've replaced my sugar with that delicious...
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Good you figured it out! That's so interesting, and yeah, you know what to avoid.
  • jen_092
    jen_092 Posts: 254 Member
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    Interesting thread! Glad you figured it out. As a migraine sufferer it has been so useful to log all my food and drink. I found a new trigger recently by doing this.

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