Sugar - too sweet for my heart?

milliondays

My usual binges are fat + sugar + carbs. The other night, I went a different route : sugar + carbs. Well, I got heart palpitations just like I get from my usual binges (a few times a month, I'm afraid). I thought it was just the fat that made my heart speed up like a race car, but it looks like sugar could have the same effect. Has that happened to anyone? Am I normal? Will I be stuck in Splenda lane if I don't want my heart to go crazy on me?

It really is just a question - I don't think Friday night was my last binge for the rest of my life, unless I just turned into someone else.

Many thanks!

Graelwyn75

Happens to me also with my worst binges, which usually consisted of ice cream, chocolate, cookies, doughnuts etc etc.
It can be very unnerving and only goes away when I get in a good, long walk or some form of intense activity to burn off some of that sugar.

ryanwood935

Eating a lot of quickly digested carbs at once can cause a spike in your insulin levels. This can elevate your heart rate, leading to the feelings you had. A lot of bodybuilders slam 30+ grams of sugar post workout just to get this spike. Happens to everyone with enough sugar and no other nutritional buffer. If you feel it is quite severe you should consider visiting a doctor, as complications with sugar and insulin can be signs of diabetes.Or so my inadequate bank of knowledge would have me believe

Liftng4Lis

For me, its the sugar

rosebette

i've never had this effect after sugar, but I have had it after a fatty or heavy meal. Some sources show that having a heavy meal puts stress on the heart. http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/what-causes-heart-palpitations.

It also depends what you mean by "binge." Did you just eat an extra dessert or a couple of candy bars, or did you really consume a lot of food at once? Typically, I don't eat huge meals, but the worst case of chest pain/heart palpitations I ever had was after a Thanksgiving dinner -- so all three elements combined -- high calorie, carbs, fat, and sugar.

milliondays

rosebette No, the meal itsel was so within the limits I have chosen for myself. It's the after-the-meal stuff... Maybe I should experiment with sugar - I mean a bag of sugar. Put 40 tablespoons of sugar in water, drink it and see what happens. Just worried it would be a total waste of a binge, though.

"A lot of bodybuilders slam 30+ grams of sugar post workout just to get this spike." posted by ryanwood935. I suppose they are after a spike of energy, in the same way I drink caffeine before a heavier workout?

Graelwyn75 - great binges - ice cream, chocolate, cookies, doughnuts - but that's full of fat. I really thought the fat was the culprit.
Now I have to worry about fat AND sugar? There in no fairness in this world.

ryanwood935

rosebette No, the meal itsel was so within the limits I have chosen for myself. It's the after-the-meal stuff... Maybe I should experiment with sugar - I mean a bag of sugar. Put 40 tablespoons of sugar in water, drink it and see what happens. Just worried it would be a total waste of a binge, though.

"A lot of bodybuilders slam 30+ grams of sugar post workout just to get this spike." posted by ryanwood935. I suppose they are after a spike of energy, in the same way I drink caffeine before a heavier workout?

Graelwyn75 - great binges - ice cream, chocolate, cookies, doughnuts - but that's full of fat. I really thought the fat was the culprit.
Now I have to worry about fat AND sugar? There in no fairness in this world.

The idea behind the insulin spike is that it rushes glycogen to the muscles after a workout. In theory, a muscle with more fuel (glycogen) will repair and grow faster. The problem with you or I after a binge is that the muscles (and body in general) already has the glycogen stores it needs, so this insulin spike will work to store the sugar in any way that it can, which generally ends up being fat.

All of those foods you mentioned, ice cream, chocolate, cookies, doughnuts....all of them are full of sugars. They just happen to have fat as well. A reasonable amount of quality fats is actually very healthy in your diet. The mechanism that would cause fat to also cause heart palpitations is unfamiliar to me, unfortunately someone more educated than I would have to field that question. I imagine it would be a very different reason than the insulin spike I mentioned.

Caffeine on the other hand is really just a temporary boost of energy. It gives you the 'oompf' you need to put in those extra reps or minutes at the gym.