Can we get a hangover from food? YES we can!

We tend to associate hangovers with drinking too much alcohol – when we wake up with some version of not quite feeling ourselves. We may have more specific symptoms like a headache, brain fog, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting and general malaise – feeling out of sorts and below par. The word hangover can mean ‘something (custom, habit, feeling) that survives from what is past’ as well as the disagreeable physical effects from heavy consumption of alcohol or drugs. So in theory it could apply to the effects of food we have eaten in the last day or so that leave us feeling not so great.  

In recent years I have become aware that this hangover effect does not just belong to alcohol and drugs but actually does occur with food as well. Yes you hear correctly, I have experienced a hangover, in fact many hangovers, from food! What I mean is that what I ate yesterday, affects how I feel today, what I eat today affects how I feel tomorrow –  such that if I over-indulge, eat foods that are not right for me, eat a meal too late at night, then I will wake up feeling not quite myself, out of sorts – maybe heavy headed, tired, brain fog, bloated, thirsty and overall difficulty waking up and getting out of bed. Whereas if I eat light healthy food, without over indulging, and at a suitable time for digestion – I wake up refreshed, feeling clear and light headed, ready for the day.

Food affects our mood much more than I ever realised or imagined. It has been quite shocking to find how much impact it has. For example, if I eat certain carbs I will become sleepy, too much sugar and I become more easily irritated and fractious, too much salt and I get a headache and withdraw. After eating certain foods I will be more emotional or become easily upset – not just as a one off but this has been a pattern I have observed occurring consistently with certain foods. So whilst I might think I love certain foods my body is clearly telling me otherwise – the few moments of delicious taste in the mouth are offset by the longer lasting detrimental consequences of what I have consumed – to the point I have to ask is it really worth a few moments of pleasure in the mouth to then feel so awful for much longer thereafter!? Will I listen to the wisdom of my body or overrule it again and again?? And to be honest, I have a penchant for over-ruling it.  One part of me will say I love potato crisps – the crunch, the salt, the taste….mmmm …..and I can easily consume a family sized pack in no time at all. But my body tells another story the next morning….dry mouth, foggy head, bloated belly…..yet I can persist in repeating this despite the consequences….  

 

Of course I have come to realise that this is only part of the story – as my desire to eat certain foods is not just because of their taste but because I know they will knock me out, make me sleepy, numb or heavy, less focused, distracted, racy and a host of other not so great feelings – but why would I choose that, you may well ask??? I am effectively anaesthetising myself, numbing myself in order to not feel something – maybe a hurt, sadness, loneliness, a feeling of not good enough, a tension from the accumulated stresses and strains of the day – rather than feel any of that I can choose one of the best numbing devices and vices we have – food!

It is remarkable the games we play and the things we do in order to not feel. The ways are many and varied – even within food alone we can play all kinds of tricks on ourselves. Sometimes I choose to cut out a food that I feel is having detrimental effects – but it is amazing how I can find something else that is seemingly more healthy yet is actually having the same numbing effect energetically!  It is the temporary  numbing effect I am choosing over and over again – and to heal that I need to dig a bit deeper and be willing to feel whatever it is I am trying not to feel, whilst also realizing and knowing that I am not my emotions.

No matter what the issue is, be it sadness or frustration or other emotion, there is always a deeper truth that knows I am love and not the sadness or the frustration or whatever it is I happen to be feeling…. and am trying to not feel by numbing myself with food!  These emotions can be tricky because we get used to them, we can indulge in them, have a pity me party and want the world to take care of us – we play small, perhaps even feel we are a victim of life, where good things always seem to happen to other people but we get passed by? Sound familiar?

 

When it comes to food it’s as simple as ‘eat crap, feel crap’!  What we put into our bodies affects not just our weight, but our mood, our energetic state of being, our demeanour – its effects are wide ranging and far more than we realise. If we want to feel light, healthy, vibrant, vital, joyful, steady and consistent in our mood and way of being then a great way to start is to really take stock (pun intended) of our diet and what we are fueling our bodies with and to feel the impact the food we ingest has on our bodies.

The more we refine our diet, the easier it is to feel these effects – when I was heavy and used to eating everything and anything I denied that food had any of these effects, but as I became lighter, more aware, and dealt with the reasons for over-eating etc I was able to feel the effects different foods had more clearly. I had bludgeoned my natural sensitivity for so many years that it was easy to deny food could have such effects – refining my diet has allowed me to be more aware of my body’s natural sensitivity and to hear its messages.  So whilst in the past I would have dismissed all of this easily, as woo woo, nonsense, quackery etc I can no longer deny ( much as I try sometimes!) the messages my body gives me when I feed it too much food or food that is not truly healthy for it. Food, (perhaps not so) glorious food, nothing quite like it for changing our mood!