anxiety and some foods questions

[bryan kellogg]

Last night I had meat loaf for dinner about an hour or 2 after eating I noticed my anxiety symptoms were up did not sleep good do you think you could greasy meatloaf I have heard that's some foods are harder to digest and maybe the grease gave me indigestion which kept me awake all night .

P.s. one thing that would make this web site better is an instant messenger program to help out with support better that way we can talk to each other in real time I think that would help out with the anxiety that way people to get the support they need faster so we can help each other better

[jessed03]

Hey Bryan

There is an instant messenger-like feature on this forum. There's a chat feature, but people rarely go on it. If you ask somebody they usually will, and you can then instant message each other.

Onto the food question. Does food cause anxiety? 100%... For me food has caused me hell over my life. And not just in the obvious ways like salt causing high blood pressure. I've had nightmares with digestion, with blood sugar levels, with allergy. These are more medical things though. If you're having digestion problems, or any kind of skin complaint, itchiness, weezing, stomach aches etc, it could be useful to have an intolerance test done. If you find things are worse after eating certain types of food, then

In theroy, yes, meatloaf could have caused it. Have you tried it again, to see if the same thing happened? Had you ate regularly throughout the day? If you hadn't eaten much, and then you ate, it could have caused a blood sugar spike, which again gives anxiety symptoms.

Plus, digestion has an affect on the body. If you're still digesting food, you won't sleep as well. It could affect the skin, such as spots, it could also affect anxiety symptoms. Anything the body doesn't understand will make it anxious. It isn't rare for people to get panic attacks after taking a Benadryl, or Muli-Vitamin. Anything that stresses the body could also produce anxiety symptoms. People try exercise, or change their sleep patter, and anxiety can come. The tell-tale sign is usually that it is symptoms, with little mental anxiety. I.e. You may rapid heart rate, and racing thoughts, and feel off, yet mentally you still feel rather calm.

That's why many anxiety sufferers for a while, take on a very basic diet. Low in saturated fat, salt and sugar. Eating regularly. 3 meals of protein and carbohydrate, with a little healthy fat like olive oil or avocado or fish. 3 snacks too, of perhaps fruit and nut's/seeds. Or an apple with peanut butter or yoghurt. This keeps blood sugar stable, and theres little sugar/salt/spice/caffeine to overload the body.

If digestion you feel is an issue in your life, it can aggravate anxiety for sure. It's something that needs work on, there are ways to fix it. If greasy foods have that affect on you, again, it's like trial and error. Avoid what isn't working. To this day I don't eat sunflower seeds. I don't know why they make my anxiety bad, I'm not allergic or intolerant, I eat all other seed, yet this gives me anxiety symptoms. There's no fixed law to it all. If you take any medication, it can cause you to become sensitive to some foods. Indigestion can cause symptoms too, which we mistake for actual anxiety. If you get it a lot, definitely get is sorted, it can cause real issues and does aggravate the body.

Sometimes though, it's just coincidence.

Nonetheless, if you find certain things worse, avoid them. A food diary is really, list what you eat, and when, and any symptoms. It can be quite revealing.

( P.S. You asked me in a PM about the book, I'm not on my own computer these days, so I don't have access to it. It was only an article on thinking. It didn't really include the whole spectrum of physical anxiety. If you suffer badly from negative thoughts, you could check out the forum post by greenflies, I summed up what I wrote in there. )

All the best!