Yes, It’s Possible To Have A ‘Sugar Hangover'

If you inhaled Halloween candy last night and feel less than your best this morning, you may be wondering: Are sugar hangovers a thing? Of course, they aren’t in a literal sense ― real hangovers involve drinking too much alcohol. But a sugar crash can certainly have shades of a hangover: including symptoms such as brain fog, irritability, headache and fatigue. “Sugar hangovers are real in that you feel lousy after consuming a hefty dose of sugar,” Kim Larson, a registered dietitian nutritionist and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics told The Huffington Post. Initially, refined sugars increase your endorphins and make you feel good. “Then our blood sugars drop and we can become cranky, irritable and tired,” Larson said.  One sugar binge and crash is no big deal, but regularly consuming excess sugar can take a toll on health over time. In addition to weight gain, an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, regularly eating too much sugar can actually change your brain.  Too much sugar too often and you run the risk of creating sugar habit, although Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy at the University of California at San Francisco stops short of calling that habit an addiction. “We don’t have specific research on hangovers, but we have pretty good evidence on withdrawal and cravings with sugar,” Schmidt said. “You can, in large quantities over time, chan...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news