Yesterday after I gave in to a craving for chocolate and nuts. I picked up sugar-free Lily’s chocolate, a jar of dry roasted peanuts, a bag of roasted almonds and 2 bananas from the grocery store for a gorge fest.
It was delicious – except for the almonds which were somewhat meh.
An hour later, I wished I hadn’t given in to my craving.
I should have known better. Ever since I’ve gone from a paleo diet to a strict carnivore diet, I’ve gotten sick when I’ve binged on chocolate. Whether it’s ice cream, cookies, or candy, I get heart palpitations, a headache, stomach bloating, digestion issues, sleep problems and feel like crap the next day or two until it works itself through my system.
It’s like a chocolate hangover – but worse because it starts as soon as I stop eating.
I ate chocolate a little bit throughout my life but preferred other flavors to like strawberry, blueberry, teaberry and peanut butter. And actually, I always preferred a burger and fries to ice cream or candy.
As an adult, I fell into an habit of eating chocolate for dessert a few times a week because my wife like chicalte ice cream and Hershey’s kisses. Since I had headaches all the time, I never connected it to chocolate (and cheese it runs out for me) until a few years ago when I started in carnivore.
So last night after my binge, I was a wreck. I felt feverish. I had a throbbing headache. I got hot flashes. I tossed and turned fitfully trying to sleep for about 3 hours. I had acid reflux, indigestion, stomach cramps and other digestive issues. My heart raced for hours.
I gave up trying to sleep after a few hours, took excedrin and sat up for 2 hours until my head and stomach calmed down enough for me to try to sleep.
Today was mostly a disaster. Lack of quality sleep, a lingering headache, swollen sinuses and a general “wrong side of the bed” malaise plagued me all day.
All from eating a bag of chocolate chips and a jar of peanuts.
Although I liked how the foods tasted, I’m done. Done. Done. Done. I won’t be eating chocolate even again. It’s not worth the pain that always follows.
As for peanuts, although I know they mess me up, I’ll probably eat them again occasionally. Maybe it’ll be in a few months or next year, when the memory of the havoc they reek on my gut and digestive system fades away.
Then again, maybe not.