Monday, March 22, 2010

What happened today?

Today I was feeling shaky all day. It started when I woke up. No matter what I ate. I was careful to only eat fresh fruits and veggies. Foods high in protein and fiber. Low in sugar. No artificial sweetener. And whole grain foods. But I couldn't shake the shakes.

Then I got a small bag of Cheetos (2 oz) out of the vending machine downstairs and whammo, shakes gone! I feel totally balanced, now.

Why?

I wasn't craving the Cheetos, but I know that this is about the only thing that will calm my shakes.

7 comments:

WWSuzi said...

Maybe it's a sodium connection??

--cara said...

Really? I've never heard of a sodium deficiency. I haven't had very much sodium at all lately. I've been eating fresh foods, not processed and instead of salting my food I'll spice it with other kinds of spices. Weird. Not enough sodium. Whodathunk!

Meg said...

I was going to say sodium too. When I quit eating chips altogether, it was horrible. Suddenly I had hardly any sodium in my diet and I was shaky.

My other suggestion would have been sugar...but you'd think the fruit and veg would have fixed that eh?

J said...

The same thing happens to me quite a lot. It's like the only thing that will cure the shakes is a packet of chips. Maybe it is a sodium deficiency, who knows? It would be interesting to find out, and find a healthier way to stop those shakes too.

Manon~ said...

I am not so sure about Sodium 'deficiency' as such - we require so little of it that it would be hard to be deficient if we are eating a balanced diet. I suppose - if we were to play devil's advocate, and assume that it is sodium you are craving, the course of action would be to wean yourself off it - rather than remove it in one go. If you have a physical 'addiction' (I use the term loosely) then having the cheeto's would be considered taking a hit of whatever your addiction is, and if it is Sodium, as seems likely, then the ultimate way through has to be to eliminate it - but in such a way that you mollify the effects of the loss - cutting down slowly? or going cold turkey? - hmmm there in lies the question.

The other thing to look at if you are considering sodium depletion is not actually that your intake levels are too low - but rather that they might be to low in solution -- have you been drinking to excess? By that I mean really drinking to excess -- over hydration would cause sodium depletion too. Although frankly you have to go some to do that - but odder things have happened -- it might be worth thinking about.

The other side of that little coin is Dehydration. Dehydration is responsible for many an ol malady, and salt is responsible for maintaining insterstitial fluid - that old homeostasis cookie.

Interesting though innit!

Blue~

--cara said...

I have been drinking A LOT lately. Probably twice as much as I usually drink.

Manon~ said...

I suppose the ultimate test would be to find out if the cheeto's are helping because of their carb content or their salt content -- they dont seem to contain much more than that.

Instead of eating the cheeto's next time you get the shakes - why not try pure salt - or pure carbs ie sugar...

Cheeto's apparently contain 1/12th of a teaspoon of salt..thats a wet finger dab I guess, and about 17 - 19g of carbs - thats easy enough to replicate -- at least that way you know if its something to do with salt or just that you are running on empty.

Blue~