Author Topic: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?  (Read 18782 times)

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Offline nummytummy

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Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« on: May 01, 2010, 02:50:10 pm »
I noticed feeling extreme fatigue and drowsiness after eating raw meat, most recently raw beef tongue.

At first I thought it was from eating too much fat (raw bone marrow), but later I tested eating them separately and it was the raw beef tongue that made me unbearably sleepy--it just knocked me out immediately and I had to lie down and take a nap.

Does anyone have any idea why this may be? Is this a healing or cleansing reaction? After taking colloidal zinc with vitamin C, I felt much better immediately, (as I have before after eating lamb liver, heart and kidney and feeling fatigued--colloidal zinc fixed the fatigue and brain fog in a snap). With the liver, heart and kidney I assumed that the copper levels were too high for my already copper heavy system. But I looked up nutritional information for beef tongue and the zinc-copper ratio there seems too high to cause an overload of copper. Could it be that eating a zinc and b-vitamin rich food is causing copper to be released from storage areas in my system? If so, why would I feel better after taking even more zinc?

I actually find I have more energy when I eat more carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables and sometimes cooked rice. I've also noticed that at other times eating too much raw meat and fat seems to overstimulate my adrenal glands and make me jumpy, nervous, impatient and irritable.

Along with the fatigue last night after the raw beef I also began to sneeze and feel congested and chilled with the beginnings of a cold starting to come over me. This also went away immediately after taking colloidal zinc.

Can anyone tell me what's going on with my system and how I should go about eating raw meat to either avoid these reactions or to work through them if they're actually cleansing/healing reactions? I can deal with the cold-like symptoms for a few days, but the fatigue and brain fog are debilitating.  -[

Thank you!

Offline actionhero

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2010, 03:45:33 am »
I've also noticed that at other times eating too much raw meat and fat seems to overstimulate my adrenal glands and make me jumpy, nervous, impatient and irritable.

I've had something similar but only if I eat cold raw meat. What solved my problem is warming the meat up in hot coconut oil or butter for 1 second on each side. Since warming it up like this I don't get the irritable nervous energy and just feel incredibly grounded and satisfied. Another side effect of cold meat is I get extremely thirsty afterwards but not when I warm it up for one second on each side. I have no idea why it happens, it's just something I've noticed.
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Offline actionhero

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2010, 09:16:24 am »
Ok, I just did an experiment and here's what I've found out:

cold meat = sleeping meat but still alive
warmed up meat= alive and vibrant
cooked meat = dead matter

Warming it up like I did kick starts it back to life. It becomes alive again. I took 2 pieces of raw meat, one cold and one warmed up for one second on both sides.  I ate both of them. I closed my eyes to focus completely on the experience of how it feels in my mouth. The cold raw meat I don't want to chew. I just want to swallow it as quickly as possible. But it's still alive. Then I ate the warmed up 'kick started' meat. Something energetic is absorbed, I can feel it when it makes contact with the inside of my mouth. I want to chew as long as possible and absorb all of it whatever it is. It feels more alive and vibrant.

From experience I know that it doesn't work with ground beef. Ground beef does not feel alive anymore. But it's still less dead than cooked meat. I can't wait to try just killed meat, I can only imagine what it must feel like.
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Offline KD

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2010, 10:19:03 am »
how do you warm something for 1 second? how heated is the butter/oil?

Offline actionhero

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2010, 04:57:39 pm »
how do you warm something for 1 second? how heated is the butter/oil?

Hot enough to jolt it back to life but no longer than a second on each side as to not kill the meat. That's the best way I can describe it.
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Offline nummytummy

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2010, 11:14:27 pm »
Hey action hero, thanks for your suggestion to warm up the meat. I think it does help with the jumpiness, but it doesn't help with the extreme sleepiness that I've been getting after eating meat in general it seems--raw, warmed up, or cooked, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, because after I eat it I'm pretty much knocked out for the next 3-4 hours or more. And I was eating it by itself to test it out, so it wasn't because of a carb overload or anything like that.

Does anyone have any suggestions or answers? I'd really appreciate it.

Offline ForTheHunt

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2010, 11:48:52 pm »
Try eating it really slowly. Taking 15-20 minutes to eat a small steak and stop immediately when you feel you're not hungry any more.

I'm thinking you're overeating.. Overeating is usually what causes fatigue
Take everyones advice with a grain of salt. Try things out for your self and then make up your mind.

William

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2010, 12:48:48 am »
Eating too much at once might be it, or too much meat in proportion to fat, or having eaten carbs in the last few days, or not enough excercise.

Offline nummytummy

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2010, 01:25:14 am »
Eating too much at once might be it,

Try eating it really slowly. Taking 15-20 minutes to eat a small steak and stop immediately when you feel you're not hungry any more.

I've actually been eating small amounts (total amount of meat about the size of a deck of cards in one sitting) because I haven't had so much of an appetite for meat, especially with its most recent effects on me, and normally it takes me quite a while to eat it because i'm a chewer and my stomach doesn't seem to like it when i bolt unchewed chunks of meat.

about this problem with not really having much of an appetite, after i eat (meat), it seems like part of my body is still hungry and craving more food, but then i'm so sleepy that i literally pass out wherever i am within 10 minutes, sometimes on the floor.

I'm thinking you're overeating.. Overeating is usually what causes fatigue

actually before when i first started eating raw meat i think i was overeating, but it didn't make me tired. in fact i felt more energised on the contrary.

or too much meat in proportion to fat

the meat i've been eating lately is beef tongue, which has a good amount of fat already on it, and i've been eating bone marrow on top of that. in fact, most days this past week i'm more apt to eat more fat than meat, because it doesn't have this debilitating trainwreck effect of making me immediately pass out that the muscle meat seems to be having now.

or having eaten carbs in the last few days

Maybe this could be it? But why would I feel uncontrollably tired and sleepy after eating meat if its from having eaten carbs within the last few days when I didn't feel tired and sleepy after eating the carbs themselves? This doesn't make much sense to me. If it were the carbs inducing a food coma, I'd think I'd have that reaction straight away after eating the carbs, instead of when eating meat by itself hours or days later.

or not enough excercise.

I agree that exercise has a stimulatory effect, but as a former exercise-junkie who is now suffering adrenal fatigue as a result of long-term over-exercising and under-nourishing, I don't think it's a good idea for me to embark on an intense exercise routine right now. In fact, it seems that my body is telling me that I need to rest more in order to heal. In any case I'm pretty active and walk nearly everywhere, including 3 long flights of stairs up and down to get in and out of my flat each day. Plus my work keeps me active, lifting heavy things. The other day I felt like a sherpa, carrying an enormously heavy box of equipment on my back up a hill probably well over a km or two. I don't know if my current tiredness may be partially caused by this kind of exertion, because I was really busy and physically active for an intensive two weeks or so before this bout of tiredness. It just seems strange though that eating meat in any form would hit me like a ton of bricks and cause me to pass out immediately for several hours or more. Definitely doesn't seem normal.

Has anyone experienced this kind of thing as a sort of healing response? I've read that eating raw meat and raw egg yolks can induce a healing response, one sign of which is an intense sleepiness. If it's a healing response, I'm willing to stick with eating meat and passing out for a while as long as I have enough time to do it, but I'm a bit concerned that it might be something else, or that perhaps I'm not reacting well to this kind of meat, or that I'm perpetuating some kind of vitamin/mineral imbalance. When it happened to me on Friday, I passed out for about an hour or two but had to wake up to teach, but my mind was clearly not where it should be and I kept making careless mistakes and even told my students the wrong word for something, which I realised about ten minutes later! Why is eating meat making me slow and tired? I know most of you have been doing this for long enough that you've already figured out what works for your body and you generally don't have bad effects from eating meat, but can you think of times while you were first transitioning, say the first few months or so, when eating meat would have a similar effect on you? Or when you first started eating high meat, did you feel an initial intense urge to sleep before the subsequent increase in energy? Or is my body just not cut out for this way of eating?

I'm just a bit frustrated because I definitely experienced an increase in energy when I started to eat raw meat just a few months ago, so I don't really understand why I'm experiencing this kind of downturn. I'd be grateful for any explanations or suggestions.

William

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2010, 05:32:35 am »
why would I feel uncontrollably tired and sleepy after eating meat if its from having eaten carbs within the last few days when I didn't feel tired and sleepy after eating the carbs themselves? This doesn't make much sense to me. If it were the carbs inducing a food coma, I'd think I'd have that reaction straight away after eating the carbs, instead of when eating meat by itself hours or days later.

I don't know, but according to AV we can stop a detox by eating carbs, and it stays stopped for days. Note the "boom and bust cycle" of carb eating, where the lows feel worse than normal.

Quote
I agree that exercise has a stimulatory effect, but as a former exercise-junkie who is now suffering adrenal fatigue as a result of long-term over-exercising and under-nourishing, I don't think it's a good idea for me to embark on an intense exercise routine right now.

From my POV, exercise is a little more than getting out of bed, but then I have heart problems. In remission, but still I don't push it.

Quote
It just seems strange though that eating meat in any form would hit me like a ton of bricks and cause me to pass out immediately for several hours or more. Definitely doesn't seem normal.Has anyone experienced this kind of thing as a sort of healing response? I've read that eating raw meat and raw egg yolks can induce a healing response, one sign of which is an intense sleepiness.



I used to be asleep an hour after breakfast, in those days cooked. I quit eating breakfast. Not so much in the evening, which became always raw.
A healing response is what I hope for too, and there is some evidence of it happening.


Offline Arthas_

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2010, 06:56:17 am »
I guess it could be a detox, as you described. It might be unbound cooper getting out of storage into your blood stream. It's said the sleeping is very helpfull in aiding the adrenals. In this case, you shouldn't deny yourself some good hours of sleep. Some articles about adrenal burnout claim you should get 11 hours of seep per day for at least a year. I have cooper issues and although I'm not specifically sleepy after eating meat, I fell sleepy throughout the day.

Offline MrBBQ

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2010, 09:10:06 pm »
Oh, I've just noticed this thread when posting my "yawnorama" thread. I have the same effect when eating meat/fat alone, regardless of the temperature. After all, how could the subtle difference in temperature of the meat cause this kind of fatigue? I eat my meat at ~40 degrees C in minced+melted (pseudo-rendered raw) fat, which is the best way to eat it, in my opinion.

What I will say is that protein causes insulin release, which drops blood sugar, possibly to the extent of fatigue/yawning (like me). To test this theory, I've been consuming honey as a dessert afterwards, which contains glucose+fructose - the fructose causes a release of glucagon, which raises blood sugar. This seems to stem the yawning - maybe you could experiment with the same approach (given that it's based on endocrinology).

It's interesting to think about food from an endocrinological perspective...
When hungry eat, when tired sleep - this is the essence of Zen...

Offline nummytummy

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #12 on: May 14, 2010, 06:37:32 pm »
What I will say is that protein causes insulin release, which drops blood sugar, possibly to the extent of fatigue/yawning (like me).

okay, this is interesting, and i just looked up more information and it turns out that protein does cause insulin release, which would explain the intense sleepiness as a sudden blood sugar drop.

i've switched to eating seafood this week instead of land animal meat, and i also am eating a lot more vegetables with the seafood. i'm finding that i feel better and have much fewer side effects when eating the seafood (oysters, fish, squid). but it's also much more expensive.  -[

i also found a site talking about raw paleo diet and fatigue caused by healing and cleansing reactions. so i think this is also a possible explanation for the effects i've been having from eating meat:
http://rawpaleodiet.vpinf.com/healing-and-cleansing-fatigue-1.html

the other thing i was thinking in relations to the protein-insulin release effect is if it would be more effective for me to eat combination meals, somewhat akin to the "zone" philosophy of eating. i've never done the zone before but i just read about it, and for someone like me, who has no issues with digesting vegetable matter, protein, or fat, it seems like it might stem the over-release of insulin that's causing my sudden drops in energy. i know a lot of you are really into the zero-carb thing or in trying to get there, but with my recent experience with including a lot more meat and fat in my diet, i honestly think that zero-carb would not be beneficial to my health.

does anyone have experience with eating raw paleo "zone"? has it evened out your blood sugar levels? or do you think it's more beneficial to separate the types of food you eat in order to maximise digestion?

Offline Paleo Donk

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2010, 03:07:51 am »
What I will say is that protein causes insulin release, which drops blood sugar, possibly to the extent of fatigue/yawning (like me). To test this theory, I've been consuming honey as a dessert afterwards, which contains glucose+fructose - the fructose causes a release of glucagon, which raises blood sugar. This seems to stem the yawning - maybe you could experiment with the same approach (given that it's based on endocrinology).

It's interesting to think about food from an endocrinological perspective...

Its pretty well known that the hormone glucagon is released when protein is consumed providing extra glucose for the blood to counter the effect of insulin when protein is ingested and so blood sugar should remain pretty stable after a low-carb meal. Several zc'ers have indeed documented this result.

Offline MrBBQ

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #14 on: May 15, 2010, 04:51:19 am »
Thanks for the counter-info Paleo Donk.

So that would imply that there's something pathological occurring with me and others, or the stress response comes afterwards to raise blood sugar again. I reliably yawn every time I eat a meat+fat-only meal and also when I don't have enough carbs with the meal.

I seem to remember reading on Waisays.com that one should not be active after eating protein due to the oxygen demand of the digestion, although I never cross-referenced that. I doubt that's the explanation...Having said that, I don't necessarily feel that sleepy - just stretchy and yawny, like a film has just finished, you know!

Maybe it's gonna take a couple of years for my blood glucose control system to somehow heal, what with all the so-called raw, cold-pressed PUFAs I used to consume, as well as using unshelled nuts as a calorie source.
When hungry eat, when tired sleep - this is the essence of Zen...

Offline Josh

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #15 on: May 15, 2010, 07:41:45 am »
If you don't eat carbs it's quite natural to get tired if you're not used to it and can't get enough energy from fat.

I mean maybe you're getting some kind of reaction, but IMO look for the simplest explanation.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2010, 08:29:56 am by Josh »

Offline nummytummy

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #16 on: May 15, 2010, 12:26:52 pm »
If you don't eat carbs it's quite natural to get tired if you're not used to it and can't get enough energy from fat.

I mean maybe you're getting some kind of reaction, but IMO look for the simplest explanation.

sometimes the simplest explanation doesn't accurately depict what's actually going on in the body. like the calories in minus calories out equals amount of weight loss/weight gain theory. that's a pretty simple explanation but doesn't hold true, and i'm sure people on this forum can attest to that.

i am/was still eating carbs the entire time. the only thing that's changed now is that i now eat my meat and fat in combination with a carbohydrate source like a pile of green vegetables. i find that it makes an enormous difference in the stability of my energy/blood sugar levels. i'm not dropping off into comas directly after a meal anymore.

anyway, excess insulin release seems like a pretty simple explanation to me as well for the fatigue.

Offline nummytummy

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #17 on: May 15, 2010, 12:33:05 pm »
anyway, i think that lack of adaptation to a high-protein, high-fat diet would lead to chronic but pretty steady low levels of energy, not sudden rapid energy drops immediately after eating. your simple explanation doesn't make any sense to me.

Offline Josh

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #18 on: May 15, 2010, 03:00:07 pm »
Not necessarily. In my experience it's been periods of low energy and reasonable energy. I'm sure you're right that it happens after food, but I just doubt that there's anything seperate you need to do. Maybe I get a dip from meat, but I also get energy from fat so the net effect is more energy. I wouldn't eat a load of green veg, but each to their own.

Anyway don't get offended...sure figure it out for yourself. It's just that when people post stuff that sounds similar to what happened to me, I try and offer my thoughts.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2010, 05:34:04 pm by Josh »

Offline Dwight

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #19 on: May 20, 2010, 04:03:22 am »
I get them all plus extreme hunger after two to three hours? Too little fats I suppose..

Offline Leonardo

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #20 on: August 13, 2010, 12:42:26 pm »
This can be adrenal fatigue, since your adrenal glands are weak usually you will be low on hydrochloric acid which is needed for protein digestion, your adrenals glands get exhausted digesting protein. Consuming lower amounts of proteins and supplementing with Betaine HCI hydrochloric acid tablets should help you. As your adrenal glands and digestion improves you will be able to eat higher amounts of protein.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2010, 06:13:06 pm by Leonardo »

Offline majormark

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Re: Fatigue and sleepiness after eating raw meat, why?
« Reply #21 on: August 13, 2010, 04:28:15 pm »

Or, try some salt with the meat first.


 

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