Just curious about your sugar experience

No, not insanity. Addiction. Not something to be dismissed with a glib comment. Many people here struggle with this, even post-op.

Lora

I was not dismissing addiction, I struggle too. Food is just one of many addictions I struggle with and will for the rest of my life.

I don't dump (or at least I haven't yet), but I do get RH. I've only had it maybe 3-5 times and it has always been when I inadvertently eat refined sugar. This generally happens when I am not served what I order - if I get a latte or smoothie or something and ask for Splenda, but they screw up and give me sugar. This has happened several times (it's shocking this has happened a number of times - seems like a potentially huge liability issue). Once I did it to myself by grabbing the wrong bottle of chocolate sauce out of the refrigerator.

About 1-2 hours later I'm in hell. Shaky, panicky, feel like I'm going to pass out. I generally eat a banana and some nuts and ride it out for 15-20 minutes and it goes away. I've tried to white knuckle it through the episode, but I just can't. Too horrible and seems to drag on forever.

I have absolutely no issue with naturally occurring sugar (read fruit). But any added sugar (and when I say sugar I mean sugar, honey, agave, corn syrup, etc, etc) gets me. I can handle 5g-10g at a time. More than that and I'm in trouble.

I've never had RH resulting from other carb sources (pasta, rice, bread, etc) but then again I never really have more than a small bite of that stuff, and it's a lot easier to avoid "accidental dosing" with those kinds of carbs.

I always assumed that reactions (dumping mostly, but RH also) would come from actual sugar and not from naturally occurring sugars in dairy or fruit or even other white carbs like you mentioned. After reading about peoples RH experiences on here, I see that it's different for everyone.

I also fear not getting the SF item I ordered and getting the sugar version!

I got RH from carbs - i.e

• rice cakes with PB.
• more than tbs of mash taters (regardless what I had with that); too much sweet potatoes (plain -not the brown sugar with marshmallows type)
• regular milk or regular (not Greek) plain yogurt (that also can cause dumping)
• high sugar fruits (grapes, melons, banana, oranges, etc.) I once dumped on grapes- I ate too many. Then RH followed.
• Regular white or french bread, whole wheat bread, - grains in general.
• some type of fiber in commercially produced protein bars - i.e. FOS, Inulin, ISMO, etc.

RH can also be caused by too many easy digestible - fast absorbable proteins - i.e. whey proteins, eggs, etc.

Our body needs insulin to process proteins. When we follow a very low carb diet for a while we can get very low level of glycogen (the stored sugar) and when the body releases the insulin to help with teh proteins and there is no carbs or fat in the meal (or a drink - i.e. whey protein shake) our BS may crash.

Google food insulin index. Interesting reading.

Thank you for sharing, this is great info. I am very interested in knowing more, thank you for the lead!

Yeah, I am so paranoid about it that if at all possible I just order whatever I'm ordering without any sweetener, taste it to make sure it's not sweet, then add in my own Splenda.

Of course, while this works well for things like Iced Coffee and a Latte, this doesn't work with things like sugar-free frozen yogurt or something like that. When I order something like that, I literally stand there and crane my neck as much as necessary so I can watch them make it. And even then I say "sugar free right?"

My family thinks I'm a bit nuts. But then again, they've seen me go through a couple of RH episodes, so they completely understand.

Eggs, bread, rice, sugar... these all make me have episodes of RH. So dang horrible, just tonight my hubby made a low carb pizza for me. I crashed so hard after about 1 hour. I was miserable and had to take a nap, as it is I'm still exhausted like I ran myself ragged. I've had both, or worse, one after the other... dumping and then RH. Not a good day, and a reminder to read EVERYTHING'S label.

Wow my computer is acting up