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At some point everyone has experienced tiredness after eating. I’m sure many of you have on Christmas Day chowed down on huge Christmas dinners where you have kept going putting food down your mouth for a marathon straight two hours. Devouring plates of turkey, beef, sausages, potatoes , stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce and a wide array of vegetables. After polishing off your main course you then find the room for desserts ranging from Christmas pudding, mince pies and other delicious creamy gateaux’s.

How then can you not do anything more than place yourself on the sofa in front of the television and then just sleep off your big meal. The consequence of your challenge man v food.

I know every Christmas follows that routine in my family. A marathon 2 to 3 hour lunch, followed by nearly all the family adjourning to the lounge and within half an hour they are sleeping like babies. This is nearly as traditional as Christmas itself.

In this particular instance after such a heavy meal, and all the excitement of the day there is no surprise that everybody feels tiredness after eating. However, if you feel like having a sleep after most meals there could be a problem that needs to be dealt with.

The first explanation of why tiredness after eating occurs is due to digestion. Digestion is a process that requires additional blood supply to the stomach and digestive tract. When it is in full process there will be less blood supply available for the brain, which explains why you may feel a little tired for an hour or so after eating while your body goes through this process.

There are other things that can cause tiredness after eating, so I’ll put forward a few of them. .

Some of the obvious causes you need to discount first are the following:

So as I’ve explained, when you eat the digestion process diverts most of your blood in your body away from your brain and this can cause lethargy. Consuming FATTY FOODS will require your digestive system to have to work even harder , requiring it to divert even more blood, so increasing your potential feeling of lethargy. I’m sure many of you recognise the fact that when you’ve eaten a high fat meal that afterwards you always feel fatigued.

One of our key sources of feeling tiredness after eating is SUGAR, as when we take it in to our body it releases only a small amount of energy which is only short lived, and after it has been processed your energy levels slump. You see it gives the levels of glucose in our body a short term hike, but once they come back to their normal level your system is shocked into tiredness while it trys to adapt to the rapid change.

FAST FOODS are frequently the meals responsible for feeling tiredness after eating. This is because fast foods frequently contain refined sugar and flour and saturated fats. Saturated fats are difficult for the body to process and require large amounts of blood and oxygen to digest. This causes fatigue in many people as the rest of the body is robbed of blood and oxygen while the stomach is processing the saturated fats.

Having worked with many people with DIABETES, I have found tiredness after you eat is a common symptom of diabetes. Diabetics must watch what they eat because high blood-sugar levels can result from eating carbohydrates, causing tiredness and lack of energy after eating. Consuming smaller meals and eating more frequently often corrects this symptom

Another common reason for tiredness after eating is FOOD ALLERGIES. When a mildly allergic food is consumed by a person the results are often seen by a major energy crisis in the form of fatigue in the body.

OVEREATING at a meal, as described by my traditional Christmas Day feast will always create tiredness after eating. I’m sure everyone of you has sat after a huge bill and said ‘I can’t move’ and shortly after ‘I don’t have the energy to move’. These meals will almost always include large portions of sugary and fatty items, and just the amount you eat is more than your body is able to process at one time.

To avoid tiredness after eating choosing complex carbohydrate foods, lean meats, low-fat or non-fat dairy products and including plenty of fresh fruits and low starch vegetables in your diet. Eat regular small meals every 3 hours so as to provide the right amount of fuel that we need to carry us through the day. If doing this doesn’t work then maybe you should go and see a doctor.