MARTHA MCKITTRICK, RD, CDE: Basically, it's the
blood sugar levels that kind of control the way we feel. It's one
of the reasons. Certain foods or quantities of food will send the
sugar up higher. The higher or quicker it goes, the more insulin
that is produced and the sugar drops down. So, you get your sugar
high, and then you get your sugar crash. That's when you get your
fatigue.
CHERYL WILLS: Samantha, what about overeating in
terms of being energized? Sometimes before a marathon, people just
overeat to try to sustain their energy.
SAMANTHA HELLER: What they do before a marathon
is carbohydrate load the night before. The morning of the marathon
they're not going to be stuffing a lot of food in their mouths. I
think one of the things that you're referring to is on Thanksgiving, after
people eat a lot, they're just like [snores]. They're comatose for
the rest of the afternoon watching football games.
Your body has to devote a lot of energy to digesting all
of that food. At that point, it's not even blood sugar yet.
Your body is just devoting an enormous amount of energy to try to process
all that food.
CHERYL WILLS: In terms of overeating, that doesn't
help you to feel energized.
SAMANTHA HELLER: No it doesn't.
CHERYL WILLS: It's not how much you eat.
