Pasta Makes Me High

photo found: sinostand.com

After attending a lunch meeting, I return to the office to finish out the day.  My co-workers are both amused and bewildered by my-over-the-top energy that afternoon.  I had succombed to the temptation presented by wafts of garlic and basil at the lunch.  A small bit of pasta with some chicken made it on to my salad plate.  Was I high because I usually eat a smaller lunch?  Because the meeting went well?  I once, jokingly, was banned from eating carrot cake at one of the offices I worked.  After an office birthday party, I spent the afternoon bouncing off of the walls.  I do not always respond like that to carbs.  Sometimes nothing happens.  Sometimes I crash after.  One evening, I was having trouble sleeping and thought to experiment on myself.  I went to the corner store and purchased one of those over processed, sugar infused fat, coated with icing, honey buns.  It worked perfectly.   I was asleep 15 minutes later.

A little Less Guilt in Your Coffee

There are plenty of reasons people say that you should not drink coffee at all.  It is addictive.  It can increase anxiety and stress hormones.  It creates an artificial high that leads into a crash.  It stains our teeth.  It can negatively affect blood sugar levels.

Knowing all of that, I still love my joe.  It does have antioxidants.  It can increase alertness and metabolism, perhaps only short term, but it works.  It can help headaches and dilates airways.  Maybe that is why it is found in medications.  There are studies that found that it may help to prevent some illnesses, such as cancer and type II diabetes.  As I described in a previous post, I am usually tired.  Even with coffee, I sometimes have to use tools that I learned playing sports to jazz myself up to be productive.  Instead doing sprints at the end of practice, I am finishing up paperwork.

Sugar

60 Minutes had an interesting story about sugar as a toxin.

How much sugar do you eat?