Sugar Burn

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Hunter Gatherer
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Sugar Burn

Post by Hunter Gatherer » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:02 am

So, when I eat too much sugar (this weekend to name a recent example) I get this thing where my mouth starts to feel like it does when you burn it, numb, sore, and icky. I call it sugar burn, and the best way I've found to relieve it is to drink water.

My assumption is that by consuming too much sugar too fast I "dry out" the tissues in my mouth by the sugar pulling out the water through osmotic pressure. Thus when I add water my cells/tissues pull the water back in saving themselves from dessication.

Anybody else experience this?
Got any better theories as to the why and wherefore?

P.S. Please feel free to critique my usage of "osmotic pressure".
"You've been reading about arctic explorers," I accused him. "If a man's starving he'll eat anything, but when he's just ordinarily hungry he doesn't want to clutter up his stomach with a lot of candy."
Dashiell Hammett

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Simon
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Post by Simon » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:44 am

No critique here HG, but you reminded me of good times in university:

Stumbling home from one of the campus bars on a weekend, my friends and I were discussing the beer we'd just had. One of the bright lads in the group claimed that it would be more efficient just to hook up a "Beer IV" to our arms and feed our blood directly.

Another smart fella piped up with the rebuttal that if we did that, the osmotic pressure of the alcohol already in the blood stream would actually flow into the beer, having the undesired effect of sobering us up!!

I apologise for hijacking this thread for a joke, but it sure was funny at the time. You really had to be there.
Simon
"Hickory Hand of the North"

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gratefuldeb67
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:18 pm

Simon! You and your hoser friends are funny!
LOL...

Hunter, could this be some kind of autoimmune inflammation thing happening? Maybe you have an allergy to the foods you are eating?
Maybe it's not even the sugar?
What did you eat?

So much garbage is in packaged snack foods, and fake dyes, and preservatives..
Maybe you were responding to those?

Anyway.. I never really heard of sugar changing the body in terms of fluid retention, but that doesn't mean I know anything.. Salt we all know, can defitely change your blood pressure..
There may be some salt in those foods you are eating which is more masked by the overall taste of the sugar...

I say, go to a good clinical nutritionist for answers not here to us..
What do we know?
Only how to count three meals a day and do silly things like swing sledgehammers around!
Seriously, if you feel bad from it, I'd start thinking of cutting your intake of those foods...

Be well!
Peace and Love,
8) Deb
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

silverfish
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Post by silverfish » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:46 pm

I've had it too - we used to get sugar-burn in college after stocking up on candy and eating it while watching tv - mouth sore/numb/dry. But I only know the sugar caused it, not how.

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Hunter Gatherer
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Location: Texas

Post by Hunter Gatherer » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:32 am

It's not really a specific food that sets it off. Just sugary foods in quantity like silverfish mentioned. I've never gotten it from a small amount of sugar. Also the dryness of the "sugar medium" seems to have an affect. And water usually helps, so that is why I have made the assumption about osmotic pressure.
"You've been reading about arctic explorers," I accused him. "If a man's starving he'll eat anything, but when he's just ordinarily hungry he doesn't want to clutter up his stomach with a lot of candy."
Dashiell Hammett

Kevin
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sugar burn?

Post by Kevin » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:41 pm

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic. When I forget to take insulin (yes, I know, how can I forget - but it happens about once a month - I just forget to press the button on my insulin pump) my mouth feels the same way - a bit numb, sore, and unpleasant. It doesn't matter what carb I'm eating.

I think what you're experiencing are high blood glucose levels.
Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

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