Monday, April 7, 2014 – 229.4
A comment by a long-time reader misinterpreting my existential despair post from the other day made the following comment:
If you had an anaphylactic reaction to carbs and they were going to kill you….you’d find a way to stick to your diet.
Well, anaphylactic shock – which can be caused by a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting or nuts in sensitive individuals – doesn’t exist for eating cookies…or does it for me?
I won’t bore you with my transgressions, but it did involve carbs eaten late at night and the attendant thirst that I typically get when I eat too many carbs. In terms of overall eating for the day it wasn’t all that much of a transgression – given I didn’t eat a good part of the day a total tally would have probably landed me within the normal 200 grams of carbs and caloric intake that was high-normal.
The result of this venial sin was epic, however.
At about 12:30am I awoke choking. I’ve never been diagnosed with GERD, but I would imagine that a combo of eating carbs late at night caused my stomach contents to leak into my lungs. I have experienced this on occasion since my 20s when I was about as fat as I am now – my first experience being with an overindulgence in Eskimo pies late at night.
I never get this when eating low carb.
The feeling is what I would imagine drowning in hydrochloric acid might feel like. The burning in my throat was unbearable. No less than a baker’s dozen of Tums were needed to control the burning somewhat. Even after the fire got put out there was still gurgling in my lungs when I breathed. I was choking and coughing for at least 20 minutes until I had cleared my lungs and the gurgling stopped. Each cough that cleared my lungs burned my throat again. Both my wife and my older daughter – who I woke from my coughing and came in to see what was going on asked: “Are you OK?”
I gave them a thumbs up, which really meant: mind your own business.
Maybe an hour later I was able to get back to sleep, but this time lying with my head up to prevent another incident.
I awoke exhausted.
It’s not anaphylactic shock, but it’s a damn good reminder as to *why* I can’t eat like a normal person. I’m not a big fan of negative reinforcement as motivation, but this is not something I’d like to experience again. Negative experiences do sometimes result in positive outcomes – a good health scare sometimes works wonders to change long-term behaviors.
I’m more the ‘carrot’ than the ‘stick’ kind of guy with myself and others, but the beating I took from this stick is worthy of remembering – and might just tip the scale towards me being more careful about my diet.
If my transgressions have such dire consequences, it might be prudent for me to remember this.
Low Carb Confidential 
It’s an awful way to learn a lesson but sometimes that’s what it takes. I do have GERD and it is under control without meds when I follow low carb. However, when I transgress, big time, and follow that with lots of fluid, which you may have done as you said you were thirsty – I may as well not try to sleep. I hope you feel a little better today. Moderate indulgence in carbs seems to be okay, accompanied by a little indigestion, but as you know, it is hard to moderately indulge in carbs. Its generally all or nothing because carbs call our name. I can hear them even from the freezer in the basement. But somehow I become deaf when I adhere to low carb for a few days. Good luck getting carb clean again. It’s tough but you are a tough guy, been there, done this many times. Time to get back on that wagon 🙂
Same thing used to happen to me until I gave up drinking soda, diet or otherwise ~ what a horrible feeling! It stopped immediately after I took bubbly out of my life. Hope you are better.
I’m way better – thanks for asking.