I'm the same way. In theory, complex carbohydrates should be better as they take much longer to break down into glucose - where simple carbohydrates can be absorbed very quickly the shorter chain sugars they contain. But in reality, complex carbohydrates can be more of a problem for people with this condition, which is confusing for doctors. The exact cause of reactive hypoglycemia is still up for debate and as I said elsewhere, a lot of doctors still don't recognise hypoglycemia in non diabetics.


Now, it's true that complex carbohydrates take longer to break down into glucose and so don't cause the insulin spike (when eaten in moderation) that glucose itself would - therefor you should, in theory, find that when you've eaten a pizza and are feeling symptoms, your blood sugars aren't actually low. In other words, complex carbs don't cause a hypoglycemia (actual low blood sugar) reaction, as is repeated in almost any advice you find for hypoglycemia. Yet they do still cause symptoms in all those with this similar condition. Why, is a complete mystery to me and to the medical world it seems.

Some things important to bare in mind is that 1) everyones body is different, your symptoms will vary along with reaction time and what foods you can/can't tolerate. 2) If you have hypoglycemia, whether reactive or fasting, there will be an underlying cause. With reactive hypoglycemia, as I said, the cause can be very debatable and isn't very well understood. Some causes are thought to be hormone deficiencies, or a carbohydrate sensitivity/intolerance (which I have, and is the likely problem if you can't tolerate complex carbs/starches), or possibly an intolerance to certain starches/proteins. It could also be a temporary hypoglycemia caused by stomach surgery or pregnancy which are more straight forward explanations.

So as I said, I also have this problem with complex carbohydrates (bread, pizza, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, flour products, wholemeal or otherwise) and I'd love to get to the bottom of the cause. At the moment my problem is thought to be a carbohydrate sensitivity and so I'm diagnosed with hypoglycemia due to carb/sugar sensitivity. I can't eat carbs except for veggies in small amounts, and milk, milk is fine surprisingly as long as I don't drink a pint at a time.

My advice to you is to eat what you know you can tolerate, and avoid what you can't, because diet is a very personal thing there's no guidelines set in stone. Make a list, you know better than anyone what gives you symptoms and what doesn't. It sounds like, as with me, you need to cut out the flour, bread, pizza etc.
Secondly, don't over eat, just eat until you're comfortable, and eat regular. It's important that you don't over eat or this alone can cause symptoms.

Don't bank on an explanation, I've been searching for many years. These longer term symptoms are a mystery. Just adjust your diet to suit you, an explanation can come later.

Personally I'm leaning towards adrenal fatigue. This is just my theory so don't take it in stone. Adrenaline is one of the hormones produced to prevent a hypo in the event of blood sugars plummeting. When you eat simple sugars your blood sugar drops so far so fast, glycogen and other prevention hormones don't have a chance to kick in in time and so your blood sugar falls too low for a brief period (some people pass out for a few minutes for example). You should find that following a low blood sugar, your blood sugar will raise a little, about 1-2mmol, this is glycogen etc kicking in (unless the cause of your hypoglycemia is lack of these hypo prevention hormones of course).
With complex carbohydrates you don't have the spike, but you may still have a potential low blood sugar which is prevented by glycogen/adrenaline etc kicking in. In my theory, if you follow the wrong diet and are causing this reaction repetitively then your adrenal glands are going to get fatigued. Resulting in the symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, drunken feeling, but you won't find the low blood sugar.

In short, I think it's possible that reactive hypoglycemia, if not treated properly, can be accompanied by an adrenal fatigue which explains both the immediate and longer term symptoms you find with the condition.

Yeah, but are you eating the ice cream and such after eating the burrito? If you're mixing all these foods into the same few days, it's quite difficult to tell what's causing the reaction because sometimes, in fact a lot of the time after you start to get better, you can eat a bad food and not feel it for up to five days in some cases.

I also have the same symptoms as
"rackerbishop" on the post of May 24th, 2008. As a matter of fact the
symptoms are identical. I have been trying to have the problem diagnosed for over 5 year. I think my GP has now given up, I can't say I blame her. I will have to live with my screwy diet for now.

I probably shouldn't, but I'd advise doing a little research and taking your diet into your own hands. Maybe tnake all the foods that you know cause symptoms and replace them with good foods that you know don't, like lean meats and fish/veggies.

These symptoms from certain foods seems to be getting quite common, though seemingly 'unexplainable', people usually come away from their GP quite disappointed. Hopefully there'll be an answer in future as to what it is that's causing it. In the mean time, changing your diet to suit you is more important than diagnosis.

Same problem here.
Complex Carbs cause Hypoglycemia in me. It also causes me to overeat. Once I start eating complex carbohydrates I get even more hungry. Simple sugars like fructose and disacharides like normal sugar do not cause these kinds of problems. I feel satisfied after eating only a small amounts.... So I say screw general recommendations and just eat what makes you feel good. Eventhough I would really like to know what is causing this in me, but I doubt doctors will have an answer. Most of the time they are completely clueless.

If you do have hypoglycemia you're just temporarily masking the symptoms. Complex carbs are likely fixing you, if you feel worse when you eat them that's a sign. The fact that they're causing you to overeat is another sign, it's your brain revolting and trying to get you to take the easy path, it doesn't care about how you feel down the road because it functions on a 'now' basis. There was a woman on here who had the same opinion as you, and one day it hit her like a sledgehammer and she almost wrecked her car.

Hypoglycemia as an adult, in the absence of diabetes, is most likely caused by one of the inborn errors of carbohydrate metabolism, such as glycogen storage diseases, fructose intolerance, etc. Look these up. They are just now coming to be understood more by doctors. They are hard to tease out, but worth understanding. Ask your doctor to do more extensive testing. Just saying you have hypoglycemia as an adult, is a cop-out to getting to the root of your problem. To your health!

Sometimes I find food combinations are important. If I mix proteins with carbs the I react better to them than if I just have carbs alone - so ice cream may be okay because it has protein and normally not a huge amount of sugar, depending on the one you have.