Food and Sleep

[Guest guest]

Hi All, I am still experimenting on this subject too. So many factors come into

play with sleep - how much exercise/work you have done, mood, interpersonal

relations that day etc. i do think that when I have been steady on a good O

diet and have eaten a good balance of carbs that it is best for me to fast

overnight. However, over the xmas season, my diet has been less than ideal and

the blood sugar regulation is not as good at the moment hence the need for food

at night...and waking up.

So back to a cleaner, better diet and very soon blood sugar should be good

again.

In reply to Axel...and ...

Blended walnuts - want to try...do you grind them in a coffee grinder? or what?

then you soak for 4 hours? or soak and then blend in what machine?

Soporific effect - please describe...mellow? or ?

Axel: You must have missed ALL of my posts! I was being humorous... Good luck

with

the walnuts... I hear they have a soporific effect! That and almonds....

I've found the soporific effect of almonds to be enhanced with the live

soak, then blended to release the enzymes (a form of predigestion as

breaking the meat apart releases the enzymes, like mastication) and then

left in that broken, blended state for several hours to " mature " . I don't

know exactly WHY almonds are so much more soporific after this, other than

that maybe their energetic properties are more pronounced as they progress

along the digestive process even faster when blended and left at room

temperature for several hours...

Also, it

is not good to eat much food three hours before bed time, gastric digestion

interferes with sleep! If you have unsteady blood-sugar levels the best

thing to do would be to pursue the O diet, low-carb is THE solution for the

hypoglycemic whiplash-effect from carbs... Meat too stimulating? I'll write

more below! Anyway, it sounds like the hypoglycemia might be the case,

sometimes by your admission.

Shouldn't enough food in a day be enough to allow you to sleep on time? I

know how you feel, sometimes have the same problem, got better after

abstaining from food three hours before scheduled bed time.

Ann: I agree but it needs to be a good balance and enough calories

More below!

> As for oatmeal, I have only relayed what I have read and it's relative

> success. It is recommended in - and I have quoted from - the

> Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. Insomnia is what brought me to this

> program and oatmeal saved my life, allowing me to *finally* sleep

> through the night. Now that I am sleeping, I am willing to

> experiment - especially in light of the fact that oatmeal is a grain

> and a carbohydrate, even if it is neutral for type O secretors. I am

> a bit concerned that protein - which generally promotes mental

> alertness - will be a problem for me if consumed so close to bedtime.

> Only time - and experimentation - will tell.

>

>

, you are a secretor so it is different for you but I found that although

oatmeal was very helpful to me for sleeping..after about 3 days I would start to

feel brain fog and a toxic feeling from the gluten. Also it certainly adds to

weight very quickly for me. I also tried oatbran and although it says it has a

fair number of calories on the box, in fact it does not because in the body

those calories are not usuable because they are fiber. I am told that the

calories are determoined by burning the substance and seeing the amount of heat

produced but this is not always an accurate measure because of what happens in

the body.

Hey hey! You're not the first person to find that the real world in your own

body doesn't agree with what is written in a book! I think carbs are a good

way to get those serotonin levels up for the sleepiness, but being an

ultra-healthy dude I've found even a bowl of rice at 7pm doesn't get me

unconscious by 10pm, I suppose if you like melatonin or have found melatonin

to be ineffective on the regular O meats and fats thang you might be able to

make good use of melatonin after a high-carb dinner... it works much better

for me (not just talking to you Maskell).

Ann: I have learned a lot about Melatonin lately. I did the Sleep Check from NAP

and had sky high melatonin results and then had conversations with a fellow at

NAP and then at Great Smokies and several other people. What I learned is that

Melatonin will not work if you do not have a melatonin deficiency. There are

only so many receptors. I have never experienced any effect from Melatonin. One

reason for my levels being so high were from 5 HTP, a precursor to serotonin.

As for meat's stimulating

properties... who would have thunk just eating the right kinds of foods

could result in having TOO much energy!

Ann: Axel, you might want to do a little reading on the balance of the

neurotransmitters and brain chemistry. I have a book that describes that

serotonin and dopamine are on opposite ends of a balance beam, a teeter totter

if you will. So when you eat proteins, you reduce your serotonin levels that

calm you and you increase your dopamine levels that give you get up and go ie

energy. Vice versa for eating carbs. Very interesting and complicated subject.

Now, when it comes to sleep... you can have all sorts of tryptophan in your

blood stream from having eaten turkey and other (usually) protein sources but

tryptophan is the runt of the litter and cannot cross the blood brain barrier

without the transport of carbs or an insulin response. So just taking turkey

broth is only half of the story.

As a vegetarian I couldn't get

enough energy... easy to go to sleep on the high carb diet. Salmon, sounds

good, fish aren't nearly as stimulating as RED MEAT (smack! smack!). Why

haven't you mentioned turkey?!? Gotta go for the big bird baby! Ever try

REAL turkey stock? Very healthy. All REAL stocks are terrific, joachim's

posted on this many times (he knows his stuff). I have had turkey stocks

that simply PUT ME OUT! I mean knocked out cold. Good way to go, very easily

digestible, very healthy and healing, good for knocking yourself out. In

fact, now that I think about the quickly assimilable stocks and turkey's

soporific effect turkey stock seems like a terrific pre-sleep meal. With

stock I'd be comfortable having an hour or hour and a half before sleep

instead of the 2.5-3 hour time seperation between solid foods and bed time.

Of course, if your really hungry no rule is going to keep a person from

eating, going to bed hungry isn't fun and I find it practically impossible

anyway.

Tryptophan is not sold to the public in America (damn fuckers!)

anymore but you can make a kick-ass turkey stock! That's probably better

anyway.

Ann: Tryptophan is sold here in Canada by prescription and my doctor was willing

to prescribe it for me a couple of years ago. However, it has some problems and

does not always work. It is a precursor for serotonin but sometinmes converts to

something else in the liver. It also requires that you take it with straight

carbs before bedtime - something that is sure to add on the lbs for some of us.

5 HTP or Griffonia is, I believe, available and is one step up - immediate

precursor. It does not need the carb carrier and has other advantages. See

Murray's book on 5 HTP. My experience with 5 HTP and indeed with

tryptophan is that they are great when you are calm but when I am stressed they

add to the stress because they stimulate cortisol production as well as the

serotonin. So just when i need 5HTP the most for sleeping problems, it has the

opposite effect on me. I tried it also on my DD and she says the same thing. She

is an A and i Know Dr D does not recommend it for A's because of the cortisol

productions.

I hope not many Os out there regularly have oatmeal or any other

gluten-containing grains... now that I know I'm a secretor I'm even more

leery of freakin' gluten. I'm supposed to be in the 80% camp who can

tolerate it better and have a neutral relationship with almost all gluten

grains... I have a lot of experience being on a high-compliant BTD and I

know that the gluten is NO good, even for secretors... and oatmeal is

particularly bad for people who wish to lose weight, it's in CR4YT... of

course, if you're not " pure " enough you probably can't tell, but the

fucked-up feeling from the gluten is unmistakeable. A few of those Kavli rye

crisps I can handle, some manna bread (that stuff is the exception because

of the sprouting process) but that's about it, otherwise I can feel the

distension and sluggishness of my intestines.

Ann: I'm a nonnie and really cannot tolerate gluten. Even manna bread. I do use

a few Ryvita several times a week and that seems OK. Gotta eat something!

Just a few thoughts on what I have discovered...Would like to know more!

Happy New Year to All, Ann