Yesterday I ate just one processed chilli smoked cheese slice. I don't usually have processed cheeses but I was trying it out because I get bored eating the same things. A few minutes after eating it, I became unbelieveably tired and was fighting against my eyelids closing. I also felt sick. I had only been awake for a few hours and felt quite energised before eating the cheese.
I suffer from Hypoglycaemia and since I have been low-carbing for 3 months, I can go a few days without having one. But I find that if I have a hypo, that I tend to get several in succession in the same day or two, even though I am being strict (20-50g carb per day.)
My usual symptoms of hypoglycaemia are feeling panicky, stomach pains, nausea, hunger pangs, tearfulness, mood swings, shakiness until I eat something. This usually happens first thing in the morning or when I haven't eaten for a while. Eating small low-carb meals regularly has helped.
So...what I am trying to figure out, is the drowsiness after eating, a sign of Hypoglycaemia? Or is it a sign of an insulin spike (maybe inducing a hypo?) in response to the food? Or is it a sign of high blood sugar? The cheese had less than 1g carb per 100g but I noticed that it contained a lot of 'E' numbers.
How come whenever I post anything it takes ages to get a reply from you guys? Sometimes I don't get any replies at all. Am I doing something wrong? I'm sure there must be somebody out there who knows the answer to this!
Well for one thing, this forum moves a bit slowly - the majority of cysters are just insulin resistant and not yet Type II, so they don't post in here often. I usually try to check in here once a day, and this is my one time since you posted this! If you posted a different question in another forum that is visited more often, I'm sure you would get a faster response.
To be honest, I have no idea why you would have that kind of reaction to a piece of processed cheese. I eat processed cheese pretty often on sandwiches, etc, and I have never experienced low blood sugar from it.
If you have reactive hypoglycemia, where you get low blood sugar after you eat food with carbs in it, the cheese may have more effect on you than it would on me. But I don't know if that's true in this case.
Did the cheese have many carbs in it? If not, I would say that it's just coincidence and that the cheese didn't bother you. If it DOES, maybe it was a reaction from the carbs and you should avoid that cheese in the future! Hope that helps, because I'm honestly not sure.
EDITED TO ADD: I see that the cheese doesn't have many carbs in it, which leads me to think it was a coincidence. What are "e" numbers, though? I'm not familiar with that term.
It's nothing personal Nikki, I can check this forum for months and still see my name as the last poster. Jen is right, this forum is slow because there just aren't a lot of diabetic cysters.
I am a little confused by your question. Do you get low blood sugar feeling after eating the processed cheese or does your blood sugar get high afterwards? You mentioned after eating that you feel drowsy, that is what confuses me.
There is nothing that I know of in process cheese that would cause a reaction one way or another. I would look at everything else you are eating with it. I have never had a problem with any kind of cheese.
I am not actually diabetic but am IR and suffer fairly frequent Hypos, although this has improved since low-carbing.
I am a little confused myself, maybe if I ask a few separate q's, I will be able to make more sense of what is going on with my body!
1. Firstly, what makes you feel drowsy after eating? Is it because your blood sugar rises sharply or because of a hypo?
I know the effects of a hypo for me are an intense feeling of being extremely hungry, nauseous, shaky, irritable and faint and confused, which can only be helped by eating something.
2. Does having an insulin spike/excess insulin cause the drowsiness?
'E' numbers are food additives, which can be colours, preservatives, flavourings etc. I know in the X Factor Diet book, she says that certain chemicals, such as aspartame can cause insulin spikes in some people. I know this happens to me, so I wonder whether the cheese had a chemical in it which could cause this to occur in sensitive people like myself. I know it was virtually carb free but then so is coffee but the caffeine can affect insulin production in some people too.
Maybe I will never know for sure! I didn't eat/drink anything else with the cheese and had only eaten my low-carb breakfast a couple of hours before and had been feeling fine. I threw the cheese away and I won't be having it again but I wondered if anyone knew why I reacted to it in this way?
Thanks everyone for your help. I didn't mean to come across as a whinger about not getting a reply, I didn't realise that this board was not frequented by many people
I know personally for me that if I eat something high in carbs I will feel instantly tired. Also if I have too many carbs at one time. If I am feeling like this I wait an hour or two and check my blood sugar to see how high I have spiked.
Low blood sugar however does make me feel hungry, shaky and headachy. I don't experience that now that I am not on insulin as much, but even on Met I can go "low" some times.
For me starches give me more problems with a spiked blood sugar than say candy. I could eat a small bag of M&M's and it won't make it rise very much, but if I had a small bag of fries, it would skyrocket!
I know absolutely nothing about certain additives spiking your blood sugar, so I can't help you there. If you are sensitive to certain foods and feel they are making your sugar spike, then just do what you are doing now and stay away from them next time.
I've been diabetic for three years and I'm still learning what affects me and what doesn't and personally, it isn't an exact science either because what affects me one day may not on another day.
My best friend is diabetic (type I - insulin dependant) and a while back she gave me her old blood testing kit. Unfortunately I have run out of the 'strips' and they are too expensive for me to buy (equivalent to $100 here in UK) and my friend cannot get them anymore, since she has been given a different type of machine now.
I think I will ask my Dr to prescribe some strips for me (my prescriptions are free). Although I am not diabetic, I think if I explain the problem, she may agree.
Can processed cheese cause Hypos? 
