Maybe the Carb Queen Knows Best

Zaphod commented on my fatigue yesterday. Poor guy; I misunderstood his comment and bit his head off before realizing he was expressing genuine concern. (This gives you -- and me, too -- some idea of how sensitive I am about my bouts of fatigue.) Once I'd apologized we continued our discussion of my fatigue.

And it hit me that maybe the Detoxx Diet really is at fault for my fatigue. I have depression that I treat with sertraline (generic Zoloft) and it's mostly under control. The fatigue I've had in the past week to ten days feels like depression fatigue, not chronic fatigue. (Oh yes, I've been fatigued long enough and in enough varieties that I can tell the difference.)

Could it be that when I eat the way I want I'm feeding my brain what it needs? Well, yeah! And could it also be that by following the Detoxx Diet I've been depleting my brain of the raw materials it needs to turn on the energy makers? You think?

There's this conventional wisdom that people, especially women, who prefer starchy carbs like bread and pasta and potatoes are trying to lift their moods with food -- and that if they'd just get more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables they wouldn't need or crave those "bad" carbs.

I'm starting to think the conventional wisdom is nonsense. At least for me.

This is the second time I've cut back on starchy carbs in my diet. Last summer I went on a gluten-free diet to see if my fatigue improved. I ate that way for six weeks. My fatigue did not improve and I never once stopped craving the carbs I gave up. I hated the gluten-free diet, but if it had worked I was prepared to make it a way of life.

I feel the same way about the Detoxx Diet. I hate it but if I started to feel better, I'd figure out how to live with it. I briefly flirted with the idea that the fatigue and general feeling of malaise told me the Detoxx Diet was working and I was just suffering the side effects of ridding my body of toxins. Now I think the reverse is true: the diet is causing the fatigue and malaise.

Oh, Dr. Sean and I are going to have an interesting conversation on Tuesday!