Last night, my wife and I conducted an unexpected experiment. We had some left over organic, vegan nacho chips from hosting visitors during the holiday season. Kathleen made some homemade cheese sauce. She added organic black beans, green onions, and organic peppers and baked them in the toaster over. Voilà, baked nachos! We have not had them for years!! It was a delicious supper!!!
It had two of the three principles of Dr. Doug Leslie’s Pleasure Trap -pleasure seeking and energy conservation. Our brains were receiving dopamine, a pleasurable neurotransmitter and we were consuming a great deal of calories! Our instincts of pleasure seeking and energy conservation were hijacked by this dish. We ate the nachos quickly until they were all gone. The other thing that we noticed that we felt really full and the feeling did not subside until many hours later, which is unusual for us!
We both had sore muscles this the morning even though we did not workout yesterday. I spent most of the day sitting and listening to my E-Cornell course about nutrition. Kathleen had an extremely difficult time falling asleep last night.
So, I did some research to find out whether our supper could have contributed to these symptoms. This is what I found.
These nacho chips are considered an ultra-processed food as classified by the NOVA system. Group 4 foods are ultra-processed. The chips contain maltodextrin which is a Group 4 ingredient. Nachos are ready to eat, another feature of Group 4 foods.
Ultra-processed foods can lead to disruptions of the microbiome. This disruption can lead to a more inflammation. (Foods. 2017 Nov; 6(11): 100) One article I read stated that it could be plausible that more inflammation can lead to increase sympathetic tone (which is the fight/flight nervous system). (Auton Neurosci. 2011 Jul 5; 162(1-2): 72–76.) This would explain why Kathleen had trouble getting to sleep last night.
Has anyone else experience difficulty sleeping or sore muscles or other symptoms that could be related to inflammation after eating ultra-processed foods?
