Refeeding Syndrome?
 

I was watching 1000 Ways to Die and there was a story of a prisoner who was held in deplorable conditions who escaped and found a room full of food. He rapidly ate a bunch of food and promptly died. The doctor they interviewed said he died of "Refeeding Syndrome" in which his body went from a fat-burning state way too rapidly to a carb-burning state and the result was death.

Today is a planned Cheat Day and I've already consumed more sugar and flour and other delicious, empty, sweetly disgusting carbs today than I have in the last 120 days of doing this WOE. I am a worrywart and at times a bit of a hypochondriac so I'm sitting here hoping I'm not going to croak. LOL

Anyone heard of this? Or heard of any LC'ers dropping dead from hopping off the wagon for a day and indulging in lots of baaaaaaaaaaad foods? Eeeeekkkk! I still have chocolate-covered bananas and a Chinese buffet to enjoy later. :lol:

In case you're wondering - the problem can occur with severely malnourished people and those in an actual state of starvation. No worries here!

My 3rd planned cheat day yielded more unexpected results. While the confections were delicious (especially my from-scratch brioche sticky buns with toffee goo), the Chinese buffet (one of my former staples of eating, I'm embarrassed to say) was just plain gross. Even the milk chocolate I ate was unsatisfying. It truly blows my mind how much my taste buds and the very way I view the ingredients in food has changed. I am so glad to be back to luxurious low-carbing. This WOE is so satisfying, both to the tummy and to the soul. Eating without guilt is the best meal ever.

I take it you survived! ;) I have never heard of this before. Heard of the stomach rejectiing (purging) food if malnourished/truly starving tries to eat too much - always thought it was just limited space. Guess I'll be limiting my intake if I plan to eat cheats! LOL

Exactly! This is why I can eat this way for the rest of my life, no guilt and no deprivation.

I know when I ate high carb I often felt my heart skip a beat! It was quite disconcerting. Haven't had that happen since I went LC, EXCEPT when I cheat!

I hear you about the Chinese food...it has no appeal for me at all now. I still really like sweets and junk though...I'm embarassed to say it, I like junk! That's like saying I like to roll around in (and eat) garbage. Bizarre. At least Chinese food has some vegetables in it!

i was just checking in to see if the corpse had any gold fillings. Guess ill have to check again later.

Check back the day after Halloween. :lol:

dont get any candy corn up in that !*$#. its hard to pick out.

BF:Mostly Fried Foods :lol: :lol:

Bwahahahahaha OMG I just sucked a small piece of bacon down somewhere in one lung. My brain even processed your words with some gangsta-slang accent. :lol:

damm skrate

On my cell so can't post it yet, but there IS a danger that I too was very worried about and that is when there is a lack of carbohydrate in the diet, a sudden in rush can cause some brain damage.


It was in an old Laurel's Kitchen cook book I think, high carb low fat, vegetarian.
I think she was refering to this:


This is from wiki:

"Any individual who has had negligible nutrient intake for 5 consecutive days is at risk of refeeding syndrome. Refeeding syndrome usually occurs within four days of starting to feed. Patients can develop fluid and electrolyte disorders, especially hypophosphatemia, along with neurologic, pulmonary, cardiac, neuromuscular, and hematologic complications.

During prolonged fasting the body aims to conserve muscle and protein breakdown by switching to ketone bodies derived from fatty acids as the main energy source. The liver decreases its rate of gluconeogenesis thus conserving muscle and protein. Many intracellular minerals become severely depleted during this period, although serum levels remain normal. Importantly, insulin secretion is suppressed in this fasted state and glucagon secretion is increased.

During refeeding, insulin secretion resumes in response to increased glycemia; resulting in increased glycogen, fat and protein synthesis. This process requires phosphates, magnesium and potassium which are already depleted and the stores rapidly become used up. Formation of phosphorylated carbohydrate compounds in the liver and skeletal muscle depletes intracellular ATP and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate in red blood cells, leading to cellular dysfunction and inadequate oxygen delivery to the body's organs. Refeeding increases the basal metabolic rate. Intracellular movement of electrolytes occurs along with a fall in the serum electrolytes including phosphate, potassium and magnesium. Glucose, and levels of the B vitamin thiamine may also fall. Cardiac arrhythmias are the most common cause of death from refeeding syndrome, with other significant risks including confusion, coma and convulsions and cardiac failure.

This syndrome can occur at the beginning of treatment for anorexia nervosa when patients are reintroduced to a healthy diet. The shifting of electrolytes and fluid balance increases cardiac workload and heart rate. This can lead to acute heart failure. Oxygen consumption is also increased which strains the respiratory system and can make weaning from ventilation more difficult."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome

The other night, I was watching Survivor (never missed an episode since it began!) and it made me think about this refeeding sydrome thing (plus I am planning on enjoying all kinds of wicked Halloween treats on Monday, and my mild hypochondria prevents this from leaving my mind when I have a cheat day coming up)...

The people on Survivor are starved - seriously, literally starved. In some seasons, they have fruit and rice to eat daily, but in other seasons, they have nothing, and many of their bodies start to look REALLY skeletal.

Then these skeletons win a Reward Challenge and are given tons of food, beverages, and desserts to gorge on. And gorge they do.

I would think that if anyone was at risk for refeeding syndrome, it would be some of these people, yet in 23 seasons, none of them have had this happen.

In any case, I'm banishing this worry from my mind. I never have "negligible nutrient intake for 5 consecutive days" nor do I do any prolonged fasting. I eat well on this WOE and enjoy good, nutritious 'legal' carbs every day (probably 40 - 50 per day?) so I'm definitely not starving.

The Halloween candy, caramel apples, and Rice Krispies treats better beware! Mwahahahahahahahahahaa