Okay, I read years ago on the net a claim by Dean Ornish that immediately after a high fat meal a person's arteries constrict, worsening blood flow and increasing the risk of heart attack, and that it took hours after a meal for the body to return to normal. I sort of shrugged the claim off for the longest time because I knew his bias and never really considered him to be a good source of reliable information.
This afternoon I was a little bored at work, so I typed postprandial into my computer to see what I could find out from more reliable sources about high fat meals.
The first very first thing that popped was a piece in the Merck online Medical whatsis about postprandial hypotension. When you consume a meal, blood is diverted to your digestive system. Less blood is then available to the rest of your body, and to avoid the dangers of low blood pressure, your arteries constrict. This is a healthy reaction.
When someone eats a meal which is high in carbohydrate, especially quickly absorbed high glycemic load carbohydrates, this vessel constriction is lessened. When someone eats a meal high in fat low in carb it is increased. They know that insulin is what keeps the arteries from constricting because when they inject insulin in subjects after a fatty meal the artery constriction fails to take place.
I wonder if the human body sometimes maintains an excessive fasting blood pressure so that the after meal drop in pressure isn't too dangerously low?

Interesting! Thanks for looking that up.

Is this why I'm always cold after I eat? My stomach is getting all the blood?

Maybe. Hows that for a timely answer?

I was looking for studies on intermittent fasting and it's affect on the middle-aged. I found one where normal weight middle aged adults who went on a single meal a day program lost body fat compared to being on an identical calorie but three meal a day program.

But cramming it all into one meal caused a significant increase in blood pressure.

Here's the abstract:

abstract

It's from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Can anyone get at the full article?