Lentils making me feel weak and tired

[integral]

I tried Brian Johnson’s lunch recipe which is a Black lentil-based meal. Whenever I eat it I crash and have no energy at all.

Any idea what’s going on here?

 

Edited June 16 by integral

[Princess Arabia]

How are you sure it's the lentils. Do you make it exactly as in the video. I mean exactly. What type of oil do you use.

[Osaid]

4 hours ago, integral said:

I crash and have no energy at all.

Elaborate? Like immediately? Later on? etc.

I personally don't eat lentils/legumes because they don't digest efficiently enough. I believe they have some kind of sugar which causes bloating. I don't think I've had black lentils specifically though. Aside from nutrients, it is more important to see if you can actually digest and absorb what you are eating.

Speculating, but if I'm looking at the meal in the video, there is like not really any sugar/macros you can absorb from it at a meaningful rate. The ACV will curb the sugar and insulin spike. The lentils are full of fiber which will also curb the insulin/sugar uptake. The cruciferous vegetables don't really have any macros, and are also full of fiber. If I had to speculate, perhaps it is some interaction with the blood sugar levels. If your body is primed for high carb intake, this would make even more sense.

Edited June 17 by Osaid

[PsychedelicEagle]

Legumes (lentils, beans, etc.) usually have some compounds which make digestion harder. These compounds are higher in concentration when the legume seed is in its dried state. Soaking (or even sprouting) and cooking help remove these compounds.

I eat black lentils almost every day. I usually don't soak them, but I cook them for at least 20 minutes. It could be you are sensitive to those compounds and therefore you can try soaking or cooking for a longer period.

Also, are you eating the same amount of calories you normally do? Consider other ingredients as well, such as the hempseed. IIRC they can cause allergy. You can try ablating the different ingredients to see if the lentils are indeed the cause.

Lastly, if you're not used to eating a lot of fiber, your body will have a harder time should you abruptly increase your fiber intake. Over time I believe your microbiome gets used to it. In any case, eating more fiber will result in more gas. At least that's my experience.

 

Edited June 17 by PsychedelicEagle

[Michael569]

Are you eating enough calories? I don't know for sure but isn't Bryan making his diet to be slightly hypocaloric for the purpose of longevity? 

It may happen that a rapid transition to what he does might  give you a crash. It takes some time to adjust to a legume heavy plant based diet. Microbiome adaptation is just one of many things that need to happen and that takes months, sometimes a year. 

I remember when I started experimenting with this transition about 6 years ago, I felt like a zombie. It is easy to underestimate how much you actually need to eat once you start moving away from steaks and a meat heavy diet. 

 

Edited June 17 by Michael569

[eos_nyxia]

Rinse, soak, or sprout. Or do all! Consider soaking overnight (8+ hours), or even longer (24+ hours).

I find that cooking slowly at a low temperature helps as well. I usually rinse and soak, and then cook in a rice cooker on the brown rice mode. It makes it a lot easier to digest in my experience. Make sure that it's not too hard or crunchy when you're done with it. (Though in my experience, if you soak it for a while, it never is.)

Also, it might be helpful to eat small amounts (e.g. add 1/4th a cup or less to your meal) to get your gut used to it, and then slowly increase the amount you add.

(source: my partner has colitis and has had trouble with a lot of legumes, foods with fibre, etc.)

 

I know this might be too much prep for many people, but it really does help a lot with digestion IME.

 

Also: for what it's worth, eating lentils Indian style might help as well. Garam masala spices, plus ginger and turmeric, might help sufficiently with digestion and absorption.

Edited June 17 by eos_nyxia

[integral]

Comment summary:

1) Try exact cooking method and experiment with other types of preparation.

2) Give the gut micro biome time to adapt.

3) Increase caloric intake avoid deficits.

The crash is pretty quick im expecting to output a decent amount of energy both physically and mentally, but it’s like im dragging my feat until im done digesting. It’s like it’s taking energy from me.

[undeather]

Quote

The crash is pretty quick 

How quick? For how long? Does it gradually get worse until a certain point or is it more acute? 
Is it reproduceable? Do you take any supplements? Do you notice that with any other foods? Have you noticed this in the past?

[ZenAlex]

I hate lentils. They're annoyingly difficult to cook right and they taste like nothingness.

Just eat Tofu instead for Iron, calcium, protein. 

[Michael569]

7 minutes ago, ZenAlex said:

hate lentils. They're annoyingly difficult to cook right and they taste like nothingness.

You buys need to learn some proper cooking  As a part of, for example,  Coconut Garam Massala, Tarka Dahl or a Mexican risotto, lentils taste divine. Its all about practice and getting some advice from a decent cookbook. 

[integral]

1 hour ago, undeather said:

How quick? For how long? Does it gradually get worse until a certain point or is it more acute? 
Is it reproduceable? Do you take any supplements? Do you notice that with any other foods? Have you noticed this in the past?

About 20~30 minutes it hits, and can last up to 1-2 hours. It does get worse over time then tappers off. I notice something similar with meat or eggs but it’s not exactly the same. Yes it’s repeatable I’ve experimented countless times over the years, also lentil pasta has the same effect.

Edited June 17 by integral

[undeather]

2 minutes ago, integral said:

About 20~30 minutes it hits, and can last up to 1-2 hours. It does get worst over time then tappers off. I notice something similar with meat or eggs but it’s not exactly the same. Yes it’s repeatable I’ve experimented countless times over the years, also lentil pasta has the same effect.

How about chickpeas, peas or beans? Same issue or nothing?

[ZenAlex]

34 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

You buys need to learn some proper cooking  As a part of, for example,  Coconut Garam Massala, Tarka Dahl or a Mexican risotto, lentils taste divine. Its all about practice and getting some advice from a decent cookbook. 

Fuck lentils. They suck.

Sweet potato, brown rice, tofu, beans and salad with olive oil.  That is enough.

[integral]

1 minute ago, undeather said:

How about chickpeas, peas or beans? Same issue or nothing?

Yes chickpeas if i eat huge amounts, not peas, Yes beans. But the symptoms aren’t as bad only if i eat large quantities.

[ZenAlex]

3 minutes ago, integral said:

Yes chickpeas if i eat huge amounts, not peas, Yes beans. But the symptoms aren’t as bad only if i eat large quantities.

Could it be something to do with the fibre content?

[undeather]

7 minutes ago, integral said:

Yes chickpeas if i eat huge amounts, not peas, Yes beans. But the symptoms aren’t as bad only if i eat large quantities.

If your symptoms emerge only 20-30 minutes after ingestion, then it has propably nothing to do with fiber, microbiome or caloric intake. My best guess from what I have read so far is propably some sort of intolerance/ IgE-mediated food hypersensitivity. Sometimes this will resolve itself once you cut out the affecetd foodgroups for a longer period of time and then reintroduce them slowly.

[UnbornTao]

21 hours ago, ZenAlex said:

Fuck lentils. They suck.

You just need to learn how to cook them.

Vegetables stir fry (carrots, red pepper, onion), a bit of salt, some spices (parsley, cayenne pepper, thyme), tomato sauce, three boiled eggs, two tablespoons of this sauce (red peppers, garlic, cumin, salt, vinegar, and olive oil), and of course, a can of cooked lentils.

Edited June 18 by UnbornTao

[Scholar]

4 hours ago, integral said:

Comment summary:

1) Try exact cooking method and experiment with other types of preparation.

2) Give the gut micro biome time to adapt.

3) Increase caloric intake avoid deficits.

The crash is pretty quick im expecting to output a decent amount of energy both physically and mentally, but it’s like im dragging my feat until im done digesting. It’s like it’s taking energy from me.

Depending on the kind of lentils you eat they can just be heavy to digest. I get sleepy after eating a high-protein red lentil meal for example. I wouldn't eat it in the morning.

If you have problems digesting you can drink a bit of apple cyder vinegar before eating. (look up how to do it)

Edited June 17 by Scholar

[PsychedelicEagle]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

You just need to learn how to cook them.   

Vegetable stir fry (carrots, red pepper, onion), some salt and spices (parsley, cayenne pepper, thyme), tomato sauce, three boiled eggs, two tablespoons of a red pepper sauce (red peppers, garlic, cumin, salt, vinegar, and olive oil). 

Agreed. Though I would remove salt, and make sure to not use any oil for cooking (just Olive Oil as a topping). IMO an significant part of a healthy diet is making it SOS-free: no Salt, Oil, or Sugar. A bit extreme for conventional standards but that's what I do.

[petar8p]

15 hours ago, Osaid said:

I personally don't eat lentils/legumes because they don't digest efficiently enough.

There are techniques to increase digestibility and fight anti nutrients by sprouting, soaking and cooking them.  

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-reduce-antinutrients#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2
Here's a good article on how much it can help..