The Food, Inc. movie trailer:

I saw this movie today with a group of food writers. It’s not fun to watch – I shut my eyes a few times. But if you eat food, you need to see it.

Artery clogging bacon and eggs sizzled in the fry-pan and the tea-pot was full and steaming, ready for it’s rehydrating task. It was the morning after the night before! “Why am I always starving after a big night?” our friend asked. He looked remarkably perky considering how much alcohol and how little sleep he’d had.

It’s a good question. What makes us so hungry after a drinking binge? It’s hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. So why doesn’t all the sugar in alcohol keep your blood sugar up? It’s because the body doesn’t think of alcohol as food but as a toxin that needs to be got rid of. Alcohol causes havoc with our blood sugar levels. With the first drink or two the alcohol and sugar rush into the blood rocketing the blood sugar sky high. This sends an urgent message to the pancreas: “Blood sugar too high, deploy insulin“. The insulin marches into the blood and escorts the sugar out. As the drinking continues the liver goes into ‘poison elimination’ mode. Its number one mission: to remove all toxins from the body. All other duties are scaled down or put on hold – including sending sugar into the blood to balance the zealous efficiency of the insulin troops. By this time you may be flaked out in bed trying to sleep it off but your body is far from resting.

You wake up with blood shot eyes. That’s from the alcohol increased blood pressure bursting tiny blood vessels in the eye. You wonder how you got home. That’s from the alcohol starving the brain of oxygen and killing off a few ten thousand or so brain cells. Your muscles ache. That’s from the alcohol starving them of oxygen – or perhaps it’s from when you tripped down the stairs! You’re tired and have a splitting headache. That’s your dehydrated body begging for water. And you are HUNGRY.

Come and have breakfast. A nice cup of tea and some eggs on toast. Skip the bacon – you’ve already got enough extra fat floating around in your blood from last night. Bon appétit!

I’ve just returned from ‘school pick-up’ – that time of day when mums and dads gather at the school gates to collect their children and gossip. My mind was on energy drinks and as I chatted to a friend about writing this story another mum interrupted me. “Are you talking about those energy shots?” she asked. “They are terrible. My daughter was at a disco last week and a boy gave her a Demon shot to drink. It wiped her out. She became really nauseous and shaky. It gave her and her friends a big fright.” No wonder! That innocent looking 60ml bottle that anyone can buy at the local store or service station contains 200mg of caffeine. That’s more than a double shot espresso!

How many people do you know who drink double strength coffee with 10 sugars? I don’t know any. But I do know that thousands of people are getting exactly that when they drink certain ‘energy drinks’. Some are artificially sweetened – like the Demon shot mentioned above – but plenty are packed with sugar to add to the ‘energy’ boost you experience.