Every now and then I take a look at the website of the Restless Legs Foundation. On one of the pages I saw the well-known list of foods that can aggravate restless legs not so long ago. A bit to my surprise, there was the word carbohydrates.
Personally, I have been conscious about my diet for quite some time now. I’ve read about carbohydrates before and about the possible harm to your health if you consume too much of them.
However, the average layman does not know exactly what carbohydrates are, let alone what to do with the word carbohydrates in such a list. So a little context would be helpful.
In this blog I will discuss what carbohydrates are and what the possible disadvantages are for your restless legs.
What are carbohydrates
In our food, carbohydrates, in addition to proteins and fats, are suppliers of the energy we need to live. They are our fuel. The human body converts carbohydrates into glucose.
You can distinguish between slow and fast carbohydrates. With slow carbohydrates, it takes your body some time to get energy from them. With fast carbohydrates, also called fast sugars, the effect is quite immediate.
Slow carbohydrates are found in fiber-rich wholemeal bread, but also in vegetables and fruit. Fast carbohydrates can be found in sweets and soft drinks, for example. Slow carbohydrates are better for your health and you will benefit from them for longer.
Our western diet is full of carbohydrates. They can be found in bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, milk products, candy, biscuits, snacks, soft drinks, vegetables and fruit. We often get at least half our energy from this. The rest comes from proteins and fats.
Restless legs
The carbohydrates that can cause problems when you are dealing with RLS are the fast carbohydrates, or the fast sugars. These are for example in candy, soft drinks, chips and fried snacks.
Every time you take these, your blood sugar level rises. Chronically high blood sugar levels increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is also harmful to the functioning of nerves and muscles.
If your body cannot process the excess of these types of carbohydrates, there is a surplus of lactic acid in the muscles. Fast sugars can be a trigger for your restless legs. So in order not to make your complaints worse than necessary, it is advisable not to get too much of it. Incidentally, I recently read that vitamin B1 helps with the processing of lactic acid.
I don’t know to what extent it is better to eat as few slow carbohydrates as possible in connection with restless legs. It seems to me to be quite difficult to realize from a practical point of view, because you also need carbohydrates for your energy in addition to protein and fat. I can imagine that if you take too little of it you will get other health problems.
There are diets in which carbohydrates are reduced to a minimum amount. One of these is the keto diet. My friend has thoroughly researched this. He hopes it will help him with his PLMD (Periodic Limb Movement Disorder). About 80% of people with RLS also have this condition.
Less carbohydrates
I myself started reducing carbohydrates about ten years ago as an experiment. Initially, I replaced bread and grains quite drastically with protein-rich products. I even stopped eating fruit for a while. I did eat a large amount of vegetables every day.
Eventually I noticed that my body did not like this extreme form of low carb. My gut started protesting in the form of irritable bowel syndrome.
Now, a few years later, I have arrived at a diet with a lot of vegetables, a little fruit and a lot of protein. I take limited amounts of carbohydrates in the form of bread. I also make sure that I get enough fat.
This works for me. I actually never have the hunger pangs I used to have when I ate more bread and grains. My restless legs are unfortunately no less because of it. I don’t know what that would be like if I were to take more or even less carbohydrates, such as in the form of the keto diet. Maybe I’ll try that one day.
