4 Signs You May Be Suffering From A Food Hangover, Because Yes, That Is A Thing

There's pretty much nothing better in this world than enjoying a huge, delicious, borderline orgasmic meal. Except, of course, for that heavy feeling you get after indulging in what was, admittedly, probably too much food. One minute, you were in food heaven, and the next, you're overrun with fatigue, and keeping your eyes open seems literally impossible. I hate to break it to you, but that, my friend, is a food hangover.

In the simplest terms, it basically means you ate more than your body could handle, and, as a result, you've become excruciatingly tired, sluggish, and lethargic.

According to ScienceAlert, as you digest your meal, your blood is being shifted to the stomach and gut in order to transport recently absorbed and newly digested metabolites. Because the blood flow focus is mainly on the stomach and gut, this leaves less blood for the rest of the body -- which makes you, overall, feel all kinds of out-of-it.

Here are a few signs your body will give you that might just mean you're suffering from a food hangover.

1. You Have Brain Fog

Brain fog basically just means you're having a lot of trouble making it through your usual everyday tasks.

Mady Hornig, MD, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, told Prevention,

It's a vague sense of what you're trying to retrieve, but you can't focus in on it, and the effort to harness the thought can be as draining as physical activity.

So, it's almost as if the harder you try to beat the brain fog, the worse it feels. Cool, thanks, body.

2. You Have Trouble Sleeping

It may be hard to drift off to sleep while enduring a food hangover, because the food is just sitting like a log in your stomach. So, laying down just leaves you feeling all kinds of uncomfortable.

Besides, no matter how much you want to go to sleep, your body is more focused on digesting all the food you just ate first.

3. Bloating

You literally just pounded your digestive system with an overload of food -- of course your stomach is going to swell a bit.

However, if you're bloating more than usual, or it seems to happen whenever you eat a specific type of food (like, say, dairy) it may be a sign of a food allergy, rather than a food hangover.

4. You're Gassy AF

You may have excess gas while enduring a food hangover, especially if you ate a ton of carbs and protein in one meal.

According to holistic nutritionist Alina Islam, “eating large amounts of starch and protein at the same time can cause indigestion and acid reflux.”

Ah, so that's why I can't stop burping the alphabet. I thought I was just an obnoxious little sh*t.