Food Karma

Thought I would write one after a long time. Just a blog on nothing.

Today, an acquaintance of mine taught me the word, “food coma”. I was on What’s App telling her that I am feeling sleepy after a rather generous helping of lunch. She send a voice message in a tone that half suggested that she is sorry for me sincerely, and in another half probably thinking that I just got out of Niah Cave after thirty years.

“Food coma? Yeah, food coma.” She repeated it one more time…third one possibly to hint about my age.

I laughed it off, “kids, these days!” Rolling my eyes upwards and checked what it meant online. Dammit, I need to update myself.

And voila! There is food coma, but the proper terminology for it, medically, is “Postprandial Somnolence". I had to push my heart back down my esophagus. What the hell was that!

To an untrained ears (in a household that lacked budget for cotton buds), that sounds terrifying. It’s like massive cavity injury somewhere between groin and ass with growing fungal infection. Or something like that. Goddamned Postprandial Somnolence!

But its just food coma. It’s that feeling of slight drowsy, slight tiredness, three spoonful of massive laziness and generous helping of sleepiness. Yeah, all that ‘ness’ coming and assaulting you like the SEAL team from Planet Sleeptopia.

In any case, why do we actually want to have  a massive lunch many a times? Especially in Malaysia? Long time ago, I wrote a piece here (2005) and here (2008) on on Banana leaf lunch and made a case that there is something in there that I suggest you read. You think what I’m gonna reproduce an excerpt politely like I do in my more serious writing? Balik kampong dah! This is my informal side, I even type topless here.

But in there, I suggested some chemical reason as to why we get sleepy. Decades have passed since then (actually only slightly more than a decade, but I am known to be dramatic especially to those who had faithfully deleted my numbers)…. And now most of us know why we get sleepy after lunch.

No, I don’t. Postprandial Somnolenc...it seems....

Now, this lady friend of mine told me about food coma and knowing well that my ass is lazier than a goddamned sloth on pot, I was to check what it meant. Also the term is very new for an old fart approaching fifth decade of existence (minus two and a half years in Rehab where I was kinda frozen in time). Kids these days know more about all this sort of things and most I can muster as an intellectual bid is that Cary Grant was supposed to do James Bond but couldn’t commit to multiple picture deals.

It says here…”Food comas typically result in a person feeling drowsy or fatigued. Some people also feel bloated, sluggish, or less alert, and may also be distinctly uninterested in being active…”

Yeah. Its also known as Postprandial Somnolence. 

So, there you go. Food coma. I kinda like it, grown fond of it, thinking of adopting it and calling it Postprandial Somnolence proper. So that I make sure I don’t have to deal with that stupid thing again. Adieu….