How Drastic Diet Changes Can Trigger IPS and Why Your Body Reacts So Strongly

Many people assume that IPS or post meal crashes appear out of nowhere, but one of the most common patterns I see is the onset of symptoms after a dramatic shift in diet. It might begin after cutting carbs, eliminating whole food groups, starting a juice protocol, doing intermittent fasting, suddenly increasing raw foods, or following an intense wellness trend that promises clarity or detoxification. At first, you may feel energized or hopeful. Then slowly or suddenly, your nervous system begins to unravel. You feel lightheaded. Meals start triggering adrenaline. You wake up with emptiness and shaking. Digestion feels louder. Your body becomes reactive to things it once handled easily. It can feel like everything “broke” overnight, even though the process was building quietly for a long time.

When you drastically change your diet, your metabolic system has to adjust quickly. If you suddenly remove carbohydrates, your glycogen stores shrink. If you flood your system with fast-absorbing sugars on an empty stomach, your insulin response becomes unpredictable. If you lower your caloric intake too much, your body shifts into conservation mode. These physiological changes can destabilize the delicate communication between blood sugar, hormones, the vagus nerve, and the brainstem. For people with sensitive nervous systems, this can create the beginnings of what looks like IPS or reactive hypoglycemia even when glucose levels remain technically normal.

Another thing that happens during drastic diet changes is a shift in the rhythm of the digestive fire, or Agni, as Ayurveda would call it. Every time you radically change meal structure, timing, or macronutrients, your digestive system has to relearn how to break down food smoothly. During this transition, signals from the gut can become louder, more erratic, or more distressing. The vagus nerve amplifies these sensations, and the body responds with adrenaline because it interprets internal turbulence as danger. This is why so many people report stomach dropping sensations, buzzing, shaking, and panic after meals during or after a diet change.

Extreme diets also place a heavy burden on the adrenal system. When your body does not receive predictable nourishment, cortisol rhythms become unstable. Cortisol is one of the hormones that helps regulate blood sugar. If cortisol becomes irregular, even normal fluctuations can feel dramatic. What should be a gentle rise and fall begins to feel like an internal fall. You might feel as if you are crashing even with normal glucose levels. This is one of the core experiences of IPS.

Drastic diet shifts can also create depletion. When you suddenly reduce carbohydrates, calories, or fat, or restrict foods too aggressively, the nervous system loses the steady fuel it needs to feel grounded. This depletion shows up as dizziness, dissociation, fatigue, a hollow sensation in the chest or stomach, heightened sensitivity to stress, sleep disturbances, and emotional fragility. Over time, this depletion makes the system more susceptible to post meal adrenaline spikes. The body begins overreacting to normal digestion because it no longer feels buffered or supported.

For people who started juicing or consuming pure sugar liquids as part of a health protocol, the pattern is even more obvious. A large glucose intake with no fat, fiber, or protein creates a sharp rise and fall that the body may handle well at first. But with repetition, the nervous system becomes sensitized to these swings. Eventually, even normal meals can trigger the same internal alarm response. This is one of the most common ways people unknowingly slide into IPS.

What is important to understand is that your symptoms are not a failure. You did not harm your body irreversibly. Your system simply adapted to the inputs it was given, and now it needs a period of steady, gentle nourishment to relearn stability. The body is incredibly resilient. It simply becomes reactive when it has been pushed too quickly in one direction.

The good news is that healing does not require anything extreme. In fact, the repair process is the opposite of drastic. It is slow, warm, consistent nourishment. It is protein in the morning, steady meals throughout the day, smaller portions, more grazing, and routines that help the nervous system feel safe again. It is the rebuilding of Ojas, the restoring of metabolic flexibility, the calming of the vagus nerve, and the reassurance that food is not a threat.

If your symptoms began after a diet change, know this. You are not imagining the connection. Many people have walked this exact path. Diet is powerful, and the body responds strongly to sudden shifts. But just as a drastic change can destabilize the system, a gentle, rhythmic, loving approach can absolutely bring it back into balance.

Your system is not broken. It is recovering. And with steadiness, warmth, and support, it can find its way back to feeling safe after eating.