pudding headaches

(Update: I’ve experimented some more with these puddings as well as the Jello ones and they don’t seem to give me headaches anymore. Not consistently, anyway. Oh well.)

I think I’ve discovered a food that gives me headaches. My wife bought these “No Sugar Added” chocolate pudding “Snack Packs” and I downed a couple of them. Shortly thereafter I got a headache. I  tried them again the next day, and again I got a headache. So I skipped a day. Today around lunch time I was feeling absolutely fine, so I decided it was a good time to test this out. I ate two of the pudding cups, and ten minutes later I had a headache, a tingling scalp, and chills. Weird.

Ingredients: Water, Skim Milk From Concentrate (Water, Concentrated Skim Milk), Modified Corn Starch, High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Cocoa, Maltitol, Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Salt, Carrageenan, Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Acesulfame Potassium, Artificial Vanilla Flavor, Sucralose.

Of those ingredients, I’m sure that water, salt, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose are not the problem.

Looking around the web it seems the most commonly cited headache ingredient is Maltitol.  Quite a few people also are suspicious of Carrageenan as a cause of headaches. One person has a blog entry that swears carrageenan gives her lengthy migraines. I don’t have time to fully research this right now, but I’m seeing some very concerning pages regarding carrageenan (cancer in rats, a potent allergen, immune activity). This definitely bears further investigation. (which is why I’m posting this, as a note for myself for further study)

I should also mention that I got a severe headache after eating a different, similar treat, “Mousse Temptations Dark Chocolate Decadence” by Jell-O. The ingredient list has some similarities, but also some differences:

Water, Xylitol, Cream, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), Modified Cornstarch, Contains Less Than 2% of Gelatin, Milk Protein Concentrate, Salt, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (For Smooth Texture), Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium. Contains: Milk.

And finally, for completeness, I’ll mention another pudding treat that doesn’t seem to give me headaches, although it’s possible it did and I didn’t associate it with the headaches (I’ve been getting quite a few headaches lately). It’s Jell-O brand Chocolate Pudding Snacks. Ingredients:

WATER, XYLITOL, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, CONTAINS LESS THAN 1.5% OF MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (COCONUT AND PALM KERNEL OILS), SALT, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE (FOR SMOOTH TEXTURE), CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ALGINATE, SUCRALOSE, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, ARTIFICIAL COLOR. CONTAINS: MILK.

I need to do more research with these Jell-O pudding cups to determine if they give me headaches or not. Maybe more research with the Temptations as well, although, I swore I’d never buy them again.  (I ate the Temptations late in the evening, and I know that carbs late in the evening is asking for headache trouble so I generally try to avoid doing that). The smart thing to do is just avoid these things, right? But I really want to nail down *exactly* what ingredient is giving me headaches, if that’s possible, so I can then avoid all foods containing that ingredient.

wind mobile activation fail

I bought a phone from the Wind Mobile website a few days ago, and it arrived in the mail in 4 days, as promised. I’ve had the phone for a day now, but have been unable to activate it.

The card that came with the phone says to phone 1 (877) 809-4631 to activate. So I did that. I worked my way through their system, and finally got to, “If you’re activating a new phone, press 1 to get your service up and running.” I pressed 1 and got, “Please visit wind mobile slash activate to get your service up and running.” Unbelievable. The URL is also on the card, but it’s second. Thanks for wasting my time, Wind.

So okay, I went online to activate my new phone. I created an account and was immensely pleased to get a semi-cool phone number. I was elated, actually, as I hate having a really random phone number. Unfortunately, when I got to the part where you had to enter the SIM number it told me my SIM number was invalid. I’m absolutely certain I was entering it correctly, but it would not let me progress any further.

So, okay, I then phoned customer service to get this straightened out. However, every time I work my way through the system to speak to an operator I end up with a busy signal, and then it hangs up.

So that’s where I’m at. I can’t activate my phone. I’ve tried calling at least 30 times now, and all I ever get is a busy signal. I can log in to my partially created account, but I can’t do anything with it. My phone, needless to say, is useless.

Needless to say, I am currently unimpressed with Wind Mobile.

running report

The whole running thing hasn’t been going all that well lately. I did a lot of ladder work a few weeks ago, and that irritated the arch of my foot (plantar fasciitis). It was quite sore and when I finally had a look at it I was surprised to find it was even visibly swollen. So I’ve been trying to take it easy, although I’m still on my feet quite a bit lately. It seems prudent to cut back on the running, and as a result I’ve been out for a run just 4 times in the past 4 weeks.

It also doesn’t help that it’s been raining almost non-stop for the last few weeks. I would have went sooner than today (10 days since my last run), but it has been pouring. I’ve been waiting to run off some Halloween candy! Today there was no rain and I finally managed to get in a nice 3 mile run.

I just took some time to read up on the subject of plantar fasciitis as it relates to running, and the consensus seems to be that a person should stop running for a few months until it’s fully healed. That sucks.

The thing is, I’ve had this before from doing ladder work. It just goes away. Never this bad, though, and I’ve never had it while I’m doing running, either. It does seem a little more sore after a run.

What really sucks is that my gutters need cleaning, there’s some work on the front of my house that needs doing, and the Christmas lights will need to be put up soon. Clearly, there’s more ladder work in my future.

Oh well, I’ll figure something out. For now I’m going to keep running but less frequently. I need to add some kind of cardio, though. Some options would be an exercise bike, the gym, or swimming. We’ll see.