Chocholate is 100% responsible for my RLS. Is it possible that it affects you ?

[Worriedanddesperate]

I am including below a post i made about a year ago, after discovering that it was Chocolate that is the trigger for my long term RLS and poor sleep. I do so purely to make sure you consider what food items could affect you. I'm not saying chocolate is a trigger for everyone or irs avoidance is some universal solution. I know it's the trigger for me and when I discovered that I was amazed, relieved of course, but the idea chocolate could be detrimental to my health was so surprising. I have a friend who has after my experience discovered it has a similar effect on him, so I know I'm not unique in this response. If chocholate is not a bad actor for you I hope you can find what is.

I'm not looking for lots of replies to this post, I just wanted to highlight that chocholate is a bad actor for me and just might be for you so worth checking it's effect on you.

Here's my post from about a year ago ...

My blood tests showed Fe levels all as expected. After starting to eat only simple plain foods with no alcohol my RLS subsided and sleep improved. However after many weeks of checking my sleep (smart watch) and carefully controlling my diet by introducing one food at a time I have discovered that the bad actor in this is Chocholate. If I eat milk/dark chocolate then I get restless legs through the evening and at night. I did extensive tests of abstinence and careful reintroduction and know 100% it’s chocholate that triggers my restless legs. I can eat sugary foods sweets etc but that just keeps me awake but no restless legs. White chocolate is similar so I can eat that in moderation. So it’s something in chocolate, cocoa solids that is the trigger ? I have stopped eating chocholate now and am sleeping better than I have in many many years.

I tried reducing screen time, evening baths, Mg, Fe, digestive additives etc and nothing worked until I discovered the effects of chocholate. No wonder I was worse at Christmas.

I have found that eating one chocolate bar has the bad effect on me ( I’m not gorging on chocholate if that’s what you are thinking !! ).

Laughingly, when I was getting up in the middle of the night as I couldn’t sleep due to restless legs I was making a milky cocoa drink to help me sleep - everyone knows cocoa at bedtime helps you sleep right 😂

I hope this information helps someone. We all know that checking diet is importantly to find bad actors but it takes discipline and good method but it’s well worth doing to identify any food issues.

Incidentally, I had a food intolerance test but that showed no effect by cocoa !! Though I had stopped eating chocolate many weeks earlier.

Good luck.

[SueJohnson]

Just curious. Can you drink coffee? Because it might be the caffeine in chocolate.

[Worriedanddesperate in reply to SueJohnson]

I only rarely drink caffeine containing coffee, most always decaf. However when I do drink proper coffee or tea ( and I do when decaf is not available) I don't get any RLS symptoms so I don't think it's the caffeine. I think it's theobromine in coffee, but that is supposedly a similar type of chemical compund to caffeine. So, I have no idea what specifically it is in chocholate that affects me, only that cocoa solids have something that does ( cocoa butter seems not to ...ie white chocholate doesn't affect me).

[SueJohnson in reply to Worriedanddesperate]

Well whatever it works for you not to eat it so that is great you have found that out..

[Worriedanddesperate in reply to Worriedanddesperate]

If I eat a small chocholate bar, RLS kicks in within half an hour, I can feel it in my legs and ovearall uneasiness. I can drink a couple of cups of normal coffee without any noticeable effect.

[Joolsg]

Diet most definitely affects a number of RLS patients and finding your triggers is one way to resolve symptoms. Dr Jose Thomas in abergavenny has mentioned caffeine in chocolate being a trigger for some people.

[Elisse3]

Never found any triggers for my RLS. A few months ago i had a problem keeping food in me everything i ate or drank wentthrough me. Had tests and nothing showed up . I was 4 weeks of no dairy drank lucazade for energy ate bananas , toast, egg , peanut butter , lost a stone in weight. My RLS was still the same no worse no better. Oh my was i happy to have first cuppa tea. nectar! 😊

[ChrisColumbus]

While sugar and caffeine are generally cast as the 'bad guys' in chocolate, theobromine is the principal alkaloid of Theobroma cacao (the cacao or cocoa tree). Milk chocolate typically contains between 200 and 250 milligrams of theobromine per 100 grams of chocolate; dark chocolate with 70-85% cocoa can contain up to 810 milligrams of theobromine per 100 grams of chocolate. It has physiologic properties similar to those of caffeine, and some people are reportedly sensitive to the stimulant effects (whereas others find caffeine, and - according to a RLS Reddit group I was just reading - theobromine, helpful). Theobromine also acts as a diuretic, and diuretics can exacerbate RLS in some/many.

[Worriedanddesperate in reply to ChrisColumbus]

Sorry, a typo. I meant Theobromine in chocolate....not coffee.

[ChrisColumbus in reply to Worriedanddesperate]

Yes, that's what I assumed. And that it's quite possible that you and some others are sensitive to the stimulant and/or diuretic effects of theobromine in chocolate: thanks for your post which highlights another little known possible dietary trigger.

[Eryl]

I've never found chocolate to cause RLS but then again I never eat a whole bar of milk chocolate, just one square of 90 % dark chocolate at a time. More likely that it's the sugar in the mike chocolate and the amount you consume is the likely cause.

[Worriedanddesperate in reply to Eryl]

Eryl, you are wrong, this is not the case for me, sugar has no RLS effect on me. During my dietary experiments I ate minimal plain food, no alcohol or cofffe, tea etc for a long time to clear my system. I then on one evening ate a decent amount of chocolate and quickly felt RLS symptoms. I reverted to a minimal plain diet for 3 days or more. I then ate half a box of Turkish delight ( which is mostly sugar) to see if this was the bad actor and it had no RLS effect at all. Only a slight energy boost that makes sleeping less likely but zero leg or body twitching. I did the same a few days later with white chocholate which also had no RLS effect So it's clear for me that this is not the effect of sugar...... in my case.....it might be for others? By the way, just a normal sized chocholate 'Mars bar" will start my RLS, I'm not gorging on chocholate. I never eat chocholate now and sleep better than I have in decades with at least 4-5 hours deep sleep per night. Annoyed I didn't realise this trigger aong time ago.

[Eryl in reply to Worriedanddesperate]

Chocolate contains a lot of emulsifers which strips the protective mucous lining from the gut and allows the sugar to be absorbed more quickly so it's not only the ammount of sugar which is eaten that is important but what is eaten with it. It's similar with bread and other flour based foods, they contain a lot of starch which will raise blood sugar but the gluten relaxes the villi (pores) of the intestine and allows it to be absorbed more quickly.

[Worriedanddesperate]

My RLS isn't triggered by sugar levels, I have eaten sugar in many guises along with many different foods since giving up chocholate witout any RLS effect. For me it's clearly something specifically in cocoa solids that triggers it for me - ie milk or dark chocholate, not white chocholate. Specifically what I don't know, could be theobromine, but could be something else but it's definately not sugar levels. Simple. I suggest folks try my diet experiments to rule our chocholate as the trigger. If it has no effect on you that's fine, lerp looking. It clearly does on me. Not sugar.

[Typicallygaslit]

Yes it does for me too, presumably because it increases serotonin and dopamine quite a bit so could contribute to serotonin toxicity. Another I noticed is chicory (e.g. in fake coffee) and anything of the marigold family.

[Worriedanddesperate in reply to Typicallygaslit]

Ah that's very interesting. I drink Camp coffee made with milk every evening (my mum used to make it for us when I was a child) as it's supposedly caffeine free as its chicory based and it has zero RLS effect on me. Whilst I would like to know what the active component in chocolate is that affects me, the key thing is to identify any foodstuffs or drinks that cause RLS and and avoid them. Having no RLS symptoms and regular good sleep as a result of abstinence of chocholate is a godsend to me, invaluable.

[Stelladevico]

Reading this post reminded me that it was thanks to some of the wonderful people on here that I found out my RLS was mainly caused by eating too much salt. I have other triggers like amitriptyline, but without the salt my life has become bearable again. Unfortunately, waking up after a couple of hours sleep has become a habit after so long with RLS, but that is ok compared with walking around the house for hours on end which was what I used to do.