How To Boost Your Energy For Good
There's No Magic Pill to Shake Fatigue, Only Good Nutrition
Nov 21, 2008
There is still so much to do but where will the energy come from? It will come, for one example, from a change in eating three large meals a day to eating more frequent, smaller meals,
What's for Breakfast?
Everyone has had it drummed into them that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and still it gets skipped. Tired, cranky people walk around in a fog because they neglect to eat breakfast. People who want go-power that lasts all day eat a certain kind of breakfast too. It needs to be a breakfast that is high in complex carbohydrates blended with protein. For example, whole-grain cereal with low-fat or skim milk and fresh fruit, or whole-wheat toast topped with low-fat cheese. This is the true breakfast of champions.
It's so important to drink that orange juice every day too. A study of 411 dentists and their wives found that those who consumed at least 400 milligrams of vitamin C per day reported feeling less tired during the day.
Women especially should eat a cereal with iron in it. Iron is essential for energy and women need it most.
Lunch: Hold the Fries
High protein foods energize, while starchy foods like pasta and potatoes eaten for lunch leave people looking for a quiet place to take a nap.
In a study in England, researchers gave people a variety of lunches and tested their energy levels. One lunch was low-fat, high carbohydrate. Another lunch was medium fat and carbs. And the third was high-fat, low carbs. People eating the high carb and the high fat lunches reported more drowsiness and foggy thinking than the lower-carb lunch people.
So, simply put, the way to improve energy levels is by balancing the carb-protein mix so that most of the diet comes from complex carbs, laced with a bit of protein
And it's usually better to eat several smaller meals instead of weighing the body down with two to three large ones. Smaller means keeping blood sugar levels stable which fights off fatigue, according to Wahida Karmally, R.D., director of nutrition for Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.
Beware the 10:00 a.m. Pick-Me-Up
Forgo the 10 a.m. donut or other sweet pick-me-up. The body's blood sugar will rise alright, but what goes up must come down and the pick-me-up leaves one sleepier than before eating it for an energy fix.
For a real boost in an energy slump, try celery sticks with peanut butter, yogurt, a hard-boiled egg or a smoothie made with low-fat yogurt, fruit and milk.
Try the "Food of the Future"
The "food of the future", as it is sometimes called, blue-green algae, can give amazing results. It is called that because of its amazing ability to synthesize high-quality concentrated food more efficiently than any other algae. It is 65 to 71 percent complete protein, with all essential amino acids in perfect balance. By comparison, beef is only 22 percent protein. It is full of B12 as well as chelated minerals, and enzymes--all in an easily assimilable form.
Spirulina is a supplement but it is also a whole food. It is available frozen, in juices, in capsules, powders and pills and in some power and energy bars. One can feel its green magic pick up right away.
Chlorella is a genus of single-celled green algae and is often sold with spirulina. It is also very energizing. It is high in protein and other essential nutrients as well as vitamins and minerals.
In Conclusion
Run the body on premium fuel not cheap, knock-off junk food that keeps it from being raring to go all day. Eat smart and don't look for quick fixes that are just empty calories.
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Source: Yeager, Selene and eds of Prevention Health Books, The Doctors Book of Food Remedies, Rodale 1998.
