You can avoid taking a ride on the blood sugar roller coaster by choosing to eat a balanced diet full of high energy foods, good sources of protein, fiber, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. Watching your micro nutrient intake can help as well – ensuring that you have all of your daily needs covered in the vitamin and mineral categories too! In many cultures/countries, this is hard to do through food sources alone because of the issues we have with how even food grown/raised with the best of intentions is utilizing soil depleted of the nutrients that are necessary for our health maintenance, so a supplement may be necessary! If you are concerned, speak to your family physician for more information on what your levels are at! For most of us prairie folks – Vitamin D for instance is a huge issue as we don’t get enough sunlight for most of the year for our body to make even half of what it needs to be healthy and consuming the rest through food is difficult with such an insufficiency!
When we feel exhausted and have a lull in energy and we reach for sugary foods or simple carbs or caffeine, our glucose will spike and then our pancreas will dump insulin and our glucose will crash, and then we reach for the sugar all over again and up and down and up and down we go. So I posted the other day about several things you can do to deal with sugar cravings, but here is a list of some high energy foods you can turn to when you are feeling that slump and need a boost!
1. Water: Kind of a broken record here but water helps with everything and required by every bodily function pretty much. Enough maintains health, not enough and you have headaches, sluggish moods and pretty much every process in the body suffers. Drink your H2O.
2. Avocado: Skip the croutons and top your salad with slices of avocado for a lunchtime pick-me-up that will keep you energized throughout the rest of the day. Avocados are full of fiber and healthy fats, which are digested more slowly than simple carbs, resulting in a natural energy.
3. Eggs: Eat them any way from hard-boiled to over-easy, this excellent source of complete protein, healthy fats, and amino acids helps fight fatigue and sugar cravings.
4. Chia seeds: A good source of omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants, iron, and calcium, chia seeds also have the right ratio of protein, fats, and fiber to help you stay alert without a carb crash. Easily incorporate these small, but mighty seeds into smoothies or sprinkle on top of yogurt.
5. Spinach: A lack of iron (a key component in energy production) in your body can lead to a decrease in oxygen flow to the brain, which can make you feel more tired. Spinach is an excellent source of iron. Add some to your omelette or smoothie in the morning, to your salad at lunch, or sauté some with dinner.
6. Almonds: These powerhouse nuts contain tons of protein, fiber, heart-healthy fats, manganese, copper, and B-vitamins like niacin, folate, thiamin, and riboflavin, which help convert food to energy, as well as magnesium, a mineral that aids in energy metabolism.
7. Strawberries: Try swapping out sweets for strawberries. Not only are the natural sugars from fresh fruit, far superior to process or added sugary treats, but berries contain fiber, which helps your body absorb the natural sugar more slowly and sustains your energy levels.
8. Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese contains casein, a type of protein that provides your bloodstream and body with a steady flow of energy and will help keep you feeling full. One half cup of 2% fat cottage cheese has 12.5 g of protein and 4.1 g net carbs. My kids and I eat cottage cheese regularly and are obsessed with adding it to salads or adding nuts, seeds and spices to the top of our cottage cheese for a great snack!
9. Yogurt: Is a great source of magnesium and will help to keep you feeling sustained between meals just watch for added sugars in the flavoured ones and remember that often Low Fat Means they have added sugars to keep up the flavour! Read your labels!
10. Beans: Legumes contain a well-balanced combo of complex carbs, protein, and fiber. You’ll get an energy boost from the carbs, while the protein, fat, and fiber will fill you up and regulate blood sugar by slowing down your carb absorption.
11. Sweet Potato: Fight fatigue with sweet potatoes, which are loaded with good, complex carbs, fiber, and vitamins A and C. One half of a baked sweet potato has 9.9 g net carbs.
12. Apples: Because they’re packed with fiber, apples take longer to digest, which means snacking on this delicious fruit will provide you with more prolonged energy than other sugary snacks. Add cheese or a handful of nuts or slice them thin and make some “fruit nachos” with a melted nut butter drizzled over top!
13. Bananas: Not only are bananas filled with good-for-you nutrients like B-vitamins, potassium, and fiber, they’re also composed of multiple types of sugars that are digested at different speeds, making them an excellent natural energy providing food.
14. Oranges: This citrus fruit provides lasting, steady energy levels thanks to their natural sugars, vitamin C, potassium, and folate.
15. Smoothies: Smoothies are a fast and easy way to create the perfect balance of carbs, protein, healthy fats, and fiber. They’re also a great way to pack more nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables into your day.
In the end, when we turn to empty calories, unhealthy fats and foods high in sugar our body is also going to use more energy to digest them so you will end up feeling hungry and sluggish! Avoiding those simple carbs and sugary foods like processed breads, snacks, candy and turning to whole foods lower on the glycemic scale – our body will be able to maintain higher, balanced energy throughout the day!
To your health!
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