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These foods can help you feel energized from morning until sundown. Make sure you have these foods in your pantry and kitchen!
1. Oatmeal
There’s a good reason why many people start their day with oatmeal: it’s rich in fiber and beta-glucan. Both work in slowing down the absorption of sugar.
This way, you don’t experience a fast insulin spike, which is dangerous for people prone to diabetes. It also prevents a sugar slump, where you become hungry and tired more quickly.
Oatmeal comes in different forms, textures, and even amounts of macronutrients, such as protein, fats, and carbohydrates.
Although whole oats have the highest amount of protein and fiber, they are also abundant in carbohydrates. When you want something less, you can opt for steel-cut oats or rolled oats.
The easiest to cook is instant oats, and it contains the least amount of calories among the others. It also has the least amount of fiber, protein, and carbohydrates.
2. Walnuts
How do you know it’s time to keep yourself re-energized in the middle of the day? You may experience brain fog or momentary memory loss.
You may no longer able to focus on your job, or you may already feel lethargic. When you want to have more energy anytime, eat some walnuts.
Walnuts help promote better brain function. In a 2014 study, regular consumption of walnuts can prevent brain inflammation due to oxidative stress.
Its polyphenol compounds can boost cognitive performance, motor skills, and memory. These nuts are also easy to add to your diet to enhance your focus naturally.
You can top these as salads, eat them as is, add them to your oatmeal, or include them in your homemade granola bars.
3. Bananas
You can also learn how to get energized when you include bananas in your diet.
This bright-yellow fruit is an excellent source of carbohydrates. It has 30 grams of carbohydrates, which is similar to eating a serving of whole-grain oats!
It is also rich in vitamin B6, which you need to produce hemoglobin, a component of blood that delivers oxygen to different cells in the body.
The fruit contains as much as 450 mg of potassium, a trace mineral that promotes a healthy nervous system. When you’re potassium deficient, the nerves of your organs may become impaired, and they cannot absorb other nutrients properly.
You can also get about 34 mg of magnesium from the fruit. It is a trace mineral that stimulates adenosine triphosphate production.
Also known as ATP, it is the primary source of energy of cells. Without them, these cellular bodies cannot perform their functions that support life correctly.
4. Strawberries
Another food that helps you stay energized is strawberries. These citrusy fruits are high in vitamin C.
A cup of strawberries can give you as much as 84.7 mg of vitamin C. In fact, it has more of this vitamin than orange!
Vitamin C can increase your energy in different ways. One, it prevents common joint problems such as gout and arthritis.
Vitamin C-rich foods contain antioxidants that help protect the cells against free radicals. These are body wastes missing their electrons and thus steal from other healthy molecules.
Further, they improve the absorption of iron. It is a trace mineral your body needs to produce red blood cells, which transport oxygen throughout the body.
5. Eggs
If you can have only one food to boost energy, go for an egg. There are many ways how to feel energized with this food:
- Eggs are an excellent source of protein and fat, two macronutrients that help keep you feeling full throughout the day.
- They also have different kinds of B vitamins, including B6.
- They have leucine, a type of essential amino acid that helps regulate muscle synthesis. A 2009 research suggested leucine may improve endurance training of both men and women.
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6. Quinoa
Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to quinoa than giving you carbs. This can keep you energized with its essential amino acids—it has all nine of them!
It also contains trace minerals such as magnesium and iron, as well as fiber twice as much as other types of carbs.
Quinoa is also a flexible kind of food. You can eat it to substitute oatmeal, make energy bars, or add it to your salad.
7. Avocados
The creamy avocado can provide you with an energy boost because of its high levels of healthy fat. Like protein, it can keep hunger at bay for long periods.
Speaking of fats, the fruit contains monounsaturated fatty acids. These types of lipids help increase good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein) and decrease the bad one (low-density lipoprotein).
This can potentially prevent the buildup of plaque along your blood vessels, which can lead to high blood pressure or even cardiovascular disease.
Avocados are also high in niacin, a B vitamin that enhances brain function and reduce pain from arthritis.
8. Chia Seeds
Why do you feel tired after eating every meal? It can be due to many reasons such as how your cortisol levels change throughout the day or your wake-sleep cycle.
Another reason is glucose or blood sugar. When you eat too much in one sitting, it can increase your glucose levels fast.
It may also encourage your body to direct all its energy toward digesting the foods you eat. One way to prevent feeling tired after a meal is consuming chia seeds.
Chia seeds have carbohydrates but most of them are also fiber. They can decrease blood sugar’s absorption in cells.
They may even improve the cell’s sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that delivers glucose to cells. They also contain protein and amino acids, which are necessary to maintain peak performance.
9. Black Tea
If you care for some tea, then you might want to make it black instead of green. Green tea may help reduce your weight and provide antioxidants.
It’s black tea, however, that teaches you how to stay energized during the day. It has a higher amount of caffeine and contains L-theanine.
L-theanine is a naturally occurring compound in black tea that induces relaxation. This way, you feel less stressed without trying to get yourself to sleep.
These types of food can teach you how to feel more energized, no doubt, but there’s another reason to consume them. As you can see, they’re rich in vitamins and minerals!
When you consume them, you are not only feeding yourself for power and endurance. You are also nourishing your cells to help you stay fit and healthy.
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