Do you eat energy or exhaustion?

I’m talking about food, obviously.

If high energy is your goal, high quality fuel a.k.a. food is one of your obvious choices.

I know very few people of would choose to refuel their car in a gas station known to have dirty and diluted fuel. Would you?

For some reason most people today still treat their body to lesser quality fuels and the results are bad. Bad for health in general but for this Email’s focus - very bad for your vitality.

So what foods give you more energy and what foods leave you exhausted?

Vital foods - eat them for more energy

Vegetables

The first family of choice is vegetables. There is no arguments there. I do want to stress as aspect missing from the common habit - you want the vegetables to fill in about 60% of your plate. Fresh, steamed, cooked  or sautéed - that is up for you to choose the balance of how they are served.

The reason this is good for your energy is simple: Vegetables contain lots of minerals (More so when organic) and thus provide the body plenty of tools for creating energy.

The reason I stress 60% is that high volume of vegetables effect how the food travels through your intestines and how well it is digested (For nourishment as well as direct energy). It also helps prevent constipation which is a source of exhaustion.

Fruit

Another wonderful source of high energy is the colorful and tasty family of fruit. 

The easy to obtain sugars, the high soluble fiber and the world of micro elements available in fruit gives us many reasons to be energetic. It IS important to note that not all fruit are the same - learning to listen to your body and discern which work best for you and when is part of the art of living healthy. 

Whole grains

Unlike white rice or bread, whole grains contain minerals, vitamins and essential oils that contribute to our energy greatly.

White grains and produce tend to feed the germs in our gut and cause indigestion and gas on top of high sugar leaps in the blood which actually contribute to exhaustion.

Food that contributes mainly to exhaustion

Junk food

Over processed, highly salty and sugary foods that we find today in many households are a source of immediate gratification and pure exhaustion. With very little value to contribute they fill our body with low energy contribution and a lot of dysfunctionality which leads to exhaustion. 

Eating things like packed chips, sugary treats or other such snacks is like eating plastic - no real value and it still takes up space and leaves less room for real food in our system.

Salt

Not really a food, salt still deserves a paragraph on its own. 

Our body actually needs some salt daily. Without it there is not life. However, even when taken in from natural sources (Like vegetables e.g.) it uses up about 14% of our basic energy stores. The reason for that is simple, our cells can't handle too much sodium. Any more then needed will cause the cells to swell and even burst. For this reason the body has a built in mechanism to keep excess sodium out of the cell (The sodium-potassium pump as its called).

Now if this pump  uses up so much of our daily energy when we consume the right amount of salt in our foods - what happens to people that add more salt to every bite? 

The answer is quite obvious - they feel exhausted!

Deep fried foods

Take a wholesome ingredient like potatoes, deep fry it (French fries or chips - and so many types invented for such an unwholesome food) and you get pure exhaustion that tastes soooooo good, right?

Exhausting food combos

protein-carbs combo

Aside from ingredients (good / bad) and food preparations (good / bad) for energy - the third category is food combinations.

Most foods go well with each other. Some just don't.

Now I am not talking about the culinary aspect of "good combination". I am talking here about digestion good vs. bad combinations.

The most prominent combo that can truly exhaust us is: 

Highly concentrated carbs (Potatoes / sweet potatoes / corn) combined with highly concentrated protein (Mostly animal sources though soy beans can be a harsh combo too).

Two examples would be:

1. Meat and potatoes (I know... the most common food combo ever)

2. Fish and chips...

But why do these combos hit us so hard?

The reason is simple: The digestive needs of carbs and protein in the stomach are exactly opposed. Protein need high acidity in the stomach to be well digested, carbs need none.

People who stopped eating these hard combos for a couple of weeks regularly report a clear rise in energy.

Drinking during a meal

Another combo that wreaks havoc on our energy is drinking while you eat. The reason for that is simple:

When you drink during a meal you wash down your digestive juices and enzymes - so you don't digest so well.

It is good practice to drink half an hour before and then again an hour and a half after meals. 

Finding it hard? Check other habits related like your salt intake and amount of vegetables in the meal as well as your chewing habits.

Fresh vegetables for dinner

My last example for this post will deal with a very easy change that makes very clear changes in vitality.

Choosing to eat non-fresh vegetables in the evening means you respect your digestive system's need to rest at this point of the day. Our peak digestion hours end in the early afternoon, from this point onwards, fresh vegetables and fruit tend to challenge the digestive system's vitality and thus can exhaust us.

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There is plenty more to know about how food can energize us or exhaust us but I think I have exhausted your focus and a realistic post length :)

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