Feast On These High-Energy Foods – Part Two
If you’re overweight, slim down. „Carrying around 10 or 20 pounds of excess weight in the form of body fat is like dragging an anchor,“ says Wayne Askew, PhD, professor of nutrition and director of the division of foods and nutrition at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. „The best way to feel energetic is to maintain a proper body weight for your height and frame size.“
Forget crash-dieting. It’s pretty hard not to get enough calories in our food-privileged country, but lots of women go out of their way to do just that. Low-calorie diets—fewer than 1,200 calories a day, depending on your size—can sap your energy. For one thing, it’s more challenging to get the nutrients you need once you go below 1,800 calories a day. And, though every woman has different calorie needs, consuming fewer than 10 calories per pound of body weight is clearly too low, Grandjean says. „The body compensates by going into a lower gear.“
The Power Duo
Vitamins and minerals don’t provide energy directly, but they’re big-time players in processing energy. So if you don’t get enough of them, you may find yourself waking up tired and staying that way. Lots of variety in fruits and vegetables is the best way to get the whole array of micronutrients, from vitamin A to zinc. But for energy, try these two strategies:
Drink lots of fresh orange juice. Believe it or not, perhaps one out of three women isn’t getting enough vitamin C, says Carol Johnston, PhD, assistant professor of food and nutrition in the family resources department at Arizona State University in Tempe. Vitamin C helps produce carnitine, a molecule that helps your body burn fat for energy. „People likely have up to a 50% drop in muscle carnitine levels when they’re vitamin C-depleted,“ she says. Johnston thinks 200 to 300 mg daily is enough for you to feel more energy, assuming that you were short on C. You can get that much without supplementing if you drink orange juice (one 8-ounce glass a day) and eat a diet high in vitamin C-rich foods, including kiwifruit (70 mg per fruit), raw red or green bell pepper (142 mg and 60 mg per 1/2 cup, respectively), broccoli (51 mg per 1/2 cup cooked), strawberries (49 mg per 1/2 cup), and brussels sprouts (48 mg per 1/2 cup cooked).
Be sure to get enough iron. Iron is a must mineral for energy because of its role in transporting oxygen via red blood cells to wherever it’s needed in the body. Too little iron creates a cascade of problems that end up lowering your metabolic rate—and your energy levels. A lot of women aren’t getting the 18 mg a day of iron they need in their diets. A half-cup of soybeans contains 9 mg of iron; a half-cup of baked beans, 8 mg; a half-cup of spinach, 6 mg; 3 oz. of beef, 5 mg; and 3 oz of fried oysters, 6 mg. If you think you’re anemic or have significantly low iron levels, see your primary-care physician before taking iron supplements.
Power Breakfasts
„When you wake up in the morning, you’ve gone 6 to 8 hours without taking in any calories,“ Wein points out. „That is the time to wake up your body by providing it with the right kind of calories to burn for energy.“
So if you skimp on breakfast, you run the risk of a lackluster morning, since your blood sugar will probably be low and stay low, depriving your brain of the glucose it needs. Here’s how to eat a true power breakfast:
Hold the pancake syrup. Sweet breakfasts are an energy disaster, since nothing plummets your blood sugar faster (after an initial boost) than concentrated forms of simple carbohydrates like corn or maple syrup. Pouring one of them over refined carbohydrates like white flour pancakes or waffles exaggerates the effect. Whittle warns that any sweet topping with corn syrup in it—like the typical maple-flavored syrup or a lot of jellies—is an especially good bet to spike-and-dip your blood sugar to lethargic levels. So try some healthier and more energizing alternatives, she suggests. Go for French toast made with whole grain bread and egg substitute, or use a whole grain flour like buckwheat in your pancake or waffle mix. Top them off with your favorite fruit instead of syrup.
Reach for some protein. While fruit and whole grain cereal are fine morning choices, your breakfast carbohydrates still need to be balanced with some protein foods for more enduring energy, Whittle says. The fat-free milk or low-fat yogurt you add to the cereal will work. Or go for eggs or egg substitutes with an English muffin or a slice of whole grain toast.
Shoot for 3 g of fiber per serving. Whole grains, unlike refined flour products, deliver energy laced with fiber, which slows down the digestion so that the energy is released over a longer period of time. That’s why whole grain, high-fiber cereals are an excellent breakfast selection for all-morning energy. „Look for one with at least 3 g of fiber per serving,“ Wein says. „Some have 8 g or more. Eat it with fat-free milk, and you have a perfect balance.“
Stock up on oatmeal. A fiber-packed whole grain cereal, oatmeal is your best breakfast choice for long-lasting energy, says William Evans, PhD, director of the nutrition, metabolism, and exercise laboratory at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Little Rock. Evans credits oatmeal’s energy-boosting ability with its soluble fiber content. Much more than the insoluble fiber in, say, wheat bran, the soluble fiber in oatmeal slows down carbohydrate absorption, thus keeping your blood sugar levels more constant. Both oat bran and rolled oats are high in soluble fiber, so on mornings when you don’t feel like eating oatmeal, try oat bran muffins.