Top Foods that Drain Your Energy
Do you wake up each morning exhausted just with the mere thought of approaching the day? Does your fatigue linger as the day continues, or do you suffer from fatigue crashes during your afternoon? Unfortunately, you’re not alone, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal. There are many things that can be leading to your daily fatigue, including:
Lack of movement
Poor sleep hygiene
Inadequate sleep
Chronic stress
An imbalance in your gut microbiome
Unsupportive nutritional choices
There are so many underlying factors that go together, and one of the major contributing factors to lack of energy is your food choices. In this post, I’m going to briefly go over foods that drain your energy and I’m going to address top 8 foods that can really support/enhance your daily energy.
The foods that I’m about to list can give a false sense of energy after you consume them. This means, your energy can initially increase but ultimately you end up crashing.
Beverages Containing Caffeine
These include coffee, soda/pop, and energy drinks. Unfortunately, caffeine depletes adenosine in our mitochondria (the powerhouses of our cell where energy is created). Adenosine is a critical component of ATP (our body’s source of energy for our cells to function). Adenosine is also an inhibitory neurotransmitter, making you tired and sleepy. This neurotransmitter builds up throughout the day and evening and is one of the major signals that tells your brain it’s time to go to sleep. The more adenosine you have floating around in your brain, binding to adenosine-receptors, the more tired you’re going to be.
So, what’s the problem?
Well, caffeine has a similar shape to the adenosine molecules and can fit into the adenosine receptor sites. Caffeine ultimately blocks the adenosine from attaching, making you feel energized initially. For someone who doesn’t drink caffeine normally, this can be an enhancement and energizer for them. However, for those who drink caffeine regularly, once the caffeine wears off, the adenosine comes back with a vengeance, leading to a caffeine crash, a crash in your mood, your energy, and your performance.
Consuming caffeine every day can also lead to negative neurotransmitter adaptations in your brain, and in turn, cause you to feel tired and sleepy. Since caffeine is blocking up your adenosine receptors, the brain starts to feel overstimulated. When adenosine is constantly blocked by caffeine, you’ve created a chronic imbalance in your brain’s neurotransmitters. There are too many stimulating neurotransmitters and not enough relaxing neurotransmitters. The body then thinks that there is a shortage of relaxing neurotransmitters and then starts to create more adenosine. This ultimately leads to more fatigue. Not only does this disruption to our neurotransmitters affect our brain, but it also affects our gut microbiome since there is bi-directional communication between our gut and our brain. This can lead to an imbalance in our gut microbiome, which then causes a vicious cycle.
Processed, Packaged Foods
Foods that fall into this category include chips, cookies, crackers, candy, white bread, white pasta, white rice, breakfast cereals, yogurts, foods with added sugars, etc. Unfortunately, these foods contain fewer nutrients and are stripped of their fibers. These refined foods often lead to spiked blood sugar levels which then leads to blood sugar crashes. The crashes in blood sugar can cause extreme fatigue. When your blood sugar is constantly on a rollercoaster ride (spiking, then crashing), this can lead to more sugar cravings, insulin resistance, and chronic underlying inflammation. It’s another vicious, energy-draining cycle. Frozen meals, fried foods, and baked goods also fall into this category and are low in nutrients and high in fat while low in fiber. They slow down digestion, alter your gut microbiome and more.
Fruit Juices, Dried Fruits, and Foods High in Chemicals and Additives
Fruit juices are not only high in sugars and potentially added sugars, but they often contain corn syrup, artificial flavors, and colors as well. These dense sugars and chemicals can lead to the blood sugar spikes and crashes, alter your gut microbiome, slow down digestion, they are low in fiber and nutrients and replace the important energy-boosting nutrient-rich foods that your body craves.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a major disruptor of the gut microbiome and can lead to a leaky gut. A leaky gut can create underlying inflammation in the body and strip away your energy reserves while affecting other areas of your body as well. If you consume alcohol, especially around bedtime, it can also reduce the quality and duration of your sleep as it affects your REM cycles (you lose REM cycles), when your deep sleep and detoxification and processing takes place. This ultimately makes you feel more tired the next day.
Low Calorie Foods/Low Calorie Diets
Low calorie foods (like “diet bread” or diet foods) or lower calorie diets that lead to undereating can cause a huge energy crash as there are not enough calories to turn into energy for your cells to keep you functioning optimally. This way of eating can also lead to hormone disruption over time, slow your metabolism down, and deplete your energy.
Dehydration
Water helps facilitate the energetic processes in the body, and most of our body is made up of water so it’s crucial that we replace it. Water also helps the body remove waste via sweating, urination, and bowel movements. It aids in filtration and detoxification within the body as well. Without proper detoxification, the toxins stay within our body and clog us up, ultimately hindering our energy levels. If we don’t stay hydrated, the energetic processes within our body will struggle to run efficiently – another way in which we will lose energy.
What Foods Support Your Energy?
While you decrease/limit the above mentioned foods, consume enough quality calories, and stay well-hydrated, there are several foods that can help support your energy for the day! Here are the top 8 foods that are big energy supporters:
Organ meats, specifically liver
Eggs
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Avocado
Beans
Nuts & Seeds
Lentils
Other great contenders include fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring) – all wild-caught, quinoa, grass-fed beef, chicken, and cruciferous vegetables.
In Conclusion
It’s important to take a look at what foods you are currently consuming and where you can add in additional support so that you can have sustained energy throughout your day. Waking up and going through your day with exhaustion is not normal, and when it comes to your nutrition, you have a lot of control over how you support your energy. If you are struggling with energy and are needing more support, schedule a free consultation with me and we can get to the root of your energy crisis together. Click here to schedule your free 30-minute discovery call.
