Clinical nutritionist Ben Warren, founder and clinical director of holistic health company BePure, shares his top five energy boosters.
1. Eat right for you
Eating right for you involves eating the right levels of fats, proteins and carbohydrates for your genetics and metabolism. At BePure this is what we call “finding your macronutrient profile”.
Stable blood-sugar levels are the king of stable energy levels. Foods that spike your blood sugar give you a short peak in energy followed by long, lethargic lows. Eating the right balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins for your body will stabilise your blood-sugar levels, giving you the energy to feel your best.
2. Drink plenty of water
Water is required for all functions of energy at a cellular level, so it’s important to keep hydrated. I like people to drink 0.033L per kilogram everyday. If you’re 60kg that means 2L a day, 75kg means 2.5L a day and for 90kg this is 3L a day. If you don’t drink enough water, you’re not going to have enough energy.
3. Add quality nutritional supporting supplements
In the modern world we experience huge demands on our metabolic pathways for energy production, detoxification and hormone production. To support these pathways in functioning optimally, we require healthy levels of nutrients in the body. Unfortunately, due to poor soil quality, modern farming and food conveniences, plus increased stressors on our body (which see us use up nutrients much faster), it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to get the nutrients we need from food alone. Adding quality nutritional support is a great way to easily increase nutrient and energy levels. Some key nutrients I’d recommend starting with are a quality multivitamin, vitamin C and CoQ10.
4. Get good-quality sleep
Sleep helps us balance our entire system. It’s important we get at least eight hours of sleep to allow our bodies to restore and rebuild our resources and energy levels to function well the next day. To ensure good-quality sleep, I suggest simple things such as turning your phone and devices off a few hours before bed, doing some relaxing exercises (such as putting your legs up the wall for 10 minutes) or enjoying another calming activity in the hour before going to sleep.
5. Nurture your mind and enjoy life
Yes, energy is made at the cellular level, but hormones control these cells, and what controls your hormones, to a degree, are your thoughts. By nurturing great mental health, enjoying life and being excited about what is happening in your world, you are more likely to produce the hormones required for energy production which will lead to boundless energy.
This article originally appeared in Nadia Magazine.
