Eating for Energy

I always tell people about my method of eating that gives me energy. A friend of mine said I I should write a post on it - so here it is. I have to write the disclaimer that I might be entirely wrong, but I think I'm close to reality. I'm not a nutritionist by any means.

I was always hit with "brain fog" that killed my ability to think, and I started exploring how to get the brain woken up. I found that the key is blood glucose. The brain only consumer glucose - it doesn't store anything (unlike fat or muscle cells for instance), because of this it's quite beholden to blood glucose levels.

We all know that when you give kids sugar they get hyper - this is caused by sucrose (table sugar commonly found in most sweet) and fructose (found in nearly every food in the USA) breaking down into glucose - then supercharging your brain. The issue is that insulin comes in to kill the sugar & you get a sharp drop in energy.

The key to having lasting energy is to smooth the peaks. To do this, we need to know what rate different foods burn at. The fastest are simple sugars (sucrose, glucose, fructose) which pretty much should be eaten at all for a lot of reasons (energy peaks, high calories, etc.). Then there's the simple carbs like white bread which are actually just sugars linked together to form chains. If you eat white bread, it burns very quickly. In fact, your mouth actually starts digestion by enzymes in your saliva. This is why if you chew on bread for a while it turns sweet - the enzymes are cutting the chains into their constituent sugars.
Fun fact: Did you know that paper and cotton (aka cellulose) are actually made of long chains of glucose? Termites have bacteria in their stomachs that have enzymes that can break these very strong chains into sugar, which is how they can actually eat wood for energy - wild!

So, what should you eat to spread out these peaks? Firstly, complex carbs like whole wheat bread, etc. You should check the label to make sure it has whole wheat as the first ingredient - many "wheat" breads actually just have a mix of white & whole wheat flour. These will last about 1-2hours depending on metabolism - about 40% longer than white bread.

Secondly, protein. These take even longer to digest. As the complex carbs are digested, the body burns this protein by converting their stored energy into glucose - this helps smooth the energy release.

Lastly, fats. These take longer to digest than the previous two, and hence release energy later and smoother. This adds to the effect.

In the end, you want levels of energy from carbs, proteins, and fats so that as one source dies the others pick up the slack. By the time the next meal rolls around - your blood glucose is still stable and hence the brain doesn't have to be foggy.

Thoughts?

Comments

[James]

I don't believe that smoothing the peaks and troughs in your glucose levels delivers maximum productivity returns. Better to let the body be, and it will deal with the peaks and troughs on its own. The net gains during the peaks will more than make up for the net losses during the troughs.

As long as your levels don't go low enough as to put you into hypoglycemic shock (an unlikely scenario), this method will give you more total energy than any kind of artificial diet restrictions you place on yourself. Just ask any Austrian nutritionalist out there.

[Nick Pinkston]

I am the very model of Keynesian nutritionist!

[Jami]

drinking caffeine can completely upset your balance. and alcohol. drinking water instead of caffeine will give you a more steady flow of energy, instead of all at once and then causing you to crash an hour or two later. plus, caffeine inhibits my ability to concentrate, but everyone has different reactions to it.

i stopped eating gluten about a year ago, and now I don't feel so TIRED after meals. I still eat protein and carbs (through rice and potatoes), but don't feel nearly as tired after meals.

i think this is why raw foodists exist - eating only nuts and berries, b/c it levels out their energy levels.

[Nick Pinkston]

Yea, I think caffeine can have good and bad effects. Today I felt "high" on coffee, but I did get a lot done. Alcohol plain sucks for energy - I try to never have more than one drink at a time (I'm such a lightweight).

I've never heard of gluten being a drain on energy - I'll have to look it up.

I think the "raw foodists" have some interesting points, however it's completely untrue that humans evolved to eat raw food only. Our descendants have been cooking with fire for millions of years. Many believe that the appendix is a remnant of when we didn't have access to fire and ate only raw food, however its deterioration has been taking place for many 100's of millennia. I think their argument against processed foods is many times stronger. I'm completely with them, though I can't fully pull it off...