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Eating for Energy: What foods to get you there

Posted May 8, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Seth Braun

Section: Her Health, Her Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Workout Fuel

This article is written by Mr. Seth Braun, a network guest contributor, natural health expert and best-selling author. Seth can be contacted for a complimentary consultation through his site or at his clinic, (303)-444-2357.

How do you get the most from the foods you eat?  What foods are the best energy sources?  What foods should you avoid?

To get the most energy from the food that you eat, you need to practice these three basic habits:
1. Chewing. Your jaw is the first step in digestion. Chewing is essential to unlocking the energy in the food you eat. It is free. It is easy, and you will never turn back!
2. Eat in a relaxed and thankful manner. Eating with anxiety produces an edgy and irritable digestive system. Conversely, eating with gratitude produces great digestion!
3. Don’t eat too close to bedtime. The body isn’t ready to digest food while it sleeps. Generally speaking, close the kitchen at 7 PM.

Getting clear about which foods are the best sources of energy would take a long and comprehensive discussion with a health counselor. Each person is unique and in nutrition-speak, this is called “bio-chemical individuality.” That said, here are three useful guidelines to use in choosing high energy foods:
1. Eat foods close to their natural source. Eating local, natural foods in their whole, unprocessed state gives you the most energy “bang for your buck.”
2. Eat a large portion of your foods uncooked. Raw foods are still living, and they enter your body as a vibrant energetic system. You need to discover how much raw food is optimal for you.
3. Include a rainbow of colors in your diet. Each color represents a phytochemical (plant chemical); some of these include caratenoids, polyphenols, glyconutrients.  Phyochemicals are compounds found in plant-derived foods that may play an active role in fighting off disease, reducing inflammation and boosting immunity. 

If you want to improve your energy by cutting out “energy bombs,” here are three of the “most wanted” energy-zapping foods:
1. Corn syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup. The production of corn is subsidized in this country; therefore, corn syrup is ridiculously cheap. Our bodies need to draw on reserve vitamins and minerals to metabolize corn syrup. Hit number one. Consumption of corn syrup also leads to excess blood glucose and insulin, which has disastrous effects on short and long term health.
2. Food additives. Artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and fake foods. My uncle once told me, “there is no such thing as artificial, all things come from nature.” That is true, but these highly refined and processed substances are a nuisance to the body and need to be processed out; as a result, they steal energy away from other functions.
3. My BIG MONEY FOOD BOMB for the day is the “energy bar.” Read the label of the major energy bars: Zone, Power Bar, etc. Many of these are sweetened with corn syrup and have a boatload of fake foods. These so called health foods tie with “energy drinks,” such as Red Bull (which claims to be “fuel for mind body and spirit”), are sweetened with corn syrup and full of highly processed additives. Sure, it kicks you in your arse for an hour or two, but it slowly depletes your body over time.

Copyright, 2006, Real Simple Nutrition, LLC.

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Tags: bio-chemical individuality, carbohydrates, energy, food additives, healthy foods, raw foods

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