Top 20 Energy Foods
Discover the Top 20 Energy Foods and Why You Should Eat Them
It’s amazing the way different foods (energy foods and non-energy foods) impact the human body. Back in the hunting and gathering days there weren’t many options, but eating for energy came natural. People ate what they could kill or what they could pick/gather. This meant eating a lot of berries and grassy, leafy greens with some meat thrown in for good measure. How much meat was consumed depended on how much was available to different groups of people during different seasons of the year.
Today, we have an unlimited variety of foods to choose from. We still have berries and fresh fruits with green leafy vegetables sold everywhere. Yet, we also have unlimited access to meat, fish, cheese, and all of those prepackaged and microwavable products. Don’t forget to add in restaurants and fast food drive-thrus.
Eating for energy is no longer a natural result of our lifestyle. The overabundance of food in the modern world has made it so we have to consciously focus on eating more energy foods and fewer energy-zapping foods. The problem is most people don’t know what energy foods are, but that’s an easy problem to fix with a little information that will be provided right here.
What are Energy Foods?
Energy foods are select foods that still have the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibers and phytonutrients that they naturally contain. They are foods that have not been stripped of their nutritional goodness through processing and packaging. They tend to be whole foods that you purchase from a farmer’s market or the produce department of local stores. Sometimes they can be purchased in supplement form.
Energy foods are important because they give the body the energy needed to get through life. When you start substituting less healthy food items for these energy foods, you will notice quite a few benefits to your life including:
- You will have a lot more energy during the day, so you don’t run out of steam too fast.
- You will find losing weight easier since you are eating healthy foods that are good for your body and have more energy to workout.
- You will find it easier to concentrate and make sound decisions since your brain is getting what it needs from your food choices.
The Top 20 Energy Foods
Eating for energy may seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. If you focus on making simple substitutions in your diet you will see great changes in your energy levels over time. You can make more substantial changes to start eating for energy right away, but the easiest way to start is to pick a food from this list and substitute it for a food you eat regularly right now. Once that change feels natural, pick another food from this list and substitute it for something else.
The top 20 foods to eat when eating for energy (in no particular order) include:
1. Quinoa
2. Flaxseed
3. Mackerel
4. Salmon
5. Herring
6. Almonds
7. Walnuts
8. Apricots
9. Bananas
10. Spinach
11. Oatmeal
12. Lentils
13. Dark Chocolate (preferably raw)
14. Avocado
15. Blueberries
16. Oranges
17. Grapefruit
18. Apples
19. Low Fat Plain Yogurt
20. Sweet Potatoes
Notice that you don’t find a lot of meat on this list. Eating for energy typically does mean eating foods that grow naturally on the earth. Some fish makes the list because it provides omega 3 fatty acids which are great for energizing the body, but mostly eating for energy means eating whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables. You could easily expand this list by adding a variety of fresh fruits and all leafy green vegetables.
Those energy foods will get you on the way to greater health and a vibrant life, but there are a couple other things you should do to keep the energy high:
- Never skip meals. If you don’t give your body food you rob it of energy.
- Don’t overeat. This leads to bloating and lethargy which works against your efforts to energize your body.
- Drink a lot of water. This is perhaps the best energy food ever created. Dehydration zaps all energy.
- Stay as active as possible. The more you move your body the more energy you will have.
- Eat your food in as close to its natural state as possible. You will of course find items on the list above that need to be cooked, like fish and meats. Yet, you should try to eat all the others raw, steamed or lightly cooked. This way you don’t cook out the vitamins and nutrients that will give you the energy.
Thanks for the awesome post. One of the things I think you forgot to mention were the power of superfoods. I think you can get great energy from things like Goji Berries.
Hey Sharon,
Glad you liked the post. I hope people are getting some good ideas from it. I do totally agree with you in regards to superfoods being great energy foods. I didn’t include them here simply because most people don’t even know where to buy them. That being the case I wanted to make it as easy for anyone reading the post to get full advantage of all the foods available. Nonetheless maybe I’ll do a post on the power of superfoods.