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The Best Foods for High Energy

If you want your body to hum along like a well-tuned engine all day long and take off like a rocket when you hit the gas, put some high-grade fuel in the tank. Getting rid of the sludge that slows you down and replacing it with high-octane super-foods is just a shopping trip away.

  1. Navigating the Food Super-Highway

    • If you want to eat for high energy, understand your body's energy needs. Throughout the day, you burn carbohydrates and fat to varying degrees. Carbohydrate is your body's preferred fuel for physical activity and brain function. To generate peak energy, your brain and neuromuscular system need adequate carbohydrate to interact efficiently. Professor D. Joe Millward of England's Surrey University notes that for peak athletic performance, eat a diet of starchy foods --like whole grains and legumes, moderate amounts of protein and fat and plenty of fruits and vegetables. Drinking 60-80 ounces of plain filtered water daily is essential for energy and peak performance.

    Clean and Green

    • Carbohydrate foods come from plants broken down to glucose in the body, some of which converts to glycogen, a fuel stored in the liver and muscles. The more a carbohydrate food resembles its original plant state, the more complex it is, having most of its vitamins, minerals and fiber intact. Whole grains, legumes and fresh whole fruits and vegetables are complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates break down slowly, providing a steady flow of fuel throughout the day. Processed carbohydrates like sugar and refined flour have lost much of their nutritional value and break down quickly to glucose, causing an insulin spike as the body attempts to convert excess sugar and store it as fat.

    Pumped and Powerful

    • Proteins come from dairy products, eggs, fish and meat. Proteins do not usually provide a direct source of energy, but they do provide the building blocks of amino acids that your body needs to build muscle. When you challenge your muscles through physical activity, your body uses protein to increase muscle mass. Building muscle is like putting a bigger, more powerful engine in your car, revving up your metabolism. The more muscle you have relative to fat, the more energetic you will feel. Choose lean, unprocessed organic meats not contaminated with antibiotics and steroids.

    Cruise Control

    • Low-to-moderate, long-duration activities like walking or jogging call for increasingly more fat as time elapses, sparing carbohydrate stores for brain function. Most of us have adequate fat stores to supply the demand for long-duration exercise activities. However, you do need to take in some plant- and fish-based fat for peak energy. Omega-3 fatty acids help your cardiovascular system run smoothly and keep your blood pressure at optimal levels. According to the Mayo Clinic, Omega-3 fatty acids that come from fatty cold-water fish, flax and walnuts, and mono- and poly-unsaturated fats that come from plants are "healthy fats." Mayo Clinic advises limiting saturated fats from animal sources and trans fats.

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