Increase your energy levels with better nutritional choices

It should come as no surprise to you, but you can increase your energy levels if you eat the right foods.

We can have artificial "highs" known as a sugar rush. These are brought about by increasing the number of refined carbohydrates you eat. Refined carbs break down quickly in the body giving you a brief increase of blood sugar levels, which can be harnessed if you do need a quick boost. People who exercise at a very high intensity "carb" load before exercising, and before competition.

Unfortunately if all you do is eat too many carbs and don't burn them off you do run the risk of crashing. This occurs when your blood sugar drops suddenly. The why and the how are interesting in themselves and involves the hormone insulin, which as you know plays a part in whether we develop diabetes or not.

The best way to increase your energy levels and not suffer the crash following the blood sugar drop is to eat a portion of protein at every meal time. If you add in a couple of healthy snacks during the day (one mid morning and one mid afternoon) you can usually keep your blood sugar level on an "even keel" and won't suffer from spikes and dips in your energy levels.

One of the additional factors with excessive consumption of carbohydrates is what happens when the body has finished digesting it. If we are not a training athlete or can't burn off the calories we are consuming, our bodies' gather up the excess and shift it to the fat cells where it is stored. Whilst this occurs on a regular basis if we over consume anything (eat too much and don't burn it off) you will gain weight. What tends to happen with refined carbs is this - because we've crashed we often feel the need to spike our energy levels again. If we again choose the refined carb option rather than a high-fibre option (such as a few nuts or a piece of fruit - or ideally - both) we may be prone to weight gain at a much faster rate.

If you want to increase your energy levels but don't want to run the risk of weight problems, try and choose a high fibre carbohydrate over a refined carbohydrate option. It may take a little longer to get the same effect as the dazzling sugar rush, but you don't suffer from the crash and burn afterwards, and the effects are longer lasting.