5 key nutrients to increase your energy

“We are overfed and underpowered.” Since your body is a big energy powerhouse, the fuel you use matters a lot. To gain energy quickly, we think we need double espressos, energy bars, or sweets, but the truth is, we don’t. Our body and gut are amazing at creating all the energy we need. In this blog, we uncover simple yet powerful foods and nutrients to do that.

What is energy?

Energy is how well our bodies produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate; I won’t test you on that!), a molecule that stores and releases energy in cells. More specifically, our cells produce ATP from food: glucose, fatty acids and amino acids by either aerobic or anaerobic respiration (depending upon free oxygen). ATP is the energy currency of the body. Therefore, the more ATP we produce, the more energetic we feel.

Inflammation and gut health

Individuals who are unable to convert foods into energy have underlying inflammation. This inflammation is a war between our immune system and our gut, which is leaky. A leaky gut is an unhealthy gut lining that develops large cracks or holes, allowing partially digested food, toxins, and bugs to penetrate the bloodstream, calling immune cells to the site to fight the pathogens.

The war takes up so much of our energy that it isn’t available to our muscles or brain, which we feel as brain fog.  

Therefore, we first need to seal the borders of our gut. We can do that by following these five food and lifestyle practices:

5 food choices and lifestyle changes that influence energy and gut health

1. Eat soluble prebiotic fibre:  Soluble fibre either dissolves in water or attracts water in the body to form a gel. Slows digestion and regulates blood sugar. Has a filling (satiating) effect. Prebiotics are a type of fibre that our gut buddies love to eat. Prebiotics “seal” the gut by selectively feeding the beneficial bacteria in the gut microbiome, which in turn helps maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining and prevent a “leaky gut”.
   • Good sources include legumes, apples, pears, strawberries, nuts, grind-up flaxseed, psyllium, cucumbers, celery, carrots, asparagus, artichokes, chicory radicchio, mushrooms. The list is long!
2. You want to eat foods that enable your gut buddies to make postbiotics. Studies show that postbiotics directly inhibit harmful bacteria, primarily by producing metabolites like short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which prevent unwanted substances from leaking through the gut wall.
   • Some of the best postbiotics-generating foods are the allium family: onions, shallots, leeks, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.
3. Resistant starches are chains of sugar molecules that, as their name suggests, are resistant to us digesting them. That means they are digested slowly and don’t spike glucose levels. As they are digested, they produce leftovers – postbiotics that our gut buddies want to eat. They are literally ramping up and turbocharging our energy.
   • The most resistant starches are in tubers and yams. A particularly great one is the purple sweet potato. Freshly cooked potato will release its energy quickly, raising blood sugar levels; once it’s cooled down, it converts the sugars into resistant starches. By repeating the cycles, you are making the starches even more resistant.
4. Magnesium and magnesium-rich foods. Magnesium is a key nutrient (other than oxygen) required to create good quantities of ATP.
   • Magnesium is abundant in green vegetables, including spinach, avocado, black beans, almonds, and green bananas. Magnesium is also needed for muscle relaxation.
5. Reduce toxic load: Look after your cells, and they’ll look after you. Prevent mitochondrial damage by reducing exposure to everyday toxins: be mindful of alcohol as well as environmental and chemical toxins: pesticides, herbicides (eat organic), heavy metals such as aluminium (be careful about cooking or heating foods with aluminium foil), BPA (plastic), and some skincare products.
   • Cooking tip: Incorporate rosemary and turmeric into cooking, as they support mitochondrial health.

5 key nutrients to create good quantities of energy

1. Magnesium– Good food sources of magnesium are leafy green vegetables, including spinach, cavolo nero, avocado, black beans, almonds and bananas (I recommend the green ones for resistant starches, more on which later in the post). Magnesium is also needed for muscle relaxation.
2. Iron is found in spirulina, lentils, spinach, black beans, and grass-fed meat.
3. Sulphur comes from the alium family and includes garlic, leeks, chives, and onions. Crushing garlic helps the formation of a more heat-stable Sulphur compound. Sulphur also supports liver detoxification.
4. Coenzyme Q10 – important for cell energy production. It is a powerful antioxidant which protects our cells from free radical damage. You can get CoQ10 from oily fish especially sardines and anchovies, nuts, sesame seeds, broccoli, cauliflower, oranges or strawberries.
5. B Vitamins: especially vitamins B2 and B3. Please note that B vitamins are easily damaged by heat, so it is crucial to avoid over-heating. For example, steam vegetables and cook them at low temperatures.
   • B2 (Riboflavin) sources: Nuts (e.g. almonds), seeds, whole grains, legumes, asparagus, mushrooms, green vegetables, spirulina, eggs, meat, fish.
   • B3 (Niacin) sources: Mushrooms, nuts, sunflower seeds, tahini, brown rice, green leafy vegetables, spirulina, organic chicken, and grass-fed beef.