Why Should We Choose Energy Foods?

So what's this about Energy Foods? Ever had the experience of sitting at your office desk and you are overcome with this burning desire to sleep? To you, the best thing in the world right now would be to lie on your comfy bed at home and sleep. So overwhelming is the feeling that you move aside your keyboard, grab a piece of paper, a book, anything 'credible' that you can put on the desk in front of you, lean one elbow on the desk and frame your forehead with your hand (which covers your eyes) and pretend that you are engrossed in the reading matter on your desk?

You hope that this will appear to the rest of the people in the office that you are intently concentrating on the reading matter in front of you. You also hope that if you can just spend a few minutes with your eyes shut your sleepiness will disappear. Good effort but unlikely!

If this has happened to you have you ever tried to work out the trigger for this? Excluding reasons like the on-set of sickness, or being hung over from the day before, can you attribute it to something you recently did - like eating ?

It is very likely that if you have experienced the scenario mentioned above, you may have eaten something to cause this soporific state. For many people the fact that they did not eat energy foods but instead ate a wheat-based product such as bread or cereal can have this effect, especially during the afternoon if these products were eaten at lunchtime.

For some, it is hard to imagine a lunch that doesn't consist of bread - after all it's so convenient to go to a shop and grab a sandwich and a bag of crisps and maybe a chocolate bar. The trouble with these types of food is they are laden with sugar which will give your blood sugar a spike while you are eating them but following the spike you will experience a sharp dip - and this is where the tiredness creeps in.

But if this is what you've always done you may be blinkered and not see the alternative lunches around you. Many snack shops, sandwich stores and mobile food vans now sell a good range of energy foods in a range of salads in small tubs - they even add a sachet of dressing, a small disposable fork and a paper towel for your convenience. If the weather is turning colder you are sure to find that these same outlets are also selling good, hearty, home-made soups in small cups - an ideal accompaniment to your salad.

Good energy foods are ones that will not cause the spike in your blood sugar so it will be kept stable and so the spike/dip event is unlikely to occur. They are foods such as eggs, tuna, salmon, chicken, turkey, salad, vegetables. These foods will also allow you to feel satisfied but not stuffed - a feeling far more conducive to your ability to work well in the afternoon. But if you feel that lunch is not lunch without your sandwich, improve the quality and quantity of it by eating only wholemeal bread - this is bread that has not been stripped of its fibre in the refining process - and choose just one slice instead of two. Make the content of the sandwich energy food filled such as egg salad, tuna salad and don't load it with cheese.

Experiment with your lunches and keep a note of which ones made you tired and which ones kept you working at your optimum level.

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The Author is a keen writer on various subjects including healthy eating. You can find a great deal of resources at http://www.planthatdiet.com/ To read more about this subject go to http://www.planthatdiet.com/foods-that-give-us-energy.php