Food That Drains Your Energy

There are many possible reasons for feeling tired during the day, with a lack of sleep being the top candidate. However, if insomnia or health issues are not responsible for your fatigue  and lack of energy, the food you are eating might be the source. Avoiding certain foods can help prevent afternoon sleepiness. If fatigue seems to plague you, make sure to reduce or avoid consumption of the following:

Coffee

There are few people who don’t rely on a morning cup of coffee. While coffee gives you that needed boost of energy to get your day started, it takes it away in the long run once you start to crash. Also, coffee loaded with syrup and sugar or artificial sweeteners will suck that energy out of you later. Try tapering down the amount of caffeine you drink or limiting yourself to one serving in the morning. Our body is meant to regulate our energy supply, but constantly fueling it with fake energy only leaves us more tired each day.

White Bread

White bread is typically the culprit when it comes to losing energy. Whit bread is composed of refined carbohydrates which produce high levels of insulin. According to research, insulin “shuttles away the rapidly absorbed sugars you’ve just eaten out of your bloodstream, where they present a danger to your body.” Refined starches result in high blood sugar levels, and eating white bread will exhaust your energy levels. This is the best condition for weight gain because these sugars are then stored as fat. Instead, try looking more for whole grain bread; high-fiber bread slows down digestion, which helps keep blood sugar balanced.

Alcohol

Alcohol may make you pass out and sleep until the next afternoon, but that sleep isn’t actually reloading your energy level. Alcohol reduces the amount of time a person spends in their REM (rapid eye movement) cycle — which is the most relaxing type of sleep. Drinking alcohol can cause people to go straight into deep sleep, which makes them miss the first stage of REM. That raging hangover isn’t the only reason you’re barely crawling out of bed; red wine has high levels of melatonin so even if you don’t drink excessively, a glass of red wine will be sure to make you feel drowsy.

Soft drinks

Soft drinks, or soda, are loaded with sugar. Similar to coffee and cereal, soda will cause blood sugar levels to rise for a little while, and then crash. According to an article in Psychology Today, the lingering effects of caffeine can “diminish sleep quality.”