Energy
Do you suffer from any of these symptoms:
1) Fatigue
2) Irritability
3) Feeling cold
4) Inability to sleep at night
5) Short attention span
6) Being over weight
7) Lack of motivation
8) Infertility
9) Diseases like diabetes or cancer
10) Fall sick quickly
These are all symptoms of energy deficiency. Read on!
As modern humans we live in a paradox of excess fuel and insufficient energy.
Calorie Myths
The problem is that we think of energy in the form of calories, “I ate a breakfast of 250 Calories”, “I ran for an hour and burnt 300 calories”. However, there is a huge difference in the way 150 calories from a toast is used by the body as compared to 150 calories from a cauliflower. It is like comparing petrol and diesel. The toast gets absorbed by the body super fast, so fast that most of us have no use for it and hence it ends up getting stored by the body as fat (our fuel tank). The cauliflower takes longer to digest, as a result it gives the body a slow and steady supply of energy.
So if calories were equal to energy, sedentary people eating 5000 calories a day should technically be charged up, full of energy, beacons of health! But as we know that is not true, they are often fat, sick and low energy.
However an Olympic athlete eating 5000 calories a day is very different. They are focused, high energy and healthy. So then the difference is not the quantity of fuel that produces energy, it’s the machine that is using that fuel. Think of 5 liters of petrol in a scooter vs. 5 liters of petrol in a sports car. The power generated is vastly different.
The Body’s Engine
The body’s power generators are called mitochondria. These are little bacteria in each cell of our body that produce energy.
This is energy is used for:
1) Day to day activities
2) Healing itself
3) Thinking and cognition
4) Growing
5) Preventing disease
6) Fighting off infections
7) Reproducing
8) Maintaining body temperature
The three best ways of increasing the mitochondria’s ability are:
1) Stop eating foods that kill and damage the mitochondria. These are known as mito-toxins. The most common mito-toxin in our food these days is the highly processed vegetable oils. These oils cause irreparable damage to our little powerhouses. Instead stick to oils and fats that the body understands. Consume olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, butter and avocado oil. A simple change like this can make a huge difference on your overall health
2) High intensity exercise: 20 minutes of high intensity exercise a day is all that you need to boost these little guys. By putting an increased load of energy on them, they are forced to respond by either increasing the density per cell, or increasing their efficiency. So increasing the energy demand, increases the energy flowing through your body
3) Time restricted eating: instead of restricting the calories (fuel) we consume, it is essential for us to restrict the time window of eating. The ideal is to eat for only 8 hours a day, while fasting for the remaining time. The fasting time is when the body repairs itself and more importantly changes the fuel source from the food being consumed to the fuel stored as fat. This fuel from fat (known as ketones) improved the efficiency of the mitochondria.
There are three important factors that govern the amount of energy our bodies produce:
1) The quality of mitochondria
2) The density of mitochondria per cell
3) The kind of fuel the mitochondria use to produce that energy
