The Best All-Natural Ways to Boost Energy

Everyone’s been there: maybe you didn’t sleep well, maybe you’ve been working too much, or maybe you’re just experiencing the energy-sucking symptoms of the afternoon slump.

Your gut instinct might be to reach for another energy drink, caffeinated soda or coffee. While coffee is a natural source of energy, too much of it during the day can have negative side effects like nervousness and jitteriness. It can also start a vicious cycle of not being able to sleep well, which makes you feel like you need more caffeine to keep up.

But there are plenty of all-natural ways to boost energy that don’t involve chemical-laden, enamel-eroding energy drinks and sodas. There are tons of foods and supplements that can give you a noticeable and powerful pick-me-up, and add valuable nutrition to your daily diet without throwing off your routine.

Energy-Boosting Foods

A lot of people get sleepy after lunch, especially if they eat a heavy or sugar-loaded meal. The midday crash can definitely be exacerbated by the wrong kinds of foods. But what kinds of foods can help keep your energy levels up?

Fruits

Bananas and apples can be some of your best friends in the morning. Even though fruits contain sugar (which in most foods can lead to an afternoon sugar crash), their fibrous nature means they are more slowly digested and keep you full longer.

Oatmeal

Food that slowlyreleases glucose into your blood (like oatmeal) helps regulate your blood sugar. Oats are also full of fiber and delay stomach emptying, keeping you fuller for longer. Extreme spikes and dips in blood sugar are one of the most common causes of feeling low in energy, so starting the day off with fiber and protein will help you feel more energized.

Oatmeal and MCT Oil

Adding MCT oil tooatmeal is increasingly popular. Made from coconuts, pure MCT (Medium-Chain Triglycerides) oil is a healthy fat that can be used for an energy boost in just about any food. How MCT oil works effectively is through its rapid absorption in the body. Even though it’s a healthy saturated fat, MCT oil doesn’t sit in your body for later use like normal fats. The quick absorption of MCT oil makes it a perfect addition to your morning oatmeal. Since it is flavorless and odorless, you can add it to pretty much anything without the flavor of the original food being affected. MCT oil is keto and paleo-friendly as well.

MCT oil can also help with brain fog and give a healthy bump to your cognitive function, so if you’re feeling particularly foggy in the morning, it can be a great help in shaking off the morning cobwebs.

Energy-Boosting Beverages

We’re realistic--no one is going to give up their morning cup of coffee. But what if you could enhance your morning beverages so that their effects lasted longer? While a moderate amount of caffeine is good for you,too much caffeine can cause nervousness, anxiety and sleeplessness. So making the most of your cup of coffee is important to your long-term health.

Morning Bullet Coffee

Also referred to as keto coffee, or bulletproof coffee, bullet coffee is an energy-packed beverage designed to supplement your morning cup with some added nutrition. To make one eight-ounce cup of bullet coffee, you’ll need two tablespoons of unsalted butter, a blender, coffee and a tablespoon of Physician’s Choice 100% pure MCT oil. You’ll need the blender because without blending the liquid, the layers will separate and the oil will float to the top.

If you really want to pack in the health benefits of bullet coffee, add somecollagen peptides powder to the mix as well.

Bullet Green Tea

Green tea is a fantastic source of natural energy. It also hasevidence-based health benefitsoutside of its energy-boosting properties, like reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer and more. Some people prefer green tea to coffee since it gives a nice boost, but doesn’t make you feel as nervous or jittery.

To make bullet green tea, the process is exactly the same as bullet coffee. The difference is (obviously) you'll be using brewed green tea instead of coffee. But the rest of the process is the same: MCT oil, butter (or ghee if you don’t want to use butter) and blend with your brewed green tea for a frothy, tasty and healthy morning beverage.

Any Blended Smoothie or Shake

Since making an MCT oil-based morning energy boost already involves blending, adding some to a shake or smoothie as part of your morning routine is very convenient. Add one to two tablespoons of MCT oil into your smoothie/shake mix as a great way to help you feel fuller and make you feel mentally sharper throughout the day. We already know that fruit is a source of natural energy, so fruit-based smoothies with MCT oil as a supplement can go an even longer way to help you in your weight loss, energy and overall health and well-being goals.

Energy-Boosting Natural Supplements

As nutritional supplements continue to increase in popularity, a lot of spurious claims are made about weight loss, performance enhancement and other benefits that aren’t backed up by science. Physician’s Choice makes it our mission to ensure that everyone who wants to improve their health and well-being through supplements has access to safe, high-quality products. This means using pure, quality ingredients that are physician-approved and backed by science.

We’ve discussed how MCT oil can help with energy, but what are the other best supplements for energy?

Magnesium

A lot of fatigue can be attributed to amagnesium deficiency. Magnesium is a huge component in our body’s natural process to convert food into energy. You can find natural sources of magnesium, like spinach (and other greens), and nuts. You can also take a magnesium supplement, like Physician’s Choice Magnesium Bisglycinate. This supplement is effective for boosting energy, easing headache pain, reducing stress, anxiety and depression, and can help support more restful sleep.

Ashwagandha

This might be surprising to some people, sinceashwagandha is traditionally used to reduce stress and anxiety. But astudy has found that men and women who took 500 mg of ashwagandha for two months reported a significant increase in physical performance and cardiovascular endurance.

Conclusion

There are a lot of natural sources of energy that can help get you through the day, bypass the dreaded afternoon crash and avoid the other negative side effects that are generally associated with heavy caffeine use. By choosing the right foods, beverages and supplements, you can get both immediate and long-lasting boosts in energy and improve other aspects of your health. MCT oil added to coffee, oatmeal, shakes and smoothies is an easy way to incorporate healthy, fat-burning, energy-boosting fats into your diet without changing up your routine too much. Physician’s Choice MCT oil is a doctor-approved, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO supplement to help you on your path to well-being.

The Science

MCT (Medium-Chain Triglycerides) Oil with C8 (Caprylic Acid) and C10 (Capric acid) is a healthy saturated fat derived from coconuts. Fats are typically stored in the body for later use as energy. Caprylic Acid (C8) is what makes MCT oil such a useful supplement for energy and weight loss (e.g. keto dieting), because of how it helps the MCT oil absorb into the body. The quick absorption rate and subsequent conversion into energy that can be immediately used by the body has an influence on its efficacy. This method of quick absorption creates ketones in the liver, which can pass through the body, break the blood-brain barrier and provide energy for your brain cells.

Capric acid (C10), on the other hand, may have some very effective anti-fungal properties. Capric acidhas been shown to destroy three strains ofCandida Albicans, a yeast that can cause digestive issues and other infections in your body.

Most of the studies conducted on MCT oil have shown it can be an effective aid in weight loss, but some of the strongest evidence supports MCT’s impact on energy levels. These studies vary in the time period throughout which they were conducted. But one of the longest studies published on MCT in the diet showed that medium-chain triglycerideswere more effective in increasing energy than other types of fats (like sunflower oil, for example).