Food to Fight Fatigue

Your diet plays a major role in determining your energy level. What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat is strongly connected to how you feel. While some foods provide energy, others contribute to fatigue and digestive problems. Maintaining appropriate blood sugar levels is key to fighting fatigue. By following several guidelines, you can use food to help maintain stable blood sugar levels and fight fatigue.


Starting your day with a healthy breakfast helps avoid mid-morning fatigue, which results from a drop in blood sugar. Just like a car that can't run on an empty tank, you can quickly run out of fuel when you skip breakfast. According to Tufts University, while skipping breakfast can negatively affect concentration, attention, memory, reasoning and problem solving, starting your day with breakfast enhances performance in these cognitive areas.

Balanced Diet

Eating balanced meals and snacks that include a combination of carbohydrates, fats and protein provides your body with reserves from which it can draw energy. Meals that include foods such as whole grains, healthy oils and lean protein digest at a steady rate, resulting in stable blood sugar levels. Avoid sugary snacks and beverages, as well as refined and processed foods, which give you an energy boost that quickly drops, leaving you feeling hungry and fatigued, says Harvard University.

Frequent Meals

Eat several small meals and healthy snacks during the day instead of three large meals. Space your meals and snacks three to four hours apart. This plan provides your body with consistent fuel, helps reduce dips in your blood sugar and contributes to a high energy level. Small, frequent meals have also been shown to aid in weight control -- because body weight requires more energy to carry, maintaining an appropriate weight can reduce fatigue, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Iron-Rich Foods

Adequate iron is essential in helping prevent fatigue. Your blood needs iron to help it carry oxygen throughout your body to keep you energized. Low iron levels in your body can lead to anemia, which is a deficiency of red blood cells in your blood. Iron deficiency anemia can result in weakness and fatigue. Include iron-rich foods, such as raisins, oatmeal, spinach, soybeans, peanut butter, fish, lean meat, eggs and fortified cereals, in your daily food plan.


Water -- though not technically a food -- is regarded as the most important nutrient of life. Water typically accounts for 50 to 60 percent of body mass, and all your body's metabolic and physiological processes depend on water. Dehydration occurs when your body loses more fluid than it takes in and can't carry out normal functions. reports that even mild dehydration can cause weakness and fatigue. Individual water requirements vary based on weight, activity level and surrounding climate. Drink plenty of fluids, eat lots of fruits and vegetables with a high water content and limit caffeinated drinks, which are dehydrating.

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Karen Curinga


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