Health
6 energy boosters to help beat the midday slump, from a nutrition expert
Every day, it’s lurking — somewhere in the window between lunch and dinner, waiting to sap your energy and motivation.
It’s the midday slump, that time of afternoon when many people succumb to fatigue, lethargy and a general decline in productivity.
But you don’t have to surrender to the post-lunch “food coma,” according to Dr. Christopher Rhodes, a nutritional biologist and CEO of Mimio Health in Davis, California.
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Rhodes — whose mission is to “improve society’s cellular health and longevity through nutrition, vitamins and supplements to reach peak human performance” — revealed some of his practical tips to keep energy levels high all day long.
1. Resist grazing or food ‘teasing’
2. Keep glucose in check
3. Optimize your health with a daily supplement
4. Consider quitting coffee
5. Eat a nutritionally rich lunch
6. Get active after eating
During the midday slump, many people succumb to fatigue, lethargy and a general decline in their productivity. (iStock)
1. Resist grazing or ‘food teasing’
Snacking throughout the day can cause your body to want greater amounts of food, causing a spike in blood sugar and sleepiness, Rhodes cautioned.
“While eating smaller portions throughout the day may seem like a great way to stave off hunger, it can actually have the opposite effect,” he told Fox News Digital.
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“Small snacks often don’t meet our body’s satiation thresholds — meaning that while food is coming in, it’s not biologically sufficient to actually make us feel less hungry.”
The opposite can actually be true, he noted, as small amounts of food often stimulate hunger and appetite.
“This isn’t just a side effect of eating, but actually a design feature in almost all manufactured or packaged snacks, which are formulated specifically to cause cravings by giving intense bursts of flavor that fade quickly,” Rhodes said.
Snacking throughout the day can cause the body to want greater amounts of food, causing a spike in blood sugar and sleepiness, a nutritionist warned. (iStock)
“There’s a reason you can’t eat just one potato chip.”
Consistently eating high-carbohydrate snacks or meals can also lead to compounding glucose spikes throughout the day, the expert said — which can lead to brain fog, emotional swings and energy crashes.
“There’s a reason you can’t eat just one potato chip.”
When choosing snacks, the best options are whole-food products like nuts, fruits or jerky, which can provide healthy fats, fiber and protein.
These choices do a better job of slowing digestion, keeping you feeling full and balancing glucose spikes, Rhodes advised.
2. Keep glucose in check
Glucose is the body’s preferred energy source, and its levels are tied to “a thousand different biological processes” that affect everything from energy to mood to metabolism, Rhodes said.
“The body is very good at using and processing glucose within a specific range, but go too low or too high and that’s where you get into trouble,” he warned.
Glucose spikes from high-carb and high-sugar foods can provide a quick burst of energy, but this will soon fade and leave behind sluggishness, brain fog and mood reduction, the expert said. (iStock)
Glucose spikes from high-carb and high-sugar foods can provide a quick burst of energy, but this will soon fade and leave behind sluggishness, brain fog and mood reduction, according to Rhodes.
“The key to sustained energy is keeping your glucose levels balanced in normal ranges throughout the day,” he said.
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The best way to achieve this is to pair carbohydrates with healthy fats, proteins and fibers that help to slow digestion and extend a sharp glucose spike into a smooth, even curve, he said.
3. Optimize your health with a daily supplement
“Outside of glucose spikes, there are plenty of other negative effects caused by or associated with the postprandial (post-meal) state in the body,” Rhodes said.
“Food can be very disruptive to our natural metabolic homeostasis, as it floods our systems with sugars and fats, diverts energy toward digestion and away from other processes, and introduces foreign molecules into the body that trigger immune responses.”
A fasting supplement is designed to help reduce dietary inflammation, control hunger throughout the day, and reduce the post-meal slump. Before taking any new supplements, it’s always best to consult with a doctor or medical professional. (iStock)
Rhodes recommended taking a fasting supplement like Mimio, which his company designed to improve cellular health, energy, cognition and performance.
“It’s the world’s first fasting mimetic supplement, designed from seven years of clinical fasting research at UC Davis to provide the beneficial protective effects of a prolonged fast in a simple daily pill,” he said.
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A fasting supplement is designed to help reduce dietary inflammation, control hunger throughout the day and reduce the post-meal slump, Rhodes said.
Before taking any new supplements, it’s always best to consult with a doctor or medical professional.
4. Consider quitting coffee
Drinking coffee causes sharp upward and downward energy spikes, as well as creating a false sense of adrenaline, Rhodes said.
“Just like sugar, caffeine can provide short, intense bursts of energy that often leave us feeling even more miserable and sluggish just a few hours later,” Rhodes said.
Drinking coffee causes sharp upward and downward energy spikes, as well as creating a false sense of adrenaline, according to the expert. (iStock)
“And just like sugar, the best way to prevent these spikes is to pair caffeine with things that can slow its digestion and smooth out its utilization in the body.”
Instead of coffee, he suggested sipping on green tea, which contains an amino acid called L-Theanine.
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If you do drink caffeine, Rhodes recommended combining it with a meal that includes healthy fats, fiber and protein — or pairing it with L-Theanine, which has been shown to help reduce the jitteriness and distractibility that can come from caffeine alone.
“Green tea tends to provide a much more balanced experience than coffee.”
“L-Theanine and caffeine are both naturally present in green tea, which is why green tea tends to provide a much more balanced experience than coffee,” Rhodes said.
“It also has a multitude of other benefits, from enhancing cellular stress resistance to improving gut, heart and brain health.”
5. Eat a nutritionally rich lunch
“The best way to keep yourself energized and satisfied throughout the day is to prioritize the nutritional density of your lunches,” Rhodes said.
Low-carb lunches — such as chicken salad, fibrous veggies, and healthy fats like avocado and nuts — will help slow digestion and gastric emptying while providing an energy source for your body, according to the nutritionist.
Low-carb lunches — such as chicken salad, fibrous veggies, and healthy fats like avocado and nuts — will help slow digestion and gastric emptying while providing an energy source for your body, according to the nutritionist. (iStock)
“While carbohydrate-rich foods will provide you with a quick burst of energy, they can lead to glucose spikes that can throw your systems out of balance — and they typically contain fewer micronutrients and bioactives that support cognition, energy production and productivity.”
Instead, Rhodes recommended crafting meals that are rich in healthy fats, fiber and proteins.
“The best way to keep yourself energized and satisfied throughout the day is to prioritize the nutritional density of your lunches.”
Some examples are protein-rich salads, hearty vegetable soups, or more traditional rice and noodle dishes that replace the carbs with veggie alternatives, like cauliflower “rice” and zucchini “noodles.”
“Fiber helps to provide volume to a meal without contributing any extra calories, and forms a gel-like matrix in your stomach that helps to trap other nutrients, so they’re released more slowly during digestion,” Rhodes noted.
“Fiber helps to provide volume to a meal without contributing any extra calories,” a nutritionist said. (iStock)
Fats like avocado and nuts help to keep you fuller for longer.
“Proteins are the most slowly digested macronutrient — and as an added bonus, they have the highest ‘thermic effect,’ meaning the body has to burn more calories to digest proteins than any other nutrient,” Rhodes said.
6. Get active after eating
When you eat, your glucose level spikes, and it is best to use up that consumed energy quickly to keep your levels balanced, according to Rhodes.
“This is also a great time to take advantage of a brain break, so you can return to work refreshed,” he said.
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Physical activity immediately after eating can help balance out glucose spikes.
“After a meal, your body naturally reprioritizes its energy toward digestion and metabolism, putting other organ systems like your muscles and brain on the back burner,” he told Fox News Digital.
Performing any physical activity after a meal will help to shift energy utilization back to your muscles and brain, the expert said. (iStock)
Performing any physical activity after a meal — whether it’s taking a walk, climbing stairs, gardening or even doing household chores will help to shift energy use back to your muscles and brain, Rhodes said.
“Instead of breaking down the nutrients in your meal and storing the energy for later (usually as fat), post-meal exercise helps shuttle the newly created energy directly to your cells for immediate use — and has been shown to help smooth out glucose absorption curves to provide more balanced, stable energy,” he added.
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Red light therapy has been shown to reduce brain inflammation, protecting people who experience head trauma from long-term health consequences, a University of Utah study has shown.
Brain damage from repeated impact over the years is known to cause cognitive symptoms, ranging from memory issues to full-blown dementia, particularly affecting soldiers and athletes.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts rather than a single injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
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More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Other research has shown that military personnel in active combat suffer from similar issues, as do first responders and veterans.
The treatment was administered three times a week for 20 minutes using specialized headsets and intranasal devices designed to penetrate the skull. (iStock)
In the new study, the researchers recruited 26 current football players to understand more about the impact of red-light therapy on brain injuries.
The participants received either red light therapy delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips into the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that doesn’t produce light. Players self-administered the therapy three times a week, 20 minutes each time, for 16 weeks.
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“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this can be real,’” said first author Hannah Lindsey, Ph.D., in the university press release. “That’s how striking it was.”
Specific wavelengths of light are believed to enter the brain and reduce molecules that trigger inflammation, potentially halting the path toward dementia and other cognitive conditions. (iStock)
Players using the placebo treatment experienced increased brain inflammation over the course of the season. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than at the beginning of the season, the study found.
For players who used red-light therapy during the season, their brain inflammation didn’t increase at all.
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Previous studies have shown that red light, if powerful enough, can penetrate the skull and reach the brain, where it may reduce inflammation-related molecules.
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“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D., the senior author on the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
Study limitations
The study was conducted using a small sample size, which led to different levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups, the researchers acknowledged.
While the placebo group showed increased brain inflammation during the football season, those receiving red light therapy showed no increase in inflammatory markers. (iStock)
Future large randomized clinical trials will be “crucial to back up the results” in larger populations, they noted.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they’re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,” Carrie Esopenko, Ph.D., second author of the study, said in the release.
“And this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we’ve been searching for.”
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The team plans to recruit 300 people with persistent symptoms from TBI or concussion for a randomized controlled trial in 2026, with a focus on first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
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Drinking heavily and consistently over an adult’s lifetime could lead to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The study analyzed 20 years of data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults to determine how long-term drinking impacted the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) or precancerous colorectal adenomas (polyps).
The participants reported their average weekly intake of beer, wine and liquor intake during four age periods — 18 to 24, 25 to 39, 40 to 54, and 55 and older.
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“Heavy drinkers” were identified as having more than 14 drinks per week and “moderate drinkers” had between seven and 14 drinks per week.
The observational research revealed that consistent heavy drinking over adulthood was linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancer.
Researchers found a major association between colorectal cancer diagnosis and heavy lifetime drinking. (iStock)
Heavy lifetime drinking was associated with a 25% higher overall CRC risk and nearly double the risk of rectal cancer. Moderate lifetime drinking had a lower overall CRC risk.
Compared to light drinkers, the consistently heavy drinkers had about a 91% higher risk of CRC.
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For colorectal adenomas (precancerous polyps), higher current lifetime drinking did not show a strong pattern, although former drinkers showed a significantly lower risk of non-advanced adenoma compared to current light drinkers.
Out of the 88,092 participants, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Out of the 88,092 participants in the study, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. (iStock)
The authors noted that the research was limited, as it was observational and not based on a clinical trial. It also hinged on self-reported alcohol use.
The findings suggest that consistently heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime consumption “may increase CRC risk, whereas cessation may lower adenoma risk,” the researchers stated. Associations “may differ by tumor site,” they added.
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The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts.
In a recent episode of the podcast “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health in California, detailed how even moderate drinking can impact “nearly every organ system in the body,” due to metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and its effect on hormones.
The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts. (iStock)
Drinking has been found to increase the risk of many cancers, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins, Hyman said.
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“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” he warned.
Reducing or eliminating alcohol can lower the risk of several cancers, according to medical experts. (Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, shared that taking a break from drinking alcohol for longer periods of time can “reshape health more profoundly.”
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“Over months to a year, we see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
Chiang added, “Reducing or eliminating alcohol lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast and colorectal, over time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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A mysterious hum is reportedly plaguing the residents of Cincinnati, keeping people up at night and even disturbing them psychologically.
Residents of the Northside, Clifton and Camp Washington neighborhoods have been reporting the disturbances since December. The noises are said to be louder and more noticeable at night.
“We were hearing this siren-like quality noise — whirring, oscillating, going up and down,” said Clifton resident Shaun Herold, who contacted local news outlet WKRC about the noises.
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“My son came up to me and said, ‘Dad, the tornado sirens are going off,’” Herold said. “Usually, it starts at about 10 p.m. It can go till 3 a.m., 4 a.m. But it’s quite unpredictable.”
“It kind of stresses me out ’cause I don’t know what it is. It’s kind of scary,” added his son, Elijah Herold.
A mysterious, intermittent hum has been disturbing Cincinnati residents since December, disrupting sleep and causing psychological stress. (iStock)
Herold said he spent one entire night tracking how many times he heard the noise going on and off. The duration of the noises can vary from a few seconds to several minutes.
“I feel like it’s definitely like a foreign sound,” Northside’s Brendan Marcum told the news outlet. “Some nights it would be a little louder, some nights it would be a little quieter.”
“It kind of stresses me out because I don’t know what it is, and it’s kind of scary,” added another resident.
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Hundreds of Cincinnati residents have shared their theories about potential sources of the sound on social media, ranging from biblical to supernatural.
On Reddit, other users blamed the recycling plant. “My favorite theory is River Metals Recycling,” one person wrote, claiming that the plant moved neighborhoods when the original location “wouldn’t put up with the noise from its metal shredder any longer.”
Residents have described the sound as a siren-like, oscillating whirring that can last from seconds to several minutes. (iStock)
Others suspect the noise is coming from a failing turbocharger on a diesel train engine at the nearby CSX Queensgate, a major freight rail yard in Cincinnati.
While the yard routinely generates loud, mechanical sounds, residents say they’ve never heard anything like this before.
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WKRC reported that an anonymous source sent recordings of the locomotive, claiming it to be the source of the sound. However, a spokesperson for CSX told the news station that he “has not heard a noise like that on our property” and suggested it could be coming from another location.
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He added that any equipment requiring maintenance is “handled through established operating and mechanical protocols.”
According to a source, rail crews have reported the engine for excessive noise and believe it will be repaired. (iStock)
“We just hope to get to the bottom of it, figure out what it is, and if it’s, you know, a temporary thing or not,” Herold told the news outlet. “And hopefully the community can rally if it’s not temporary, because it’s really impacting us.”
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City officials recommend that residents report the noise to 311, the city’s non-emergency line.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cincinnati officials for updates.
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