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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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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Feeling lonely may take a toll on older adults’ memory — but it may not speed up cognitive decline, according to a new study.
Researchers from Colombia, Spain and Sweden analyzed data from more than 10,000 adults ages 65 to 94 across 12 European countries and found those who reported higher levels of loneliness did worse on memory tests at the start of the study, according to research published this month in the journal Aging & Mental Health.
Over a seven-year period, however, memory decline occurred at a similar rate regardless of how lonely participants felt.
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“The finding that loneliness significantly impacted memory, but not the speed of decline in memory over time was a surprising outcome,” lead author Dr. Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario said in a statement.
Loneliness may be linked to memory performance in older adults, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline,” Venegas-Sanabria said, adding that the findings highlight the importance of addressing loneliness as a factor in cognitive performance.
The findings add to debate about whether loneliness contributes to dementia risk. While loneliness and social isolation are often considered risk factors for cognitive decline, research results have been mixed.
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The study looked at data from the long-running Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which tracked 10,217 older adults between 2012 and 2019. Participants were asked to recall words immediately and after a delay to measure memory performance.
Social isolation and loneliness could play a surprising role in cognitive health among seniors. (iStock)
Loneliness was assessed using three questions about how often participants felt isolated, left out or lacking companionship.
About 8% of participants reported high levels of loneliness at the outset. That group tended to be older, more likely to be female and more likely to have conditions such as depression.
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Researchers found that those with higher loneliness had lower scores on both immediate and delayed memory tests at baseline. Still, all groups — regardless of loneliness level — experienced similar declines in memory over time.
The results suggest loneliness may not directly accelerate the progression of memory loss, though it remains linked to poorer cognitive performance overall.
Researchers look at a brain scan at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Experts warn, however, that the findings should not be interpreted to mean loneliness is harmless.
“The finding that lonely older adults start with worse memory but don’t decline faster is actually the most interesting part of the paper, and I think it’s easy to misread,” said Jordan Weiss, Ph.D., a scientific advisor and aging expert at Assisted Living Magazine and a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
“It likely means loneliness does its damage earlier in life, well before people show up in a study like this at 65-plus,” Weiss told Fox News Digital.
By older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold, an aging expert says. (iStock)
He suggested that by older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold.
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“By the time you’re measuring someone in their late 60s, decades of social connection patterns are already baked in,” he said.
Weiss, who was not involved in the research, added that loneliness may coincide with other health conditions, and noted that participants who felt more isolated also had higher rates of depression, high-blood pressure and diabetes. The link, he said, may reflect a cluster of health risks rather than a direct cause.
“While they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia,” a psychotherapist says. (iStock)
Amy Morin, a Florida-based psychotherapist and author, said the findings reflect a broader pattern in research on loneliness and brain health, and that the relationship may be more complex than it appears.
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“The evidence shows there’s a link between loneliness and cognitive decline but there’s no direct evidence of a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “So while they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia.”
Morin added that loneliness, which can fluctuate, may not be the root of the problem, but rather a symptom of other underlying mental or physical health issues.
Researchers suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging. (iStock)
She said staying socially and mentally engaged is crucial for overall brain health.
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“It’s important to be proactive about social activities,” Morin said. “Joining a book club, having coffee with a friend, or attending faith-based services can be a powerful way to maintain connections in older age.”
The researchers also suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
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