A good diet improves your health, but also boosts your energy. Create a shopping list of these must-have endurance foods recommended by Dr. Mike Moreno, author of The 17 Day Diet: A Doctor’s Plan Designed for Rapid Results.
1. Beef, extra lean: improves memory, alertness and attention span.
2. Beets: helps relay signals from one brain cell to another.
3. Blueberries: help protect brain cells from toxins, improves use of glucose in the brain, and promotes communication between brain cells.
4. Broccoli: help protect brain tissue from toxins.
5. Carrots: help protect brain tissue from toxins.
6. Chicken: production of the alertness chemicals dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. When your brain is producing these, you think and react more quickly, and feel more motivated, attentive and mentally energetic.
7. Citrus fruits: help maintain sharp memory and help brain cells resist damage.
8. Edamame: helps relay signals from one brain cell to another.
9. Eggs: helps with memory.
10. Egg whites: improve alertness by increasing levels of norepinephrine, which helps keep your brain at its sharpest.
11. Hot chilies: Contains the fiery-tasting chemical capsaicin. Capsaicin stimulates circulation, aids digestion, opens your nasal passages and, even better, sends a feeling of euphoria straight to your brain.
12. Legumes: helping to maintain stable levels of energy and support alertness and concentration overtime.
13. Pork: helps facilitate communication among cells.
14. Romaine lettuce: important for memory and nerve cell health.
15. Spinach: memory, concentration, and mental functioning.
16. Tuna: help build and maintain myelin.
17. Yogurt: boost mental alertness.