Running out of steam in the afternoon? Here's what to do.

Almost all of us can get tired periodically, but perhaps the most common time of day where people find their energy nosediving is the mid-afternoon. This can lead to a somewhat fallow period in terms of productivity and even make it a struggle to meaningfully contribute to conversations and meetings. What's going on, and what can we do about it?

In my experience, the most common cause of the mid-afternoon slump is relatively low levels of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. This, essentially, robs the body and brain of a prime fuel, causing vitality to stall. Sometimes, people will also exhibit a telltale sign of low blood sugar: hunger, and in particular a distinct yen for something sweet like chocolate or whatever sugary snack happens to be in our orbit, be it biscuits, doughnuts or cake.

Different people have different abilities to maintain stable blood sugar levels throughout the day, something that depends on factors such as their nutritional status and the efficiency of certain hormones (insulin being perhaps the most important). But a major determinant of blood sugar levels is what we eat.

The speed and extent to which foods release sugar into the bloodstream can be quantified by something known as the 'glycaemic index' (GI). In the GI scale, glucose is used as a reference code, which is assigned a value of 100. Centrally, the higher the GI, the more destructive it is to blood sugar levels. Another thing to consider, though, is how much we're eating of a food. Eating a small amount of a high GI food may not be particularly disruptive, but eating a lot of it probably will be.

So, what's this got to do with that mid-afternoon slump in energy many of us suffer from? My experience tells me that this very commonly relates to what people eat for lunch. And if I were to single out a food most commonly implicated here, it would be bread.

From a lunch perspective, bread ticks several boxes: sandwiches and rolls are generally readily available, it's a relatively cheap foodstuff, and hardly anyone I've ever met doesn't like it.

However, bread usually has a high glycaemic index (often in the range of 70 to 90). In other words, eating a bread-based lunch runs the risk of surges of sugar into the bloodstream, which will tend to be compensated for by the secretion of lots of the hormone insulin, with the result being that the blood sugar levels may drop about one to two hours later.

I'm not a particularly prescriptive person, but if your aim is to have an optimally productive afternoon, my advice would be to avoid making bread the basis of the meal.

So, what to eat? If possible, when working away from home, it's a good idea to source a salad-based meal with a decent amount of protein and/or fat, such as meat, fish, seafood, eggs, or avocado. 

At home, my advice is to take a similar approach, and one way to do this is to opt for a 'delicatessen' lunch. This is essentially a lunch sourced from the fridge, which is made up of food typically found in the delicatessen section of a supermarket. Options include roast beef, roast chicken, cooked lamb koftes, chicken tikka, smoked salmon, cooked mackerel, prawns, small peppers stuffed with goat's cheese, roasted peppers, olives, hummus, Spanish omelette, Greek salad, cherry tomatoes with mozzarella balls. Ideally, this will be eaten without bread, or perhaps with a very small amount. The 'smorgasbord' of potential foods means that there's no need to get bored or stuck in a rut. And there is no prep and little cleanup to do. 

The key is to be organised enough to have the appropriate foods in the fridge. When someone migrates from a bread-based lunch to the 'deli option', usually, they will note a clear uplift in their afternoon energy and productivity. And no additional time needs to be spent in prepping lunch, either. A bit of organisation on the food front at home can go a long way.

WHAT WORKS

To help ensure stable levels of blood sugar, energy and concentration throughout the afternoon, opt for a lunch based on sources of protein and/or fat (e.g. meat, fish, seafood, eggs, cheese, avocado, nuts, olives) and green vegetables and/or salad. Keep starchy carbohydrates (such as bread) to a minimum, and perhaps eliminate them entirely at lunch if it suits you to do so.