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BY DANYEL BARNARD
ILLUSTRATION BY TERRY HOFF
Hitting your afternoon low?
Get advice from a
nutritionist about
beating the slump.
/
and your mid
afternoon energy slump has officially hit. A nap
would be your first choice, but unfortunately, there’s
a lot to do before quitting time. With a second wind
nowhere in sight, you decide to seek help—meaning
you head to the convenience store. But before you
go, read on to hear what Annie Gazdag, Ph.D., a
nutritionist and researcher at the School of
Nutrition, Science, and Policy at Tufts University,
has to say about beating the slump.
There are a lot of reasons people feel sluggish mid
afternoon, so Gazdag advises that you try to assess
your situation before you head to the store. Some
times low energy is a symptom of a problem as sim
ple as dehydration. “Because coffee dehydrates you,
people can feel a lack of energy if they have coffee in
the morning and then they don’t drink anything
else during the day,” she says. To test if dehydration
is sapping your energy, drink more water or other
caffeine-free beverages, and then see if your energy
level improves. You might also feel sluggish if you’ve
been inactive. If you spend most of your day sitting,
it can be energizing to just get up and stretch, or to
climb a couple flights of stairs. “The act of going
across the street to the store might be more energiz
ing than anything you can buy there, because it gets
your blood flowing to the muscles,” says Gazdag.
If it’s energy you’re looking for (and not just a
quick pick-me-up), remember that energy is calo
ries—that’s it. “A sandwich has calories and is as
energy-boosting as [a Powerbar or protein drink],”
Gazdag says. Not to mention that for the cost of an
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