Our bodies are complete and complicated.  Various systems are interconnected, and when you have a pain in one spot, odds are that it’s highly related to some other points in your body entirely.  All working as one highly efficient system, even one of our highly trained doctors recently said that they are trained to heal the body, but the nutrition side of the equation was hardly discussed in their many years of classes!

Though what we’re fueling our bodies with every day can have a dramatic impact on our overall health.  Luckily, while our bodies are highly complex, there are some quick and simple tricks that we can use to keep our bodies running highly efficiently and effectively long throughout our lives.

If this topic is of interest, be sure to sign up for our class “Happy Gut, Happier You,” which will dive deeper into how you can support your digestive system with food.

What is Metabolism?

Before we dive in, what is this crazy metabolism thing that everyone is always talking about?

At a very high level, it’s the process your body goes through to convert what you eat and drink into energy.  Essentially, calories you consume are being combined with oxygen to release the energy that your body needs to function.

While metabolism is typically brought up when discussing weight loss, the truth is that it’s not really to blame.  Factors such as age, sex, and body size impact your metabolic rate, but there’s really no way to dramatically change what that rate is for you.  Instead, you can support your metabolism by eating healthy, whole foods, and exercising regularly.  AKA, you can’t change how fast you metabolize food, but you can affect the way in which you metabolize food - for example, certain foods can be more readily used as fuel for your body, meaning that they’re less likely to be stored as fat.

Keep reading to learn some of the science-proven ways foods can support your metabolism

5 Science-Backed Ways to Support Your Metabolism with Food

Just Eat

Too often, we hear about food deprivation as a tactic for weight loss, which is a terrible strategy for maintaining your overall health and can even backfire as a weight loss strategy.

When you skip meals, you’re signaling to your body that there is a shortage of food, causing your metabolic rate to dramatically slow so that every single calorie can be stored.

Instead, focus on eating high quality whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables, and fruit, which your body can readily use to fuel its functions and activities.  This will keep your metabolism running smoothly, and make sure that your body doesn’t feel deprived throughout the day.

Drink Lots of Water

While not technically a food, water is essential for almost every function in our bodies.  In fact, research has shown that as little as 1% dehydration negatively affects our mood, attention, memory, and motor coordination!  Among many other ways in which water supports our bodies running smoothly, it helps our body eliminate waste efficiently, lubricates and cushions our joints, and supports our spinal cord and other sensitive tissues in the body.

It should come as little surprise that your metabolism is impacted by water, too!  Water is needed for cellular metabolism, meaning that metabolic functions have to slow down if water isn’t present.  So, drink up to support your metabolism!

Enjoy Fiber
Fiber is incredibly dense and cannot be digested by the body.  However, while science is still in the early stages of discovering why, research has shown that the risk of conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, decreases with increased consumption of dietary fiber.  For similar reasons, studies have also shown an inverse relationship between consumption of dietary fiber and risk of coronary heart disease and cancer.

With these factors in mind, we suggest enjoying a couple fiber-rich foods throughout the day whenever possible - think oat bran muffins, baked beans, pears, and raspberries.  We’ll also be diving more into how fiber supports your digestive system in our “Happy Gut, Happier You” class. Yum!

Include Protein
When you eat or drink, your metabolism slightly increases because it is using energy to digest, absorb, and process the nutrients in your meal.  This process is called the thermic effect of food (TEF) and it helps your body to keep up your energy level revving all day.

Protein has been shown to cause the largest rise in TEF.  This nutrient, specifically, has been shown to increase your metabolic rate by 15-30%, compared to 5-10% for carbohydrates and 0-3% for fats.

With that being said, we don't recommend eating purely protein or going Paleo (or any other recent, protein-based diet that you might have heard of on the market).  Rather, we recommend that you try to include at least a little serving of protein in each meal to help you continue to feel satiated and prevent you from eating empty calories throughout the day.

Think Vitamin B
Foods high in vitamin B, such as beans, bananas, lentils, and lean meats, will help to keep your metabolism strong.  Vitamin B is essential for a properly functioning metabolism because it helps your body to completely metabolize carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

However, there are a wide variety of B vitamins, ranging from thiamine to biotin, all which help your metabolism to function at its best in different ways.  With that in mind, we recommend getting your B vitamins from a variety of different foods, and consider supplementing if you are vegan, as it’s difficult to get enough vitamin B on a completely vegan diet.