Energy drinks are the new norm in our exhausted society today with a mind boggling array of cans or shots to choose from at gas stations, supermarkets and healthfood stores alike. Because energy drinks are frequently marketed as nutritional supplements, there is no limit to the amount of caffeine they can contain.
Some brands contain such excessive levels of caffeine that people have ended up in the ER or died as a result although the company making one of the energy drinks in question denies all responsibility.
With a morning sugar fix from the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru no longer working, some parents are resorting to giving their young children energy drinks in the car on the way to athletic events in a desperate attempt to help wake drowsy and lethargic youngsters and encourage more aggressive performance on the pitch.
Exhausted and stressed college students take it to the next level with illegal procurement and abuse of the ADHD drug Adderall to help them stay awake to study and give them an “edge”.
The Journal of Medical Internet Research, produced two major revelations in its six month study of Adderall:
- It is mentioned most heavily among students in the northeast and south regions of the U.S.
- Tweets about Adderall peak sharply during final exam periods.
Lead researcher Carl Hanson, Professor of health science at BYU, had this to say:
“Adderall is the most commonly abused prescription stimulant among college students. Our concern is that the more it becomes a social norm in online conversation, the higher risk there is of more people abusing it.”
Why are people, even young children, so incredibly exhausted?
Seesawing blood sugar from the modern diet loaded with sugar laden, highly refined carbohydrate foods is no doubt part of the problem. Dr. Ronald Hoffman MD of Health Talk, a nationally syndicated radio program, writes:
“Americans love to “carbo-load.” We are a society in love with carbohydrates — and it shows in our poor health standing versus some of the other industrialized nations of the world. In essence, hypoglycemia is low blood sugar, and it is increasingly prevalent in our society. Hypoglycemia can cause an array of symptoms, including dizziness, fatigue, mood changes, PMS, sugar craving, headaches, difficulty concentrating, tremors, temperamental outbursts, depression, excessive sweating, hot flashes, palpitations, cold extremities, abdominal pain, and panic attacks.”
While a return to a whole diet where traditional fats are embraced and refined carbs and sugar are kept to a minimum no doubt helps resolve many issues with exhaustion, even those who eat an excellent Traditional Diet and follow a healthful exercise regimen can still suffer from occasional to extended bouts of fatigue. A friend of mine recently came to me with this exact scenario. A healthy Mom of normal weight who has been eating an excellent Traditional Diet with plenty of blood sugar stabilizing, healthy fats for years and exercises regularly confessed that she was exhausted and couldn’t figure out why.
What to do in those situations? If the blood sugar is steady and a traditional diet being followed, are coffee, energy drinks or some other form of artificial stimulant the only options to get oneself off the couch?
Absolutely not!
When exhaustion is sucking the life out of one’s life, the tried and true remedy is plentiful quantities of liver, the planet’s #1 superfood, known for its mysterious and legendary anti-fatigue factor which science has yet to identify.
A July 1951 article published in the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine describes this factor and a study which attempted to identify it. Benjamin K. Ershoff, PhD divided lab rats into three groups.
- Group 1 ate a basic rat diet, fortified with 11 vitamins.
- Group 2 ate the same rat diet as group 1, with the addition of supplemental vitamin B complex.
- Group 3 ate the the same rat diet as the first two groups but instead of vitamins or B complex, they received 10% of their ration as powdered liver.
The results?
A 1975 article in Prevention magazine described the results of the experiment in the following words:
“After several weeks, the animals were placed one by one into a drum of cold water from which they could not climb out. They literally were forced to sink or swim. Rats in the first group swam for an average 13.3 minutes before giving up. The second group, which had the added fortifications of B vitamins, swam for an average of 13.4 minutes. Of the last group of rats, the ones receiving liver, three swam for 63, 83 and 87 minutes. The other nine rats in this group were still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours when the test was terminated. Something in the liver had prevented them from becoming exhausted. To this day scientists have not been able to pin a label on this anti-fatigue factor.”
Sounds a bit like the mysterious Activator X that Dr. Weston A. Price wrote about in the early 1900′s in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration that wasn’t properly identified until just a few years ago as the crucial and elusive Vitamin K2, doesn’t it?
But Wait! Liver is High in Cholesterol!
A common objection to frequent consumption of liver is the high amount of cholesterol. The truth is that numerous studies show no relationship between diet and cholesterol levels. In addition, there is no evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol-rich foods like liver contribute to heart disease. In fact, as Americans have cut back on cholesterol-rich foods in recent decades, rates of heart disease have actually gone up, according to Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths.
Easy Ways to Get Liver into Your Diet
Should we all wait until science identifies liver’s legendary anti-fatigue factor or start benefiting from this superfood’s ability to raise the exhausted and fatigued of the world off the couch and back into the game of life right away?
Some of you may say, “But I hate liver, I can’t eat it!”.
Have no fear. Here are several ways to eat liver that are either painless or flat out delicious. I personally eat a minimum of 4-6 ounces of liver each and every week – many weeks much more than this amount as needed.
- Liver pate: If strong tasting beef liver and onions turns your stomach as it does mine, try the milder tasting liver pate made with chicken or duck livers that is an excellent dip or spread on toast. This recipe includes lots of bacon pureed with the liver and is very well accepted even by children. {click here for a video demonstrating how to make liver pate}
- Liver and Rice: Just before you put a pot of soaked rice on to cook, mix in one or two spoonfuls of grated liver. The liver will impart a wonderful flavor to the cooked rice and your family won’t know the difference. Note that brown rice works better than white rice for this trick.
- Raw liver pills: Chop up raw, grassfed liver that has been frozen for 14 days or more (eliminates parasite risk) into small pieces and swallow a few each day whole with a glass of water, milk or juice. Over the span of a week, you will consume several ounces and no doubt be feeling much more energetic.
- Raw, desiccated liver powder: probably the easiest and most painless way to get your liver is through a raw, grassfed, “nothing added nothing taken away” desiccated liver powder. This is what we take at home when we haven’t been eating enough pate or the raw liver has run out until the next local meat co-op delivery. You can take the powder in capsule form or sprinkle it into homemade soups and sauces for a boost of nutrition.
Will liver really work for you to eliminate exhaustion and fatigue problems? It worked for my friend mentioned earlier in the article. After I suggested that she start eating liver, she went home and starting eating it several times a week. The next time I asked her about it a few weeks later, she reported that she felt so much better and was experiencing normal energy levels once again. Will it work for you too? What have you honestly got to lose? Humans have eaten and revered liver as a sacred superfood for millenia. If you’ve never eaten it, why not try it now?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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