Good Energy vs Bad Energy

Good Energy vs Bad Energy

Good Energy vs Bad Energy

Good Energy Book Cover

Here at Teeccino, we've been saying it for years: energy comes from nutrients that feed your cellular metabolism to create energy. Energy does not come from a drug like caffeine despite the marketing efforts to convince you that energy comes from coffee or from 'energy drinks' like Red Bull® and Monster®.

Now a powerful new health advocate has captured the attention of the health-focused community and soared to the top of best-selling book lists. Casey Means, MD, a graduate of Stanford University Medical School, explains in her new book, Good Energy, The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health, how cellular metabolism can be optimized through diet and lifestyle to reverse the metabolic health crisis at the center of chronic disease all over the world.

Now a powerful new health advocate has captured the attention of the health-focused community and soared to the top of best-selling book lists. Casey Means, MD, a graduate of Stanford University Medical School, explains in her new book, Good Energy, The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health, how cellular metabolism can be optimized through diet and lifestyle to reverse the metabolic health crisis at the center of chronic disease all over the world.

I read Casey's book last fall and was amazed. It's hard to find a health book that offers me revelations that I haven't read elsewhere before. I love how she promotes the numerous ways you can create good energy and details all the ways bad energy can destroy your health.

Good Energy is a deep dive into the chemical processes and complexities of our bodies. Casey describes the effects of what we eat and drink on our health combined with how much we do or don't move. She offers a clear pathway to optimal health, to creating good energy and ridding our cells of bad energy.

Casey left her specialty of as an ear, nose and throat surgeon to go back to study nutritional biochemistry, cellular biology and functional medicine. She had discovered that as a specialist, she couldn't cure inflammation in one area of the body without addressing the body as a whole, knowing that its many systems are interconnected, not parts to be treated separately.

Good energy is created inside our cells

Here's a quick synopsis of what creates good energy:

Good energy comes from having all the right nutrients to support your mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells that create cellular energy. Some cells have hundreds of thousands of mitochondria!

With the right balance of fatty acids from dietary fats and the right level of glucose, the sugar derived from food, our mitochondria generate the production of ATP, adenosine triphosphate, the energy molecule that fuels all our cellular metabolism.

Just imagine this: there are trillions and trillions of chemical processes going on this very second in your cells as you read these words. Every one of them requires ATP in order to function.

Now get this: your cells produce daily around 88 pounds of ATP, each molecule of which is microscopic in size! ATP gets made, used and recycled as fast as your cells produce it so don't worry, ATP isn't adding to your weight on the bathroom scale!

I love Casey's description of our cells as little cities bustling with activity. With approximately 37 trillion cells in our bodies, they're a universe unto themselves!

Here's how ATP creates good energy:

  1. ATP fuels the production of 70 thousand different types of protein that our bodies require.
  2. DNA replication, repair, and the prevention of mutations along with gene regulation all require ATP to function optimally.
  3. Cellular communication and signaling via hormones, neurotransmitters and electrical impulses requires ATP.
  4. Our cells have microscopic transporters that bundle up molecules to take them where they are needed. Imagine serotonin, the feel good neurotransmitter, being delivered from your stomach where it is produced to your brain so you can think quickly and feel good. Or vital immune cells being rushed to cells in distress. All this requires ATP to build the right transporters for each chemical process.
  5. Your cells are constantly keeping the optimal pH, temperature, and balance of electrolyte minerals to maintain the environment under which they function best. ATP is at the heart of all this cellular "homeostasis".
  6. Cellular waste has to be cleaned up just like our homes do. Dead cells have to be removed. Spent mitochondria have to be expelled. ATP keeps the interior of our cells clean and functional.
  7. Even the production of ATP for our cellular metabolism requires ATP to function!

Feed your cells well and optimal health will follow

It isn't hard to eat well but temptation is everywhere in our fast food culture. Here's the 3 main rules for good energy that you need to keep in mind when that sugary donut tempts you.

  1. Balanced blood sugar: controlling blood sugar spikes by eating nutrient-dense foods with less sugar, plenty of protein and the right kind of fats. Avoid refined grains like white flour and white rice by eating unprocessed whole foods.
  2. Healthy fats from omega-3 essential fatty acids: these fats are anti-inflammatory and inflammation is at the core of bad energy. Eat salmon, herring and other fatty fish, chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and hemp heart seeds. Keep a healthy ratio of omega-3 fats, which are rarer in today's food, to omega-6 fats from vegetable oils which are found abundantly in many processed foods.
  3. Exercise to keep your body producing more ATP for more energy. Movement stimulates the production of antioxidant molecules that protect our mitochondria. Move after a big meal or a sugary treat to help the body use up excess blood sugar.

Bad energy results from 3 types of cellular malfunctions

  1. Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Overtaxed or damaged mitochondria in a toxic cellular environment can't produce the required abundance of ATP.
  2. Chronic Inflammation: Low ATP production from mitochondrial dysfunction causes the body to fuel inflammation and over-amp the immune system.
  3. Oxidative stress: free radicals aren't being squelched because the cells can't produce enough antioxidants and keep the cellular environment free of waste.

Caffeine doesn't produce good energy

If you read my newsletters, then you know the following but just in case you need reminding…

Caffeine stimulates a stress response by stimulating the adrenal glands to produce stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol tells the liver to release glucose into the blood stream so you can face life-threatening danger.

Now let's imagine you're drinking a cup of coffee while eating a pastry.

Boom! Your adrenals activate the fight or flight response to have plenty of blood sugar available to run away or stand and fight. The sugar in the pastry along with the refined flour raises your blood sugar even further.

But you're sitting down and not moving to use up all that excess blood sugar. Now the bad energy cycle begins with your cells flooded with fats and sugars they can't use up.

Let's not forget that the caffeine in your coffee has repressed any sense of fatigue. If your body needs rest, it now goes into oxidative stress.

A cup of Teeccino supports good energy production

As you know, I'm dedicated to optimal health. I created Teeccino to provide plenty of unique antioxidants and other phytonutrients from its herbs, roots, fruits, mushrooms, seeds and nuts. It is naturally caffeine-free, not decaffeinated, a process which strips off the antioxidants in the coffee bean and doesn't even removing all of the caffeine.

A cup of Teeccino won't spike your blood sugar but if sweetness is your thing, we have indulgent flavors that taste sweet without any sugar in them. We source the best quality ingredients nature provides and support organic agriculture and the protection of wild habitats where many of our herbs are collected.

The prebiotics in Teeccino support your probiotics for a well-nourished, diverse microbiome that create good gut health. The gut is the source of the nutrients that come from your food and go to your cells so they can produce ATP. This is where good energy begins.

Good energy keeps you feeling energized without stimulants. It keeps your cellular metabolism humming instead of sputtering. When you feel good, your mood is positive, you've got plenty of energy to exercise, your brain thinks optimally, gratitude and love surround you, and you're ready to give all you have to whatever mission or purpose you've dedicated your life to.

Let's make 2025 all about good energy!

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