Super high-energy snacks: skip the coffee. Yogurt, nuts, and cheese boost your energy better - Diet and Nutrition - Brief Article

FIGHT YOUR NEXT LOW ENERGY with snacks high in tyrosine. In your body this amino acid converts into the feel-good chemicals dopamine and adrenaline and can energize you as quickly as a cup of coffee, explains Hyla Cass, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine and author of Natural Highs: Feel Good All the Time (Penguin, 2002). And tyrosine works without the irritability, insomnia, and irregular heartbeats caffeine may cause.

Many people have low levels of tyrosine, because our bodies can't make it and stress depletes its precursor, phenylalanine. To get an energy boost, eat a snack with 200 to 2,000 mg of tyrosine, like 8 ounces of plain low-fat yogurt (656 mg); 1/3 cup of dried soy nuts (850 mg), or 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese melted on bread (1,314 mg).

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