Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy

When people feel tired in the middle of the day, they usually reach for tea, coffee or something sweet. Those things give a quick lift, but the lift fades fast, and an hour later the tiredness comes back, often stronger than before. Vegetables work in a very different way. They do not give you a sudden rush. They give you slow, steady fuel that lasts for hours, and they do it while also giving your body the vitamins and minerals it needs to turn food into energy in the first place. That is why a meal with plenty of vegetables leaves you feeling satisfied and steady, while a meal of white bread and sweets leaves you hungry again soon after.

The question is not whether vegetables give you energy. It is which vegetables give you the most, and how to eat them so the energy actually lasts. Some vegetables are rich in iron, which helps your blood carry oxygen around your body. Some are rich in slow carbohydrate, which your body breaks down gradually. Some give you vitamin C, which helps your body absorb iron from food. Some give you fibre, which slows digestion and keeps your energy level even. This article explains, in plain words, which everyday vegetables do each of these jobs, and how to put them together into meals that keep you going through a long, active day.

What Energy From Food Really Means

Energy from food is not the same as the buzz you get from a strong cup of tea. That buzz comes from stimulation, and it borrows energy from later in the day. Real energy from food comes from your body breaking down carbohydrate, and using the vitamins and minerals in your food to turn that carbohydrate into fuel for your muscles and your brain. When that process works well, you feel steady. You can walk, work, think and carry on without sudden dips. When it works badly, because you ate too much sugar too fast, or because you skipped meals, you feel a rush and then a crash.

Vegetables help this process in three ways. First, many of them contain carbohydrate that your body digests slowly, because it is wrapped in fibre. Sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and beetroot all give you carbohydrate, but the fibre around it means the energy arrives over hours, not minutes. Second, vegetables give you iron, magnesium and B vitamins, which your body uses in the daily work of making energy from food. Without enough iron, for example, your blood cannot carry oxygen as well, and you feel tired even if you have eaten enough. Third, vegetables give you water and volume, so a meal with vegetables fills your stomach and keeps you satisfied, without adding a large amount of heavy fat or sugar.

It is also worth being honest about what vegetables cannot do on their own. Vegetables are not high in energy by themselves. A plate of salad alone will not keep a labourer going through a hard afternoon, because salad has very few calories. The energy in vegetables works best when they are eaten as part of a proper meal, with some protein and some slow carbohydrate alongside them. A plate of spinach with lentils and bread, or sweet potato with beans and salad, is a meal that gives real, lasting energy. The vegetables make that meal better, steadier and more complete, but they are part of the team, not the whole team. That is an important point, because people who eat only salad and then feel tired often blame the vegetables, when the real problem is that the meal had too little food in it altogether.

Leafy Greens: Small Leaves, Steady Fuel

Leafy green vegetables are some of the most useful foods for energy, even though they look light and simple. Spinach, kale, cabbage leaves, mustard greens and other dark green leaves are rich in iron, folate and magnesium, and they also give you vitamin C and vitamin K. Iron is the key nutrient here. Your body uses iron to make the red blood cells that carry oxygen from your lungs to your muscles and your brain. When iron is low, oxygen delivery falls, and you feel tired, weak and short of breath, even after a full night of sleep. Eating leafy greens regularly helps keep your iron intake up, especially when they are eaten with a food rich in vitamin C, such as tomatoes, lemon or peppers, which helps your body absorb the iron.

Spinach is the best known example, and it deserves its reputation. A cooked serving of spinach gives you a useful amount of iron and folate, and it is soft and easy to eat in a curry, a soup or a stew. It also gives you magnesium, which helps muscles relax and work normally, and vitamin K, which supports healthy bones and blood. Kale is similar, with a slightly tougher leaf that works well when cooked slowly or chopped fine into a stew. Cabbage is cheaper and tougher, but it is still a good source of vitamin C and fibre, and it keeps well in the kitchen, which makes it a practical choice for families on a tight budget. The common thread is that dark green leaves are packed with nutrients in a small, cheap package, and they are one of the best value foods you can buy.

The practical problem with leafy greens is that many people do not eat enough of them, because they seem like a side dish rather than a main food. The solution is to make them part of the main meal, not an afterthought. Add a handful of spinach to a lentil curry in the last few minutes of cooking, and it wilts down to almost nothing while adding iron and colour. Chop cabbage fine and cook it with onion and a little oil, and it becomes a warm, satisfying side dish. Mix chopped greens into rice or into a stew, and you will eat far more of them without noticing. A small amount every day is better than a large amount once a week, because your body uses iron and folate every day, and a steady supply matters more than an occasional big serving.

Root Vegetables and Starchy Vegetables: Slow Energy That Lasts

If leafy greens give you the nutrients that help make energy, root vegetables give you the energy itself, in its slowest and steadiest form. Sweet potatoes are the best example. A sweet potato gives you complex carbohydrate, which your body breaks down slowly, plus fibre, vitamin A and potassium. That slow breakdown is the whole point. When you eat a sweet potato, the energy arrives over several hours, so you feel full and steady long after the meal. Compare that with white bread or a sweet biscuit, where the energy arrives quickly and fades quickly, and you can see why sweet potatoes are a far better choice for a long working day.

Ordinary potatoes do a similar job, though they are a little less rich in vitamins than sweet potatoes. A boiled or baked potato gives you carbohydrate, potassium and vitamin C, and it is filling and cheap. The way you cook a potato matters more than the potato itself. A boiled potato with a little butter or oil is a steady, satisfying food. A potato fried in a lot of oil, or covered in heavy sauces, is still filling, but it brings a lot of fat with it, and that fat can leave you feeling sluggish. The same is true of other root vegetables. Carrots give you carbohydrate and vitamin A, and they are sweet enough to enjoy raw or cooked. Beetroot gives you carbohydrate, folate and natural colour, and it is a good choice in salads and cooked dishes. Turnips and other roots are similar: humble, cheap, filling, and far better for steady energy than a packet of crisps.

Peas and beans deserve a place here too, even though they are often thought of as separate from vegetables. Green peas give you carbohydrate, fibre and a small amount of protein, and they are sweet and easy to add to rice, soups and stews. Green beans give you fibre, vitamin C and folate, and they work well cooked with a little garlic and oil. Lentils and chickpeas, while they are pulses rather than vegetables, are the perfect partners for vegetables, because they add protein and slow carbohydrate, and they turn a vegetable dish into a full meal. A plate of sweet potato, peas and lentils, with a side of leafy greens, is a meal that will keep a working person going for hours, and it costs very little.

Colourful Vegetables: Peppers, Tomatoes, Carrots and Beetroot

Colour in vegetables is not just decoration. It is a sign of the nutrients inside. Orange vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes are rich in vitamin A, which supports your eyesight and your immune system. Red vegetables like tomatoes and red peppers are rich in vitamin C and in natural compounds that support your body’s defences. Purple vegetables like beetroot and red cabbage have their own set of useful compounds. Eating a mix of colours is one of the simplest ways to make sure you get a wide range of nutrients, because each colour brings something a little different.

Peppers are a good example of a vegetable that punches above its weight. A red or yellow pepper gives you more vitamin C than an orange, and vitamin C does two jobs for energy. It supports your immune system, so you are less likely to feel run down, and it helps your body absorb iron from plant foods like spinach and lentils. That second job is the important one for energy. If you eat spinach with peppers, or lentils with tomatoes, your body takes in more of the iron than it would from the spinach or lentils alone. This is a simple trick that costs nothing, and it makes a real difference over weeks and months. A squeeze of lemon over a spinach dish does the same job, because lemon is also rich in vitamin C.

Tomatoes are another everyday vegetable that helps energy in a quiet way. A tomato gives you vitamin C, potassium and water, and it is soft and easy to eat raw or cooked. Cooked tomatoes, in a curry or a sauce, are easy on the stomach and they help the whole dish taste better, which means people eat more of it. Carrots are similar. They are sweet, crunchy and easy to carry, and they give you vitamin A and fibre. A raw carrot is a good snack for a working person, because it needs no cooking and no fridge for a day, and it gives you steady energy without the sugar rush of a biscuit. Beetroot is a little less common, but it is worth knowing about, because it gives you folate and carbohydrate, and its deep colour comes from natural compounds that support healthy blood flow. Roasted or boiled beetroot, sliced into a salad, is a simple and satisfying food.

Cruciferous Vegetables: Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and their relatives form a family of vegetables that are especially rich in nutrients for their size. Broccoli gives you vitamin C, vitamin K, folate and fibre, and it also gives you a small amount of iron and calcium. It is one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables you can buy, which means it gives you a lot of useful nutrients for very few calories. That matters for energy, because your body needs those nutrients to turn food into fuel, and broccoli supplies several of them in one serving.

Cauliflower is milder and softer than broccoli, and it is a good choice for people who find broccoli too strong. It gives you vitamin C, folate and fibre, and it is easy to cook in curries, soups and stews. It also takes on the flavour of whatever it is cooked with, which makes it a flexible vegetable for a family meal. Cabbage, as already mentioned, is the cheapest member of this family, and it is also the one that keeps longest. A head of cabbage can sit in a cool kitchen for a week or more, and it can be cooked in many ways, from a simple stir-fry to a slow-cooked stew. That keeping quality matters for families who shop once a week, because it means there is always a fresh vegetable in the house.

The best way to cook these vegetables is lightly, so they stay a little firm and keep their colour. Overcooking broccoli or cauliflower until it is soft and grey destroys some of the vitamins and makes it less pleasant to eat. A few minutes in a steamer, or a short cook in a curry, is enough. If you find the flavour too strong, try cooking them with onion, garlic and a little oil, which softens the taste and makes the whole dish more enjoyable. The goal is not to eat a huge amount of one vegetable. It is to eat a reasonable amount of several different vegetables across the week, so your body gets a wide range of nutrients, and your meals stay interesting.

How to Build a Plate That Keeps You Going

Knowing which vegetables give energy is only half the job. The other half is putting them together into a plate that actually keeps you going. A good plate has three parts. The first part is a starchy vegetable or grain, such as sweet potato, potato, rice or bread, which gives you the slow carbohydrate that fuels your muscles. The second part is a protein food, such as lentils, beans, chickpeas, eggs, yoghurt or a small amount of meat or fish, which keeps you full and helps your body repair itself. The third part is a mix of vegetables, ideally two or three different colours, which give you the iron, vitamins and fibre that make the whole meal work better. When all three parts are on the plate, the meal is balanced, and the energy lasts for hours.

A simple example makes this clear. Imagine a plate with sweet potato, lentils and spinach, plus a side of tomato and cucumber salad. The sweet potato gives slow carbohydrate. The lentils give protein and more slow carbohydrate. The spinach gives iron and folate. The tomato gives vitamin C, which helps your body absorb the iron from the spinach and lentils. The cucumber gives water and freshness. That plate costs very little, it is easy to cook, and it will keep a working person going for a long afternoon. Compare it with a plate of white rice and a sugary drink, which gives quick energy and then a crash, and the difference is obvious. The first plate is a team. The second plate is a single player trying to do everything alone.

Timing matters too. A vegetable-rich breakfast, such as an egg with spinach and tomato, or a bowl of porridge with a piece of fruit, sets up the morning far better than a breakfast of only tea and biscuits. A lunch with vegetables, protein and slow carbohydrate keeps the afternoon steady, while a lunch of only white bread and sweets often leads to the familiar afternoon slump, when you feel sleepy and reach for more sugar. A dinner with vegetables helps you feel satisfied without feeling heavy, which also helps you sleep better. You do not need to eat vegetables at every single meal to feel the benefit, but the more meals that include them, the steadier your energy will be across the day.

Vegetables in Real Daily Life

In real life, the vegetables that give you the most energy are the ones you actually eat, not the ones you read about and never buy. That means the best vegetable is often the cheapest and easiest one in your local market. Spinach, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions and peas are available in most markets, they are cheap, and they keep well. A family that buys these every week and cooks them simply will get far more benefit than a family that buys an expensive, unfamiliar vegetable once and never cooks it again. The everyday vegetables are everyday for a reason. They work, they are affordable, and they fit into normal cooking.

There are simple ways to eat more vegetables without changing your whole life. Keep a bowl of raw carrots, cucumber or peppers in the fridge, and eat them as a snack instead of crisps. Add a handful of spinach or chopped cabbage to a curry, a soup or a stew, and it will disappear into the dish while adding nutrients. Roast a tray of sweet potatoes, carrots and beetroot once a week, and keep them in the fridge to add to meals through the week. Make a big salad of tomato, cucumber, onion and lemon, and eat a small bowl with lunch and dinner. None of these ideas needs a recipe book or special skill. They are just small habits that add vegetables to meals you already cook.

Cost is a real concern for many families, and it is worth saying plainly that the best energy vegetables are also some of the cheapest foods you can buy. A kilo of potatoes, a head of cabbage or a bunch of spinach costs far less than a packet of biscuits or a bottle of sweet drink, and it feeds a family for several meals. Frozen vegetables are also a good choice, because they are cheap, they keep for months, and they hold their nutrients well. A bag of frozen peas or spinach in the freezer means there is always a vegetable ready, even on a day when you cannot get to the market. The idea that healthy eating is expensive is not true when it comes to vegetables. The cheapest foods in the market are often the most useful ones.

Seasonal and Budget Vegetables Through the Year

Vegetables change with the seasons, and eating what is in season is one of the easiest ways to eat well on a small budget. In the cool months, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, spinach and turnips are plentiful and cheap, and they store well in a kitchen. In the warm months, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and green beans are at their best, and they are light and fresh, which suits a hot day. Buying the vegetables of the season means you pay less, you get fresher food, and you naturally eat a wider variety across the year, because the market changes what it offers every few months. A family that follows the seasons will never be stuck eating the same two vegetables all year.

Storage is part of this habit, and it is worth learning a few simple tricks. Potatoes and sweet potatoes keep for weeks in a cool, dark place, away from sunlight. Onions keep for weeks too, and they are the base of almost every cooked dish. Cabbage keeps for a week or more in a cool corner. Carrots keep well in a fridge or a cool box. Leafy greens are the exception, because they wilt quickly, so spinach and similar leaves are best bought in small amounts and used within a day or two. Frozen vegetables solve this problem neatly, because peas, spinach and mixed vegetables can sit in a freezer for months and be used whenever they are needed. A freezer full of frozen vegetables is a quiet kind of wealth for a busy family, because it means there is always a healthy option ready, even on a day when the market is closed or the money is short.

My Take:

If you ask me which vegetables give you the most energy, my answer is simple: the everyday ones, eaten regularly, as part of a proper meal. I do not believe in a single magic vegetable. I believe in a plate that has colour, variety and enough food in it. Sweet potatoes for slow energy, spinach for iron, peppers and tomatoes for vitamin C, carrots for vitamin A, broccoli and cabbage for a wide range of nutrients, and peas and beans for fibre and protein. That is not a complicated list. It is the list you will find in any ordinary market, and it is the list that has fed working families for generations. The secret is not finding a rare vegetable. It is eating the common ones often, and eating them with enough other food to make a real meal.

I also think we should be honest about why so many people feel tired even though they eat vegetables sometimes. The usual reason is not the vegetables. It is that the meal around them is too small, or too sugary, or too rushed. A small salad on its own will not keep a labourer going through a hard afternoon, because it has almost no energy in it. A plate of sweet potato, lentils and spinach will, because it has slow carbohydrate, protein and iron together. If you eat vegetables and still feel tired, the first question to ask is whether the whole meal had enough in it, not whether you chose the wrong vegetable. Energy comes from the whole plate, not from one leaf on the plate. That is a simple truth, and it saves people from chasing one special food after another.

There is another point I want to make, and it is about iron. I think iron is the most underrated part of this whole subject. When iron is low, you feel tired, weak and short of breath, and no amount of tea or sugar will fix that feeling, because the problem is not a lack of stimulation. It is a lack of oxygen reaching your muscles, and that comes from a lack of iron. Leafy greens, lentils and beans give you iron, and vitamin C from peppers, tomatoes and lemon helps your body absorb it. That is a small, practical combination, and it costs almost nothing. A spinach and lentil curry with tomato is not just a meal. It is a sensible way to keep your iron intake up, day after day. I wish more people knew this, because it is far more useful than any energy drink.

I also want to say something about cost, because I hear many people say that healthy eating is expensive, and I think that is wrong when it comes to vegetables. The most useful vegetables are also the cheapest. Potatoes, cabbage, carrots, spinach, onions and peas cost very little, and they feed a family for several meals. Compare that with the cost of tea, biscuits, crisps and sweet drinks through a week, and the vegetables win easily, both on price and on health. A family that spends its money on vegetables and lentils will eat better and feel steadier than a family that spends the same money on snacks and sweet drinks. That is not a theory. It is simple arithmetic, and it is one of the reasons I think vegetables are the best value food there is.

The question of cooking is one I enjoy, because it shows how much small choices matter. I prefer vegetables cooked lightly, so they keep their colour and their bite, rather than boiled until they are soft and grey. A few minutes in a curry, or a short roast in the oven, is enough. I also prefer to cook vegetables with onion, garlic and a little oil, because that makes them taste good, and food that tastes good is food you will eat again. Nobody sticks with a diet of plain boiled vegetables. People stick with food they enjoy. That is why a well-cooked vegetable curry, with sweet potato, spinach and tomato, is a far better habit than a plate of raw salad you force yourself to eat. Enjoyment is not a luxury in healthy eating. It is the thing that makes the habit last.

I think parents should feel good about putting vegetables on the table every day, because children learn to eat what they see. A child who grows up eating carrots, peas, spinach and sweet potatoes will think of them as normal food, not as a punishment. That is a gift that lasts a lifetime. It is also a practical habit, because vegetables are cheap, they keep well, and they can be cooked in a hundred different ways. A family that keeps a vegetable box in the kitchen will eat more vegetables without any lectures or rules. The vegetables are simply there, and they go into the pot. That is how healthy eating works in real life. It is not about perfect choices. It is about making the good choice the easy one.

There is one more thing I want to say, and it is about patience. Vegetables do not give you energy in the way a cup of tea does. They do not give you a buzz in ten minutes. They give you steady fuel over hours, and the benefit builds up over weeks. If you eat vegetables for one day and still feel tired, that does not mean they failed. It means your body needs a steady supply, day after day, to build up its iron, its vitamins and its healthy habits. Give it a few weeks of regular vegetable-rich meals, with enough protein and slow carbohydrate alongside them, and you will feel the difference. Your afternoons will be steadier, your hunger will be calmer, and you will reach for sugar less often. That is the real reward, and it is worth waiting for.

So here is my final view, in plain words. Eat a mix of vegetables every day, with sweet potatoes or potatoes for slow energy, leafy greens for iron, peppers and tomatoes for vitamin C, and carrots, beetroot, broccoli and cabbage for variety. Eat them as part of a proper meal, with lentils, beans, eggs or yoghurt for protein, and a starchy food for lasting fuel. Cook them lightly, season them well, and enjoy them. Do not chase one magic vegetable, and do not expect a salad on its own to carry a hard day. Eat the everyday vegetables, eat them often, and eat enough of them. That is what I believe, and it is what I would tell a friend who asked me the same question.

If a friend asked me where to start, I would say start with three vegetables you already like, and eat them every day for a week. Buy sweet potatoes, spinach and tomatoes, and cook them into a simple curry with lentils. Eat that with bread or rice, and see how your afternoon feels. Then add carrots as a snack, and cabbage as a side dish, and build from there. Do not buy a special powder, do not follow a complicated plan, and do not feel guilty about the days when you eat less. The healthy habits that last are the simple ones, and vegetables are one of the simplest. They cost little, they need little skill, and they give your body the fuel and the nutrients it needs to keep going. That is a good trade, and it is one worth keeping.

One last thought: the best energy food is the one you can keep eating without thinking about it, and vegetables are exactly that kind of food. You do not need willpower to eat a carrot, you do not need to remember a rule, and you do not need to spend extra money. You just cook them, enjoy them, and get on with your day. Over months and years, those small, easy choices add up to more than any energy drink or expensive product ever will. That is the real lesson of vegetables and energy, and it is a lesson worth remembering.

I also want to say something about the afternoon slump, because almost everyone knows it. You eat lunch, you feel full for a while, and then by three or four in the afternoon you feel sleepy, slow and hungry again. Many people blame the vegetables, or they blame themselves for being lazy, but the real cause is usually the lunch itself. A lunch of white bread, sweets and a sweet drink gives quick energy and then a sharp fall, and that fall feels like tiredness. A lunch of vegetables, lentils and sweet potato gives slow energy, and the afternoon stays steady. The slump is not a personal failing. It is a sign that the meal was built for speed rather than staying power. Change the meal, and the afternoon changes with it. That is a practical lesson, and it is one you can test for yourself in a single week.

There is a point about work that I think is worth making as well. A labourer, a driver, a teacher, a shopkeeper and a student all need energy, but they need it in different ways. A labourer needs a lot of slow fuel for hard physical work, and a plate of potatoes, lentils and cabbage is exactly right. A student needs steady energy for thinking, and a meal of spinach, eggs and bread suits that need. A driver needs to stay alert without feeling heavy, and a light meal of vegetables, yoghurt and fruit is better than a huge, oily lunch that makes the eyes close. The vegetables are the same in each case. What changes is the amount and the company they keep on the plate. That is why I say there is no single energy vegetable. There is a way of eating, and vegetables are at the centre of it, with the rest of the plate adjusted to the work of the day.

Finally, I want to say something about the way we value food. We praise expensive foods and we ignore cheap ones, as if price were a measure of quality. Vegetables suffer from this more than almost any other food. A potato costs almost nothing, so people think it must be worth almost nothing. A cabbage is cheap, so people think it is a poor food. But a potato gives you slow carbohydrate, potassium and vitamin C, and a cabbage gives you vitamin C, fibre and folate, and both of them have fed families well for hundreds of years. The price of a food tells you about the market, not about the food. The cheapest vegetables in the shop are often the most useful ones on the plate, and I think we should say that plainly, because it frees families from the idea that healthy eating is only for people with money. It is for everyone, and vegetables prove it.

And one practical piece of advice I would give to anyone who wants to start this habit tomorrow: buy one vegetable you do not usually buy, and cook it simply with onion, garlic and a little oil. It might be a sweet potato, a head of broccoli, or a bunch of spinach. Cook it, taste it, and see how it fits into a meal you already make. You do not need to change your whole diet in one day. You need to add one good thing, and then another, until the plate changes by itself. Try it for a week, and notice how your afternoons feel. I think you will find that a plate with colour, variety and enough food in it is one of the easiest good habits you can keep. That is the change I would like to see: not a new diet, not a new product, just a plate with more colour on it, eaten every day, without fuss. It is a small change, but it is one that lasts, and lasting changes are the ones that matter most.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy” really mean?

It means asking which vegetables help you feel steady and active through the day, rather than giving a quick rush and then a crash. The answer is a mix: sweet potatoes and other root vegetables for slow carbohydrate, leafy greens like spinach for iron, and colourful vegetables like peppers, tomatoes and carrots for vitamin C and other nutrients. No single vegetable does the whole job. The energy comes from the mix, eaten as part of a proper meal.

Why do so many people search for “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy”?

People search for it because they feel tired in the afternoon and want a natural way to feel steadier, without relying on tea, coffee or sugary snacks. Many people also want to know whether a particular vegetable can help with tiredness, and how to eat in a way that keeps them going through a long working day. It is a common question because tiredness is common, and vegetables are a cheap and practical part of the answer.

How long does the feeling behind “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy” usually last?

The steady energy from a vegetable-rich meal usually lasts for several hours, because the fibre and slow carbohydrate in vegetables and lentils are digested gradually. A meal with sweet potato, lentils and spinach can keep you satisfied for three to four hours, while a sugary snack may lift you for less than an hour before the tiredness returns. The benefit builds up over weeks too, because regular iron and vitamin intake supports your body’s energy-making work day after day.

What makes “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy” feel stronger on some days?

What you eat with the vegetables makes the biggest difference. Vegetables eaten with protein, such as lentils, beans or eggs, and with a starchy food, such as sweet potato or bread, give far more lasting energy than vegetables eaten alone. How you cook them matters too, because lightly cooked vegetables keep more of their vitamins than vegetables boiled until soft. Sleep, water and a regular meal routine also change how energetic you feel on any given day.

Can daily habits change anything about “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy”?

Yes, small habits change the picture a lot. Eating vegetables at most meals, rather than once a week, gives your body a steady supply of iron and vitamins. Adding a vitamin C food, such as tomato, pepper or lemon, to a meal with spinach or lentils helps your body absorb more iron. Keeping raw carrots or cucumber ready as a snack, and adding a handful of greens to curries and stews, are simple habits that add vegetables to meals you already cook.

When should I pay closer attention to “Which Vegetables Give You the Most Energy”?

Pay closer attention if you feel tired, weak or short of breath most days, even after enough sleep and regular meals, because that can be a sign of low iron or another health issue, and it is worth talking to a health professional rather than trying to fix it with food alone. Also pay attention if a particular vegetable upsets your stomach, because some people find raw cabbage or broccoli hard to digest, and cooked versions usually suit them better. This is general information only, not personal advice.