The Four Essential Elements of Successful Sports Nutrition
What is sports nutrition? Do athletes have different dietary needs than everyday people, or do they simply need to eat more?
To answer that question, you first have to look at how the general population eats. According to recent research, the number one source of calories in the American diet is sodas, with white bread in second place.
So clearly, eating like the general American population would not be recommended for athletes. So let’s look at what the demands are for sports nutrition:
A balanced diet: It’s an overused term, but in the case of sports nutrition, it’s an essential principle. Athletes put heavy demands on their bodies – and except for the elite few, most of us are doing our workouts in addition to the demands of everyday life. Thus it is essential that sports nutrition meets all the athlete’s energy and nutrient needs.
That means a diet based on the following:
• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Lean protein (chicken, low fat cuts of meat, fish, beans)
• Whole grain carbs
That also means that there are lots of foods that should be avoided, including:
• Chips
• Cookies
• Sweets
• Sodas
• Excessive alcohol
• Chips
• Fast food
• Ready made meals
• Any highly processed foods
Unfortunately that represents the vast majority of the American diet – a recent estimate suggests that fresh food makes up less than 10% of the typical American’s diet.
Sports specific elements: While a balanced diet should be the basis of any athlete’s daily intake, there will be additional requirements that can vary from sport to sport. Thus bodybuilders will tend to consume more protein, while endurance athletes place more of an emphasis on high quality carbs.
Knowing the demands of your sport is thus key to understanding how you might need to modify your diet.
Water: People often forget about water when thinking about their diet, but it is a key element. Not drinking enough water has numerous serious consequences, including:
• Headaches (doctors estimate that 70 – 90% of all headaches are due to dehydration)
• Poor skin, dry skin etc
• Excess body fat
• Poor muscle tone and size
• Decreased digestive efficiency and organ function (constipation etc)
• Increased toxicity in the body
• Joint and muscle soreness
• Water retention and bloating
It is thus essential that you drink water throughout the day. The recommendation for the general population is at least 8 glasses of water per day, but athletes in training will need to consume more than that to make up for what they lose working out.
Supplements: Supplements for athletes fall into two categories – general health supplements, such as multivitamins, and performance related ones such as protein or creatine.
Given the demands on an athlete, and the difficulties of getting complete nutrition from your diet, it is recommended that all athletes take a daily multivitamin.
Sports specific supplements are a more personal matter, but there is no doubting the effectiveness of creatine for helping athletes train harder, or protein powders when athletes are looking to gain muscle.
For more information on Sports Nutrition visit: http://EnergySupplementsCenter.com/sports-nutrition-1
Or go to http://www.energysupplementscenter.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Norriss
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Four-Essential-Elements-of-Successful-Sports-Nutrition&id=2140030
