Performance-enhancing foods -
Choosing whole foods is like picking the best tools for your athletic journey. They provide your body with the energy and nutrients it needs to perform at its peak. Eating whole foods gives your muscles fuel to help you run faster, jump higher and get stronger.
Here are some examples of whole-food choices. Carbohydrates are important for physical activity and can seriously boost your performance.
They give you more energy for the effort you put in during your activity, compared to fats and proteins. They are also important for keeping your hormone levels, like estrogen and progesterone, in check. Carbohydrate foods should make up the biggest part of what you eat as an athlete.
Even a short period of carbohydrate restriction can affect your bone health. This happens by lowering the number of bone-building substances while increasing the amount of elements that break down your bones.
Overall, this can lead to weaker bones. Aim to fill your plate half full of carbohydrate foods such as pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, quinoa, couscous and others. This guide is designed to be used for meals only. You will most likely also need to eat snacks between meals to keep your energy levels up.
Snacks play a crucial role in fueling an athlete. Due to the high training demand of sports and recreational activities, it can be difficult to get enough fuel by consuming only 3 meals daily.
If you play a sport or engage in physical activity often, snacks per day between meals can help you stay energized and on top of your performance. Here are some snack ideas:. Staying well-hydrated is essential for athletes.
Athletes need different amounts of hydration depending on their body size, what sport they do, how much they sweat and where they train. Read more about exactly how much water you should be drinking as an athlete.
You may need to consume carbohydrates and fluids to keep your energy level up during activity sessions. If your training session is longer than 1 hour, in hot and humid weather, high intensity or if you can't make it through your workout, you will benefit from consuming these nutrients during your workout.
However, this may lead to digestive issues if your stomach isn't used to it. When you train your gut, you are allowing your stomach to practice using this fuel during training, which can reduce digestive issues and improve nutrient delivery to your muscles.
Like any other athletic activity, training your gut takes practice and builds over time. A well-planned diet will meet your vitamin and mineral needs. Supplements will only be of any benefit if your diet is inadequate or you have a diagnosed deficiency, such as an iron or calcium deficiency.
There is no evidence that extra doses of vitamins improve sporting performance. Nutritional supplements can be found in pill, tablet, capsule, powder or liquid form, and cover a broad range of products including:.
Before using supplements, you should consider what else you can do to improve your sporting performance — diet, training and lifestyle changes are all more proven and cost effective ways to improve your performance.
Relatively few supplements that claim performance benefits are supported by sound scientific evidence. Use of vitamin and mineral supplements is also potentially dangerous.
Supplements should not be taken without the advice of a qualified health professional. The ethical use of sports supplements is a personal choice by athletes, and it remains controversial. If taking supplements, you are also at risk of committing an anti-doping rule violation no matter what level of sport you play.
Dehydration can impair athletic performance and, in extreme cases, may lead to collapse and even death. Drinking plenty of fluids before, during and after exercise is very important. Fluid intake is particularly important for events lasting more than 60 minutes, of high intensity or in warm conditions.
Water is a suitable drink, but sports drinks may be required, especially in endurance events or warm climates. Sports drinks contain some sodium, which helps absorption. While insufficient hydration is a problem for many athletes, excess hydration may also be potentially dangerous.
In rare cases, athletes might consume excessive amounts of fluids that dilute the blood too much, causing a low blood concentration of sodium.
This condition is called hyponatraemia, which can potentially lead to seizures, collapse, coma or even death if not treated appropriately. Consuming fluids at a level of to ml per hour of exercise might be a suitable starting point to avoid dehydration and hyponatraemia, although intake should ideally be customised to individual athletes, considering variable factors such as climate, sweat rates and tolerance.
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Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. Nutrition and exercise The link between good health and good nutrition is well established.
Daily training diet requirements The basic training diet should be sufficient to: provide enough energy and nutrients to meet the demands of training and exercise enhance adaptation and recovery between training sessions include a wide variety of foods like wholegrain breads and cereals , vegetables particularly leafy green varieties , fruit , lean meat and low-fat dairy products to enhance long term nutrition habits and behaviours enable the athlete to achieve optimal body weight and body fat levels for performance provide adequate fluids to ensure maximum hydration before, during and after exercise promote the short and long-term health of athletes.
Carbohydrates are essential for fuel and recovery Current recommendations for carbohydrate requirements vary depending on the duration, frequency and intensity of exercise. Eating during exercise During exercise lasting more than 60 minutes, an intake of carbohydrate is required to top up blood glucose levels and delay fatigue.
Two to three hours before playing sports, eat a meal that is rich in carbohydrates, low in fat and fairly low in protein and fiber for quick digestion. Portion size will depend on gender and body weight along with how intense or long the training session will be. To succeed in building an energy-packed, nutritious meal, try to include all five of the following components:.
After the assessment, the dietitian will provide an individualized nutrition plan to help your athlete excel. The sports medicine department welcomes phone calls to during our normal business hours of am to pm.
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The link between good health and good nutrition Performance-snhancing well established. Interest in nutrition foodw its foode on sporting performance is now a science in itself. Whether Sodium intake and pregnancy are a Sodium intake and pregnancy athlete, a weekend sports player or a Adverse consequences of extreme diet plans daily Performance-enhancong, the foundation to improved performance is a nutritionally adequate diet. Athletes who exercise strenuously for more than 60 to 90 minutes every day may need to increase the amount of energy they consume, particularly from carbohydrate sources. The current recommendations for fat intake are for most athletes to follow similar recommendations to those given for the general community, with the preference for fats coming from olive oils, avocado, nuts and seeds. Athletes should also aim to minimise intake of high-fat foods such as biscuits, cakes, pastries, chips and fried foods. After absorption, glucose can be converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscle tissue.
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