Nutrition+for+Athletes

Sports nutrition has turned into big business. It seems Gatorade has a product for every possible stage of athletic performance. I'm waiting for Gatorade Couch Potato - to maintain mental alertness when the game goes into triple overtime. Certainly there are athletes that put their bodies under enormous strain and some may need supplementation but from the vast variety of protein powders available that always promise to be the fastest way to the body of your dreams we'd be lead to believe that regular food just doesn't cut it anymore. I will stand by that hard work and good food will always serve you well. However there are certainly some important timing and diet content factors to consider if you are looking for peak performance. I have mentioned in a couple instances where sports drinks and bars can be used but there are always less costly and more natural alternatives that will get the job done. Hopefully the points I've come up with here will simplify all the rhetoric and let you get down to the business of finding personal excellence.


 * Eat a complex-carbohydrate-only meal three to four hours prior to your daily work out or pre-game. This will load your liver's carbohydrate fuel tank and help prevent hypoglycemic symptoms from appearing during your workout. This should not include a lot of refined sugar products, but rather carbohydrates that don't abruptly cause a rise in blood sugar or insulin concentrations. Good examples include oatmeal, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, brown rice, most vegetables, most fruits, peas, beans, high fiber breakfast cereals (low in sugar) with low fat milk or yogurt (non fat or 1% milk fat).

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 * **In contrast to this, carbohydrate ingestion 30 to 60 minutes prior to strenuous exercise has been shown to impair exercise performance**

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 * The one exception to this rule is fructose sugar. Fructose sugar does not disrupt blood sugar or insulin levels to a significant degree and its ingestion 30 minutes prior to exercise has been shown to enhance exercise performance. For this reason I often suggest to athletes that they ingest up to 20 grams of fructose sugar added to cold water (20-25 ounces) 30 minutes prior to their event.
 * Within an hour after your workout, eat either a low-fat flesh or low-fat dairy protein meal. To make the most of this window of opportunity, researchers recommend not only protein, but also carbohydrates in order to reload stores of carbohydrates in your liver and muscles and stimulate insulin release. After exercise, insulin encourages muscle growth by decreasing the rate at which protein breaks down, while simultaneously promoting lean tissue re-synthesis.


 * About 20 to 30 minutes before your workout, you should drink 13 to 20 ounces of water. You should also drink 8 to 10 ounces of water every 15 minutes during a prolonged training session.


 * The best drink to have after exercise is one part of any juice and three parts of cold soda water. The juice will provide carbohydrates to restore your blood sugar quickly and will also provide potassium to replace what you lost in perspiration. The soda water will re-establish the proper balance of water and electrolytes in your bloodstream.


 * It is advisable that aerobic athletes take a multiple vitamin and mineral tablet to supplement the nutritional program.


 * During a strenuous exercise event that will last for more than 60 minutes, you could consider drinking 5-8 ounces of a carbohydrate based sports enhancement drink every 10-15 minutes. This will not only provide the right concentration and type of carbohydrates to stave off carbohydrate depletion in your liver, bloodstream and exercising muscles, but also provides an optimal strategy to prevent dehydration..


 * Ingestion of simple rather than complex carbohydrates are preferred between games and events scheduled on the same day. Examples include sports drinks, sports bars, pancakes, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, fruit and fruit juice. Sweet vegetable such as carrots, squash and sweet potatoes are also a consideration. If the next game or race is less than 3 hours following the preceding one, then a complete meal is not recommended. Rather, reliance upon sports drinks, sports bars, fruit juice, fruit and carrot sticks are viable dietary suggestions.