Nutrition and Diet

“Calcium is not only essential for laying the foundation for strong bones, but is also required for muscle contraction and preventing muscle cramps”

Bones are alive and preserving bone health for life-long should be a priority for any Runner, female into general fitness/ sports or men players (starting as amateurs and continuing as master’s players). Calcium is not only essential for laying the foundation for strong bones, but is also required for muscle contraction and preventing muscle cramps. A diet rich in calcium along with muscle building and weight bearing aerobic exercises such as running is in fact important for achieving optimum bone density.

Female athletes are generally more prone to calcium deficiency are at high risk for weak bones due to low body weight (restrictive diet in calories and protein) and associated amenorrhea which drastically impairs sports performance. Therefore for ensuring optimal sports performance calcium and vitamin D are the key nutrients. Ideally to ensure best protection recommended dosage of calcium is 1000 to 1300 mg along with 400-800 IU of vitamin D /day, as it will enhance calcium absorption. To get the required amount of calcium following calcium rich food should be consumed:

• Low fat milk is an excellent source of calcium and protein as compared to full cream milk, the only difference is in the amount of fat.
• Plain yogurt is also good source of calcium. One cup of yogurt is equivalent to 1/3rd cup of milk in terms of calcium but contains as much as twice the calories.
• Soy milk and its products like tofu is also a good choice.
• Darkgreen leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, mustard greens , beet greens are also rich in vitamin but their absorption is very little.
• Vitamin D: Also called “the sunshine vitamin,” sources includes: foods like eggs, fatty fish, cheese, or fortified milks and cereals.

SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU BOOST YOUR CALCIUM INTAKE:

• In breakfast, eat cereal with 1 cup of skim milk or soy milk and mix 1/3 cup of powdered skim milk.
• Eat fruit yogurt for snack or for dessert.
• With crunchy cereal (cornflakes), use yogurt in place of milk.
• Boost the calcium in salad by adding low fat grated cheese, cottage cheese, or tofu cubes.
• Add extra milk (instead of cream) to coffee, and enjoy.
• Add dry milk powder to soups and sauce
• Top cooked vegetables with cheese

Tags- Football, Athletics, Badminton

Travelling away from home for training and competition is standard practice for most athletes and require advance planning of where, when, and how the right foods and beverages can be obtained to satisfy needs. Unfortunately, the disruptions and distractions of a new environment, changes in schedule and exposure to different foods can significantly affect usual eating habits.  Make sure this doesn’t happen by trying to follow these general tips for eating on the road.

• Drink plenty of fluids while travelling sipping on fluid constantly will help you avoid dehydration.
• Avoid alcohol and other caffeine-containing beverages consumption as these beverages act as diuretic that can make you dehydrated and may also contribute to GI upset.
• Eat regularly. Carry some snacks to eat while travelling. Athletes eat more than the average passenger! Try to stick as closely as possible to your normal diet on the plane before hitting the road, pack portable healthy food items for snacks and meals. Here are some great examples:

• Whole grain crackers, bagels, breads, rolls.
• Whole canned or dried fruit.
• Whole grain cereal (mini-boxes or pack your own in containers or bags)
• Individual packages of oatmeal
• Cereal or granola bars(not chocolate covered)
• Air-popped or lower fat popcorn
• Trail mix
• Baked potato with stuffed vegetables
• Peanut butter or nut butters
• Plain water
• 100% fruit or vegetable juice (no sugar added)
• Watch out for hidden fat – Creamy soups, bread- type flaky pastries , mayonnaise-based salad dressings, and sauces in sandwiches add unnecessary fat to food .However good alternatives like consuming clear , broth-based soups instead of creamy soups may provide all the nutrients with considerably less fat . Using lemon juice – based salad dressing provide all the nutrients with considerably less fat.

• Consume grilled, boiled, baked, and broiled foods rather than fried or sautéed foods. Order a la carte (Your choice and no buffet) to get exactly what you want. Full dinners often don’t fit the way a serious players should be eating .For instance ,the grilled fish may be exactly what you want ,but the full dinner may come with mashed potatoes that are soaked in gravy , broccoli that is covered with cheese sauce , and a piece of apple pie with ice cream. The serious player should be better off with broiled fish, a plain baked potato, broccoli with lemon juice, and fresh fruit for dessert.

• When possible, request lower fat dairy products and lower- fat salad dressings.

• If you have a restriction of any kind, have a card made in the language of the country where you are travelling .The card should clearly spell out in the local language the foods that you can’t eat. Give this card to the server when eating out so there is no question about what you can eat. (Google translate can help you do this yourself, with more than 55 languages that can be translated).

“Just like any food, carbohydrates can be fattening if you eat too much.”

Fad diets preach the message that carbohydrate is fattening. Wrong! Just like any food, carbohydrates can be fattening if you eat too much. However, carbs are an important staple of your diet, because your body needs carbohydrates for energy. Instead of avoiding carbohydrates, focus on eating healthy carbs in the proper portion size. Starch, fiber and sugars are all types of carbs that occur naturally in foods. However, some foods, mainly processed foods, add sugar, which increases the calories and decreases the nutritional value.

Focus on whole foods with little-added sugar. Carbohydrate is not fattening; excess calories are fattening; in particular, excess fat calories – butter on bread, oil on pasta, mayonnaise on sandwiches, cheese on crackers –are fattening. You should get approximately 45 to 65 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates. Also, for every 1,000 calories you consume, you should get 14 g of fiber. If you are following a typical diet of 2,000 calories, between 900 and 1,300 calories should be from carbohydrates, and you should get 28g fiber. Fat provide 36 calories per teaspoon compared with 16 for carbohydrate.

Additionally, the conversion of excess carbohydrate into body fat is limited because you burn carbohydrate when you exercise. Your body preferentially burn the carbohydrate and stores the fat because the metabolic cost of converting excess carbohydrate into body fat is 23 % of the ingested calories. Excess dietary fat, on the other hand, is easily stored as body fat; the metabolic cost of converting excess dietary fat into body fat is only 3% of ingested calories If you are destined to be gluttonous, your better bet is to overeat pretzels (carbohydrate) rather than peanut (fat). You’ll fuel your muscles better, and the next day you’ll have a high energy workout with muscle well loaded with carbohydrate.

“Only after your glycogen stores are filled, the excess calories will be stored as body fat.”

But be aware that a continuous intake of excess calories from carbohydrate will eventually contribute to weight gain. When your glycogen stores are filled, the excess calories will be stored as body fat rather than try to stay away from bread, bagels, and other grains, remember these points:

Carbohydrate- based foods are less fattening than fatty foods.
You need carbohydrate to fuel your muscles.
You burn carbohydrate during hard exercise.

Carbohydrate is a friendly fuel; the enemy is excess calories from fat. When dieting to lose weight, you should energize with fiber rich cereal, whole grain bread, potatoes and other carbohydrate-dense vegetables but reduce your intake of butter, margarine, and mayonnaise that often accompany them.

White bread fails to offer the whole grain goodness found in whole – wheat, rye, or other whole-grain breads. But white bread is neither poison nor a bad food. It can be part of an overall whole some diet. Half of your grains should be from whole grains. So if you have oatmeal for breakfast and brown rice for dinner, your diet can accommodate a sandwich made on white bread for lunch, if desired.

The reputation of white bread as being unhealthful is partially because of its high glycemic effect. That is 200 calories of carbohydrate from white bread –if you eat just plain bread without the butter or sandwich filling that dampens the glycemic response – digest quickly and cause the blood glucose and insulin to rise higher than would the same amount of whole grain fiber – rich bread.

Remember, if you are physically fit, your muscles readily store the sugar from the digested bread as glycogen , with much less insulin than required by a sedentary person. Hence active people can better handle high –GI foods such as white bread and have less need to worry about the glycemic effect of the food.

FRUIT AND NUT CEREAL BAR, CRISPED RICE BAR, PEANUT BUTTER AND CEREAL BAR, BREAKFAST CEREAL BAR

Energy bars are far more about convenience than necessity, and they do suit the needs of many hungry people who seek a hassle free, somewhat nutritious snack. Energy bars awaits at energy convenience store, each boasting its ability to enhance performance so, one can spend a fortune on these pre-wrapped bundles of energy, thinking they offer magic ingredients. Their advantages: they’re portable and they tend to have a good balance of fast- and slow-release carbohydrate, a bit of protein for recovery, and low levels of fat.

There’s a huge range of energy bars available, though the carbohydrates in different bars tend to come from similar sources: rice, oats and, in a few products, maltodextrin for complex carbs, and dried fruit or fructose and glucose syrup for simple carbs. Energy bars has also promote pre-exercise eating. Fueling before exercising is a great way to boost stamina and endurance. The energy bar industry has done an excellent job of educating us that pre-exercise eating is important for optimizing performance. The associated energy boost likely does not result from magic ingredients (chromium, amino acids) but from eating 200 to 300 calories. These calories clearly fuel you better than the zero calories in no snack. Note that calories from bananas and low – fat granola bars are also effective pre-exercise energizers.

A Few Good Rules: If your choice is between a high fat, high salt typical fast food meal and an energy bar, you’re better off nutritionally choosing the bar. But they don’t contain the nutritional health benefits of a well chosen, varied diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, very lean sources of protein, nutrient dense carbohydrates and good sources of fats. So, if you choose these as part of your diet, keep them in perspective, and make them healthier by adding some raw veggies, a piece of real fruit, and some whole grains or beans if you expect to make a meal out of these bars. As a snack or pre-workout source of energy, they are pretty much o.k. as is, with the proper amount of water you need for exercise.

Most athlete, players & bodybuilders have a general complaint that they get nauseated or feel like that they ran out of energy while working out in the morning.
If eating a real meal 1- 1/2 hours before your workout is not feasible than drinking a pre-workout shake. It should deliver optimum calories which will keep you going longer and energetic with your regime.

Pre workout supplements are nutritionally balanced powders that contain protein, carbs, fats and even some fiber which are an array of vitamins and minerals in a balanced ratio. In short they are a complete package.
They get digested quickly, which make them ideal drink for pre workout. In pre-workout shakes, the carb source should be dextrose, maltodextrin or waxy maize. These are fast digesting carbohydrates. Fructose is not an ideal workout nutrition.

The protein source should be a fast digesting, preferably whey protein concentrate or isolate. Pre workout shakes should be enriched with prebiotic which improves gut function along with Omega 3 fatty acid & MUFA which help in reducing inflammation due to injuries and are also ergogenic (help to boost performance).

“Don’t lift empty because you won’t go very far”

Skipping breakfast is a common practice among people who exercise early in the morning. Researches has shown that to ensure adequate workout intensity, it is optimal to eat a balance diet containing not only protein but a meal that contain all vital nutrients in correct ratio and proportion 45 minute before a workout in a predigested form.

There is a well known saying that “don’t lift empty’. If you roll out of bed and eat nothing before you go for a run, you may be running on fumes. You will probably perform better if you eat something before you exercise. During the night, you can deplete your liver glycogen, the source of carbohydrate that maintains normal blood sugar levels. When you start a workout with low blood sugar, you fatigue earlier than you would have if you had eaten something.

How much you should eat varies from person to person, ranging from a few crackers to a slice of bread, a glass of juice, a bowl of cereal, or a whole breakfast.

Most people get good results from 0.5 gram of carbohydrate (2 calories) per kg of body weight one hour before moderately hard exercise. For a 68kg person, this is 34 (200 calories)of carbohydrate –the equivalent of a small bowl of cereal or a banana. Defining the best amount of pre-exercise food is difficult because tolerances vary greatly from person to person.

Some athletes get up two hours early just to eat and then go back to bed and allow time for the food settle. Others have a few bites of a biscuits, a banana, or some other easy to digest food as they dash out the door Then there are those who habitually run on empty. If that’s you, an abstainer, here is a noteworthy study that might convince you to experiment with eating at least 100 calories of a morning snack before you work out.

Researchers asked a group of athletes to bike moderately hard for as long as they could. When they ate breakfast (400 calories of carbohydrate), they biked for 136 minutes, as compared with 109 minutes after only drinking water (Schubert et al. 1999). Clearly, these athletes and other sports players were able to train better with some fuel in them.

Chocolate is one “food” that gets a bad rap at times due to its high fat and sugar content. But contrary to this belief, chocolate isn’t as bad as it was once believed.
The fact behind this is that chocolate is made from cocoa, a plant nutrient rich in health –protective compounds called flavonoids. Flavonoids in addition to its antioxidants properties also help in relaxing and dilating blood vessels, reduce blood pressure, prevent clot formation and increase blood flow to the brain and heart.

Besides dark chocolates , green and black tea contain the richest amount of flavonoids; followed by black grapes, milk chocolate, red wine, apples, strawberries, raisins and onions in decreasing order. Regarding the chocolate, its beneficial effects depend both on the cocoa content and how the cocoa is processed.

Since natural cocoa is very bitter, pungent and unpalatable, it requires a lot of processing before it could be actually consumed. And moreover, a lot added sugar is added to transform it into a delicious candy bar. Tagging this sugar loaded cocoa a “health food” is far beyond imagination. But still if you are intended to eat chocolate, your choice should be dark chocolate (contain more flavonoids) rather than milk chocolate because of the associated heart –health benefits.

But the amount which would reap the health benefit is still uncertain. And also, chocolate is not the perfect diet in terms of its energy, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals content to meet the need for sports activity. Since chocolate are loaded with sugar, it plays an important role in post recovery.
But this benefit is curtailed due its high fat content. Because it’s the carbohydrates that you need to replace and not fat to meet recover lost energy. So as a rule of convince eating chocolate is recommended as a treat – may be once or twice a week due to its high fat and sugar content.

The nutrition profile of commercial sports drink is 50 to 70 calories per 250 ml, with about 110 milligrams of sodium. Below is a simple recipe that offers this profile, but at a much lower cost than the expensive brands. You can make it without the lemon juice, but the flavor will be weaker.

You can be creative when making your own sports drink. You can dilute many combinations of juices (such as cranberry and lemonade) to 50 calories per 250 ml and then add a pinch of salt. More precisely, add ¼ tea spoon salt per litre of liquid .Some people use flavouring such as sugar free lemonade to enhance the flavour yet leave the calories in the 50 to 70 per 250 ml range. The trick is to always test the recipe during training, not during an important event . You want to be sure it tastes good when you are hot and sweet and settles well when you‘re working hard.

• ¼ cup (50 g) suga
• ¼ tea spoon salt
• ¼ cup (60 ml) hot water
• ¼ cup (60 ml) orange juice not (concentrate) plus 2 table spoon lemon juice
• 3 ½ cups (840 ml) cold water

1. In the bottom of a pitcher, dissolve the sugar and salt in the hot water.
2. Add the juice and the remaining water, chill.
3. Quench that thirst!

Yield: 1 liter

NUTRITION INFORMATION

200 total calories; 50 calories per 250 ml; 12 g carbohydrate; 110 mg sodium