HEALTH AND RELATIONSHIPS -
| 2013-08-13Eat Extra for Excellence
A fruit a day
There’s a lot more to eating for sports than chowing down on carbs or chugging sports drinks. The good news is that eating to reach your peak performance level likely doesn’t require a special diet or supplements. It’s all about working the right foods into your fitness plan in the right amounts.
Teen athletes have unique nutrition needs. Because athletes work out more than their less-active peers, they generally need extra calories to fuel both their sports performance and their growth. Depending on how active they are, teen athletes may need anywhere between 2 000 to 5 000 total calories per day to meet their energy needs.
So what happens if teen athletes don’t eat enough? Their bodies are less likely to achieve peak performance and may even break down rather than build up muscles. Athletes who don’t take in enough calories every day won’t be as fast and as strong as they could be and may not be able to maintain their weight. And extreme calorie restriction could lead to growth problems and other serious health risks for both girls and guys.
Eat a Variety of Foods
Calcium helps build the strong bones that athletes depend on, and iron carries oxygen to muscles. Most teens don’t get enough of these minerals, and that’s especially true of teen athletes because their needs may be even higher than those of other teens.
To get the iron you need, eat lean (not much fat) meat, fish, and poultry; green, leafy vegetables; and iron-fortified cereals. Calcium – a must for protecting against stress fractures – is found in dairy foods, such as low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.
In addition to calcium and iron, you need a whole bunch of other vitamins and minerals that do everything from help you access energy to keep you from getting sick. Eating a balanced diet, including lots of different fruits and veggies, should provide the vitamins and minerals needed for good health and sports performance.
Shun Supplements
Protein and energy bars don’t do a whole lot of good, but they won’t really do you much harm either. Energy drinks have lots of caffeine, though, so no one should drink them before exercising.
Other types of supplements can really do some damage
Anabolic steroids can seriously mess with a person’s hormones, causing side effects like testicular shrinkage and baldness in guys and facial hair growth in girls. Steroids can cause mental health problems, including depression and serious mood swings.
Ditch Dehydration
Speaking of dehydration, water is just as important to unlocking your game power as food. When you sweat during exercise, it’s easy to become overheated, headachy, and worn out – especially in hot or humid weather. Even mild dehydration can affect an athlete’s physical and mental performance.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for how much water to drink. How much fluid each person needs depends on the individual’s age, size, level of physical activity, and environmental temperature.
Experts recommend that athletes drink before and after exercise as well as every 15 to 20 minutes during exercise. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty, because thirst is a sign that your body has needed liquids for a while. But don’t force yourself to drink more fluids than you may need either. It’s hard to run when there’s a lot of water sloshing around in your stomach!
If you like the taste of sports drinks better than regular water, then it’s OK to drink them. But it’s important to know that a sports drink is really no better for you than water unless you are exercising for more than 60 to 90 minutes or in really hot weather. The additional carbohydrates and electrolytes may improve performance in these conditions, but otherwise your body will do just as well with water.
Avoid drinking carbonated drinks or juice because they could give you a stomachache while you’re competing.
Never drink energy drinks before exercising. Energy drinks contain a large amount of caffeine and other ingredients that have caffeine-like effects.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a diuretic. That means it causes a person to urinate more. It’s not clear whether this causes dehydration or not, but to be safe, it’s wise to stay away from too much caffeine. That’s especially true if you’ll be exercising in hot weather.
When it comes to caffeine and exercise, it’s good to weigh any benefits against potential problems. Although some studies find that caffeine may help adults perform better in endurance sports, other studies show too much caffeine may hurt.
Caffeine increases heart rate and blood pressure. Too much caffeine can leave an athlete feeling anxious or jittery.
Caffeine can also cause trouble sleeping. All of these can drag down a person’s sports performance. Plus, taking certain medications – including supplements – can make caffeine’s side effects seem even worse.
Never drink energy drinks before exercising. These products contain a large amount of caffeine and other ingredients that have caffeine-like effects.
Game-Day Eats
Your performance on game day will depend on the foods you’ve eaten over the past several days and weeks. But you can boost your performance even more by paying attention to the food you eat on game day. Strive for a game-day diet rich in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in fat.
– www.kidshealth.org
So what happens if teen athletes don’t eat enough? Their bodies are less likely to achieve peak performance and may even break down rather than build up muscles. Athletes who don’t take in enough calories every day won’t be as fast and as strong as they could be and may not be able to maintain their weight. And extreme calorie restriction could lead to growth problems and other serious health risks for both girls and guys.
Eat a Variety of Foods
Calcium helps build the strong bones that athletes depend on, and iron carries oxygen to muscles. Most teens don’t get enough of these minerals, and that’s especially true of teen athletes because their needs may be even higher than those of other teens.
To get the iron you need, eat lean (not much fat) meat, fish, and poultry; green, leafy vegetables; and iron-fortified cereals. Calcium – a must for protecting against stress fractures – is found in dairy foods, such as low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.
In addition to calcium and iron, you need a whole bunch of other vitamins and minerals that do everything from help you access energy to keep you from getting sick. Eating a balanced diet, including lots of different fruits and veggies, should provide the vitamins and minerals needed for good health and sports performance.
Shun Supplements
Protein and energy bars don’t do a whole lot of good, but they won’t really do you much harm either. Energy drinks have lots of caffeine, though, so no one should drink them before exercising.
Other types of supplements can really do some damage
Anabolic steroids can seriously mess with a person’s hormones, causing side effects like testicular shrinkage and baldness in guys and facial hair growth in girls. Steroids can cause mental health problems, including depression and serious mood swings.
Ditch Dehydration
Speaking of dehydration, water is just as important to unlocking your game power as food. When you sweat during exercise, it’s easy to become overheated, headachy, and worn out – especially in hot or humid weather. Even mild dehydration can affect an athlete’s physical and mental performance.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for how much water to drink. How much fluid each person needs depends on the individual’s age, size, level of physical activity, and environmental temperature.
Experts recommend that athletes drink before and after exercise as well as every 15 to 20 minutes during exercise. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty, because thirst is a sign that your body has needed liquids for a while. But don’t force yourself to drink more fluids than you may need either. It’s hard to run when there’s a lot of water sloshing around in your stomach!
If you like the taste of sports drinks better than regular water, then it’s OK to drink them. But it’s important to know that a sports drink is really no better for you than water unless you are exercising for more than 60 to 90 minutes or in really hot weather. The additional carbohydrates and electrolytes may improve performance in these conditions, but otherwise your body will do just as well with water.
Avoid drinking carbonated drinks or juice because they could give you a stomachache while you’re competing.
Never drink energy drinks before exercising. Energy drinks contain a large amount of caffeine and other ingredients that have caffeine-like effects.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a diuretic. That means it causes a person to urinate more. It’s not clear whether this causes dehydration or not, but to be safe, it’s wise to stay away from too much caffeine. That’s especially true if you’ll be exercising in hot weather.
When it comes to caffeine and exercise, it’s good to weigh any benefits against potential problems. Although some studies find that caffeine may help adults perform better in endurance sports, other studies show too much caffeine may hurt.
Caffeine increases heart rate and blood pressure. Too much caffeine can leave an athlete feeling anxious or jittery.
Caffeine can also cause trouble sleeping. All of these can drag down a person’s sports performance. Plus, taking certain medications – including supplements – can make caffeine’s side effects seem even worse.
Never drink energy drinks before exercising. These products contain a large amount of caffeine and other ingredients that have caffeine-like effects.
Game-Day Eats
Your performance on game day will depend on the foods you’ve eaten over the past several days and weeks. But you can boost your performance even more by paying attention to the food you eat on game day. Strive for a game-day diet rich in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in fat.
– www.kidshealth.org
