Even a day spent peacefully swaying in the backyard hammock requires your body to produce and distribute energy and other vital nutrients. Now, imagine running the 1,600 meter relay. Imagine a Monday Night Football game. Imagine a marathon. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that athletic endeavors oblige a more careful consideration of nutrition than one’s torpid and typical daily rituals. To an athlete, the body represents the most crucial and finicky instrument of sport, not just the hammock’s luggage.
Two things propel the human body: energy and water. Water serves a variety of functions for the sporting enthusiast. First and foremost, water carries nutrients and energy throughout the blood stream. Water additionally acts as a conveyor of waste, carrying off used materials for proper disposal. The third, but no less important function of water, is stabilizing body temperature. Much like a car radiator, water in the bloodstream cools the body in the midst of strenuous activities. Without enough water, a person can suffer from heat exhaustion and ultimately die. Typically, if an athlete loses 5 percent of the body’s water content, heat exhaustion sets in. At 7 to 10 percent loss rates, death occurs.
Keeping the body hydrated is an essential concern of sports safety . Athletes are encouraged to consume a cup (8 ounces) of water for every 15 minutes of grueling exercise. Sports drinks, such as Gatorade or Powerade, replenish electrolytes and other nutrients along with fluids. To facilitate temperature stabilization, water or sports drinks should be cold (50-40 degrees Fahrenheit). Besides steadying body heat, cold liquids are able to move through the stomach more quickly—hydrating the body faster. Athletes are instructed to eschew caffeinated beverages, since caffeine acts as a diuretic (diuretics cause dehydration).
Turning food into energy—and deciding which foods create the most usable energy—is the chief focus of sports nutrition. When engaging in sports, muscles rely on stores of glycogen. If glycogen runs out, muscles under-perform; exhaustion sets in. Starchy foods high in complex carbohydrates are optimal sources of glycogen (which is stored in muscle and liver cells). Carbo-loading is a sports nutrition practice employed by many athletes seeking to cull large amounts of glycogen before competitions. Eating foods high in complex carbohydrates—pasta, muffins, breads, potatoes, corn, and rice— helps athletes pile up on energy. Starchy foods are additionally encouraged because they are easy to digest, and because they stabilize blood-sugar levels. Fats and proteins are significantly more difficult to digest; therefore, an athlete should shy away from fats, oils, and proteins directly before competing. Foods high in sugar are also frowned upon, due to the quick swinging spike in blood-sugar.
Sports nutritionists advise a balanced regimen (orchestrated from the FDA’s food pyramid) as the most favorable way to replenish and restore your body. Athletics drain the human body of energy and precious nutrients; sports nutrition seeks to allay this seepage. By adhering to government suggested amounts of vegetables, fruits, breads, and proteins, an athlete’s body should effectively regenerate and rejuvenate.
Sports nutrition continually undertakes new methods for determining the most effective way of replenishing the body of an athlete. Companies like Gatorade and Powerbar sink millions of dollars into research, hoping to uncover untapped sources of energy, to propel athletes further by means of nutrition. Boy, I sure hope they’re not exhausted.
By Jean-Pierre Lacrampe