Post about "Nutrition"

What Are the Most Important Things in a Nutrition Program?

Nutrition program can be defined as a process of taking in or consuming healthy and growth supporting food. With the changing lifestyle in urban areas every other person is surrounded with junk food or fast food temptation, but none of those unfit food stuff works the way a balanced diet does.

A good or balanced nutrition for healthy living is a benefit for every age type, especially for those spending hours in gym or other physical activities. It is a well known fact that nutritional diet intake is full of benefits for every category of people and supports growth in teenagers and kids, while helping in maintaining healthy and fit body in adults.

Before going to nutrition filled food and the important things in a nutrition program, you need to understand that nutrition does not only mean having lots of protein through the day or throwing calories away from your life or to skip a meal or to eat less. Nutrition or nutrition program is a process where a complete combination of all the nutrients should be present in day to day diet i.e. you can not just skip carbohydrates or fat from your food intake.

Mostly people involved in workouts tend to suffer from weakness and late post-workout recovery due to incomplete nutrition intake. You may be having protein supplements, but your body will still be lacking in nutrition for the absence of other vital ingredients of a perfect nutrition program. A human body needs a well balanced combination of the three main ingredients of a nutrition program .i.e. protein, carbohydrate and fat. Along with these three main components, a nutrition program also consists of vitamins, minerals and adequate amount of water intake.

A good nutrition program consist of vital steps or things to be taken care of, as it helps to ensure that the body is getting complete nutrition and does not lacks in any of the key ingredient. But, there are also things not to be done to balance and succeed in your nutritional intake. These ‘not to do’ things say – do not begin a nutrition program without a physical activity like exercising or cycling or brisk walking, do not skip your meals (breakfast or lunch or dinner), do not depend only on supplements and substitutes for losing weight or gaining muscle strength and do not skip or minus any of the three main ingredients mentioned.

Another big mistake people tend to make in the name of nutrition intake or nutritious diet is by eating less or staying on fast through the day (with nothing but fruits intake). Often, eating less or nothing works towards slowing down or destroying the metabolism of a body.

Some of the most important things in a complete nutrition program are small but 5-6 meals per day, little bit of everything, management of calories to a level or intake of good fat, lost of water intake through a day, addition of fiber rich food and inclusion of vegetables and fruits in daily intake.

Experts believe that for a good healthy and nutritional intake one need to eat more than 3 meals per day. These meals should be 5 to 6 in number and less in quantity; also these small meals should consist of a balanced ratio of all the vital ingredients. This step of a nutrition programs helps to put an end to extra hunger or need for food and puts an end to starvation, also this helps to boost up the body metabolism and supports digestion system too. Next step comes as a balanced ratio of all the ingredients or little bit of everything i.e. to manage your 5-6 meals with lots of protein, required amount of carbohydrates, 20 to 25 % of fat per day and desired amount of vitamins and minerals.

People in general are always afraid of fat intake and tend to shift towards fat free or low fat food products, but truth is that fat has its own vital role in a nutrition diet. Fat is required for providing energy, stamina and oil to the bones, muscles, tissues and cells in the body. Fat intake to a desired level (specially the essential fat or the good fat) is compulsory for not just those indulged in muscle building, but is also equally important for rowing children and ageing adults for lubrication of joints. There are three types of fats present in food, such as saturate fat, polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. Out of these three types, monounsaturated fats are the essential and good fats required by a body for growth, strong joints and bones, building of stamina and for maintaining a decent level of cholesterol in the body. It also is said to have good ‘antioxidant’ characteristics. Olive oil, canola oil and fish oil are some of the sources of monounsaturated fats; also this type of fat is present in both kinds of products (plant and animal).

Objective of a nutritious diet is not just to provide health and growth to a body, but to maintain its vital function like metabolism and digestion. Adequate intake of water in a day works towards helping the body in performing these functions successfully. Water does not just prevent a body from dehydrating, but also act as a cleanser for body toxins. Water is needed in a body to support the breakdown of valuable ingredients within the body.

Lastly, a balanced or perfect nutrition program can never exit without the intake of right amount of valuable fiber rich products like fruits and vegetables. To maintain a fiber level within a body is important enough to not to be ignored. You can always eat lots of salad or fruits between your main meals to fill your body with vital fibers required for performing digestive functions and to maintain the nutrition level of the body. Some of the source for fiber rich fruits and vegetables are: apples, pears, oranges, grapefruits, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, carrots, mushrooms and green beans.

Thus, a good nutritional diet program is essential to make your body perform its vital functions with an ease.

Copyright (c) 2008 Jason Szova

The World of Sports Nutrition

Advancements in medicine and an increase in capitalism in the world as well as other factors all contributed to the development of the field of sports nutrition.As scientists learned more and more about our bodies and the optimum level of strength and physical fitness they can harbor, businessmen jumped the gun and manufactured products and services that actually help athletes meet these optimum levels. The media joined in the ruckus and published materials leading to the promotion of both the scientific and the commercial side of the field.Sports nutrition has been changing through the years around the world. It’s not just that the topics are different – the emphasis and approach have also changed.Peak Performance, a sports magazine carried an article on dehydration in runners on October 1990, its maiden issue. This article compared the benefits of plain water with those of dilute glucose solutions, which are more isotonic and therefore absorbed more rapidly.Today, go into almost any supermarket, convenience stores and even school cafeterias and you’ll find a ready supply of sports drinks aimed at maintaining hydration just like glucose solutions.The difference is that by using soluble long-chain glucose polymers instead of simple glucose, it’s now possible to create an isotonic drink that hydrates and also supplies significant amounts of carbohydrate to working muscles. And, the good thing is, sports drinks also taste better.More than 10 years ago, it was made public that muscle damage brought about by free-radicals may be reduced by having supplements of antioxidant vitamins A; C and E. Years after, antioxidant supplementation became a norm in the world of sports nutrition.Now, researchers are also beginning to understand that muscle damage is a more complex subject. It is difficult to assess free radical damage in athletes and it has been found out those large amounts of antioxidant nutrients may actually cause cellular damage and impair performance.The carb loading technique has been widely used over the years by athletes all over the world. A carbohydrate-rich diet is important in maintaining muscle glycogen stores thus ensuring high endurance levels.However, in the 1990′s it became clear that the glycemic index and release rate of different carbohydrates had important influence on when they should best be consumed in relation to physical activity.The relationship of carbohydrates and proteins were also discovered namely that carbohydrates promote protein-sparing in the body. It was also discovered recently that consuming carbohydrates before and during prolonged bouts of strenuous exercise can help protect the immune system.One of the most exciting recent developments in sports nutrition has been the rise of creatine supplementation. The use of creatine is now very common. Creatine renews the muscles essential energy source, ATP or adenosine triphosphate. Increased levels in muscles optimizes energy turnover meaning you’ll more energy for high power exercise and faster recovery during and after workouts. Creatine also increases the athlete’s maximum effort, delays fatigue and therefore prolongs endurance.New wisdom and therefore new products have definitely enabled athletes to fuel themselves better, work harder, train longer and recover more rapidly. However, as in any kind of innovation there will always be downsides.Nutritional supplements available to most athletes in the 80′s were very straightforward. Some athletes took drugs but the boundaries between nutritional supplements and drugs clear. Today, the race to find new formulas to boost performance has resulted to the availability of sports nutrition supplements which do not really occur naturally. The result is that the distinction between a nutrient and a performance-enhancing substance has become increasingly blurred.Some of these supplements contain ingredients that can cause athletes to violate the rules and regulations governing their sport because of unintentional contamination by other, ‘exotic’, substances present in the supplement manufacturing environment.More developments will be created in the world of sports nutrition and these will definitely spawn ethical questions. “Nutrigenomics”-the relationship between genetics and nutrition-will be more researched upon.As scientists become more skilled at discovering the processes of our genes, it will be possible that rather than adopting a general approach for sports nutrition, athletes around the world will be genetically tested to help them determine precise individual requirements for optimum health.The next years will predictably be more exciting for the world of sports nutrition.