Physical and psychological benefits of sport are obvious but when the intense exercise is a part of everyday life, you must make sure you have the proper diet on a long term.

Athletes have the same nutritional needs as ordinary people, but because of greater physical effort, the demand for carbohydrates increases. An athletes diet can contain up to 67% carbohydrates.

Athletes should know that handling a diet for a short-term performance may cost a long-term health. No food can miraculously improve performance, just a good combination of food can sustain the competition.

When a sports requires a great expenditure of energy, it is essentially an adequate intake of calories, macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fibers) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and trace elements) to maintain the energy and fluid balance.

More minerals …

Mineral content and application of tissues and cells differs.Bones contain much calcium, potassium and magnesium than muscle cells, and the blood is rich in sodium and chloride ions. Normally, the lack of minerals will be offset by reducing the excretion and releasing a few minerals stored in tissues.

Potassium in muscle is gradually lost as they are requested to repeated exercises. The body needs this mineral substance to release energy for a regular heart rhythm and a good digestion. So that, you can include in your diet foods rich in potassium; good sources are the lean meats, vegetables, nuts, pods and fruits, especially bananas.

To performant athletes can often be found a magnesium deficiency. This thing, with the physical exercise causes fatigue and muscle cramps, to hypotonia. Magnesium rich foods are the sea vegetables, green leafy vegetables, whole grains, nuts and pods.

Why fats need?

There are plenty of people that are folowing some weight loss programs in order to be healthy.

Because an athlete’s diet emphasizes the high intake of carbohydrates, it takes only 30% fats for the energy consumption. Muscles prefer fat as fuel during easy exercises, but carbohydrates are consumed quickly when the activity is intense.

Carbohydrates have been put into the spotlight ever since diets like the Atkin’s Diet and the South Beach Diet have recommended cutting carbohydrates out of your meals as much as possible. However, before you make an drastic decisions about what foods to include and not include, it is crucial to learn about carbohydrates and what they do for your body.

In short, carbohydrates can be good or bad for your body. It is necessary to eat enough good carbohydrates, because that is how our body has enough energy for low-intensity activities during the day. Carbohydrates are famously found in breads and grains, but actually they are also found in a number of other foods as well, such as fruits and vegetables. When keeping an eye on your intake of carbohydrates it is important to distinguish the good from the bad.

All carbohydrates are basically sugars. Complex carbohydrates are the good carbohydrates for your body. These strings of sugar are very difficult to break down and trap over nutrients like vitamins and minerals in the sugar strings. As they slowly break down, the other nutrients are also released into your body, and you can provide with fuel for a number of hours.

Bad carbohydrates, on the other hand, are simple sugars. Because their structure is not complex, it is easy to break down and holds little nutrients for your body other than the sugars from which it is made. Your body breaks down these carbohydrates rather quickly and what it cannot use is converted to fat and stored in the body. Staying away from simple carbohydrates is what most diets recommend, since they have little nutritional value when compared to complex carbohydrates.

More importantly than how carbohydrates work in the body and the difference between good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates is how you can actually eat these carbohydrates! First, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. These foods include carbohydrates, but also a variety of other nutrients needed by your body. Another great tip is to cut the white bread and bread products out of your diet and replace then with whole wheat or 12-grain breads instead. Look at the packaging. Foods rich in fiber are probably a source of good carbohydrates.

Learning the difference between good and bad carbohydrates is very important if you wish to have a healthy diet. It is not good for your body to cut out carbohydrates completely—in fact, that is very difficult to do unless you only eat meat! Eating a healthy and balanced diet means including good carbohydrates into your meals.