WITH ANOTHER summer season about to be upon us, interest about what to eat becomes an all-time high. People want to know what is good to eat, and what isn't, and how it supports the functional strength & and conditioning used to improve performance. This question goes beyond professional athletics and applies to anyone who exercises and wants to do what they love for as long as they can. Could clean eating multiply the effectiveness of your exercise?
SAY NO TO SEED OILS:
There are six main problems with industrial seed oils, all of which play a significant role in chronic inflammatory diseases.
The consumption of industrial seed oils represents an evolutionary mismatch.
Eating industrial seed oils raises our omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios, with significant consequences for our health.
Industrial seed oils are unstable and oxidize easily.
They contain harmful additives.
They're derived from genetically modified crops.
When industrial seed oils are repeatedly heated (as restaurants do in fryers), even more toxic byproducts are created.
Here's a list of which ones too avoid:
Soybean oil.
Corn oil.
Rapeseed/Canola oil.
Sunflower seed oil.
Peanut oil.
Cottonseed oil.
Safflower oil.
Grape seed oil.
So be sure to read your labels when at the grocery store, these oils are hidden everywhere. Which brings me to my next point, and where a lot of oils are hidden; processed foods.
MINIMIZE PROCESSED FOODS:
If you make a point of eating mostly real food, then you’ll already be minimizing your intake of processed foods. A rigorous landmark National Health Institute (NIH) laboratory study, published in Cell, pinpointed why this is so important. Scientists said they took on the project to cut through the noise of trendy diets: “The perpetual diet wars between factions promoting low-carbohydrate, keto, paleo, high-protein, low-fat, plant-based, vegan, and a seemingly endless list of other diets have led to substantial public confusion and mistrust in nutrition science. While debate rages about the relative merits and demerits of various so-called healthy diets, less attention is paid to the fact that otherwise diverse diet recommendations often share a common piece of advice: avoid ultra-processed foods.” Unlike many nutrition studies that depend on survey data, the NIH study was highly controlled. The subjects, ten male and ten female, resided in the Metabolic Clinical Research Unit at the NIH Clinical Center for a 28-day period where they would eat all of their snacks and meals under clinical supervision. The subjects would also spend one day each week in a metabolic chamber to collect precise energy expenditure measurements to see how processed food was influencing their metabolism.The researchers drew a broad conclusion from the data collected: “People gained weight on the ultra-processed diet and lost weight on the unprocessed diet.” Eliminating excess body fat by minimizing the amount of processed food you consume can upgrade both your health and athletic performance. Decreasing processed foods means reducing the pro-inflammatory foods that drive poor health and promote the gain of excess body fat.
LIMIT ALCOHOL INTAKE:
Limiting alcohol intake is widely recognized as being fundamental to healthy nutrition. If you’re an athlete or someone who works out hard in the gym, it’s important to understand the science that demonstrates how drinking can undermine post-workout muscle recovery. A 2014 study published in PLoS ONE looked at the effect of alcohol on a group of physically active subjects during a series of workouts, including resistance training and high-intensity interval exercise. The scientists studied what happens when an exerciser consumes alcoholic beverages after a workout. The results suggested that alcohol had a dramatic negative impact on muscle protein synthesis (MPS) — the essence of muscle recovery. This drop was especially steep when the subjects drank an alcoholic beverage unaccompanied by protein -- MPS slowed by an average of 37 percent. The researchers concluded that “given the need to promote protein synthesis that underpins adaptation, repair, and regeneration of skeletal muscle, the results of the current study provide clear evidence of impaired recovery when alcohol is consumed after [exercise] even in the presence of optimal nutritional conditions.” In other words, to get the most out of a hard, functional strength & conditioning workout, hold off on the post-workout beer. Instead, stick to a protein shake or a high-protein snack.
SUPERFOODS EVERYDAY IS A MUST:
Add superfoods to your smoothies, yogurt, or coffee everyday. I cannot stress the importance of superfoods and how this helps me perform and stay energized throughout the day. The 5 top superfoods and products I cannot live without right now are listed below:
1) Organic Turmeric – major benefits for the body and brain
2) Organic Moringa Powder- full of nutrients, anti inflammatory, and great for your tissues
3) Organic Cacao Nibs – high antioxidant, boosts energy and burns fat
4) Phresh Greens – full of vitamins and nutrients, a substitute for everyday vegetable intake
5) Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen- tissue repair, skin, joint and bone health
6) Organic Raw Unsweetened Cocao Powder – antioxidant, great for brain health and function, maintains cholesterol levels, reduces obesity, and controls diabetes and asthma
ORGANIC, ORGANIC, ORGANIC:
Eat organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible. If you are on a tight budget, or don’t want to buy organic, at the very least, follow the dirty dozen. Whenever I am at a grocery store I look to see where the fruits and vegetables are from. In some instances, if the product is from the US and its organic then I see if there is a local option instead. Why? Well for me, we live in Canada, so just think of how long the product took to get to where we live from where it was shipped and the process of getting the items there. I’m sure there were pesticides and chemicals used in the US to keep them fresh enough to get to Canada and last long enough until they are sold and eaten. It is almost always better in my opinion to eat locally grown fruits and vegetables. What is better than fruits and vegetables grown in your local backyard?
Plus, they always taste the best.
Also, check out our store, where we offer our own healthy, local options as well that will help you eat healthy, and improve performance.
We offer healthy products such as HealthFerno, which is amazing, Polar Joe Protein Coffee (great way to get more protein), and you can drink these in your Evolution YETI, while cozy in your Evolution sweatshirt!
Let's Get This
Kristen Alvarez
Kristen Alvarez
General Manager / Owner
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