Antioxidants: you’ve probably heard the word. Maybe you also knew that antioxidants are healthy for you, but you still have no idea what they are exactly and what they contain? In this article we will tell you all about it.
What are the benefits of antioxidants for runners?
Studies have shown that people who eat a lot of antioxidant-rich foods have a lower risk of disease, a higher life expectancy and may run faster. Antioxidants can help your body to start your new training fresh and recovered.
What is the function of antioxidants?
Antioxidants are molecules that help your body fight free radicals. These are unstable molecules that can damage cells and cause health problems. When you train hard, your body is likely to experience spikes of inflammation and oxidative stress – a condition in which the production of free radicals exceeds your body’s ability to process them and prevent damage. Antioxidant-rich foods give your body some extra help fighting all that stress and damaged cells. What also helps against oxidative stress is getting enough vitamin E. In this article we tell you more about vitamin E and how you get it.
David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Lab at a Research Campus in North Carolina and participant in 58 marathons and ultramarathons. Nieman: ‘Antioxidants are not ‘magic bullets’, but they are an excellent factor to compensate for the stress of running.’ It is said to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation and it improves virus defense,” says Nieman.
An important note about antioxidants is that not only are they good for you in general, but they can also improve your running performance. This is due to their ability to protect your cell membranes from oxidative stress. This means that the better you protect your muscles while running, the less damage to your muscles and the faster your recovery.
What are the best antioxidants?
Research shows that consuming five to nine fruits and vegetables per day provides the best benefits. Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is important, but options that are rich in… the antioxidant group polyphenols are especially important for runners. Polyphenols are found in various plant foods and are especially rich in berries, cherries, dark chocolate, green tea and even coffee.
“We now have a lot of data showing that simply drinking some fruit with water is great – better than a sports drink and much healthier in the long run,” says Nieman.
What contain many antioxidants?
Adding more antioxidants to your diet probably has more training benefits than any vitamin supplement. Namrita Brooke, a sports dietitian and avid runner, offers some tips to make those five to nine fruits and vegetables a day more achievable and practical for a busy runner.
Provide plenty of washed fresh fruit and vegetables as a snack or to add to a meal (such as apples, pears, peaches, cherries, carrots, cucumber and tomatoes) and don’t be afraid to use different types of frozen fruit in smoothies.
By eating a variety of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables (such as leafy greens, zucchini, cucumber, carrots and frozen cauliflower) to your smoothies, you can increase the nutritional value at any time of the day.
Read more? In this article you can read which foods are packed with amino acids.
This way you can easily add more antioxidants to your meals
An excellent starting point is to think about how to get some more colorcan add to your daily meals. During training alone, you can see excellent results by simply adding a banana to your pre-run toast, replacing one of your long run gels with a few dates, and adding frozen mixed berries to your post-run smoothie. the run. Or read this article in which we highlight the 15 best foods for runners.
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2023-11-14 15:56:15
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