NUTRITION AND exercise may well be regarded as the king and queen of the kingdom of wellness.
Unfortunately,
many people only focus on one or the other and fail to enjoy all the
benefits that both can bring. Nutritional experts point out exercise
alone does not make people healthy.
Research indicates that too
much exercise, especially endurance exercises like long-distance
running, can actually accelerate ageing.
On balance, optimal wellness comes from a blend of 80 per cent nutrition and 20 per cent exercise.
Exercise
requires nutrients: When you exercise, your body requires more
nutrients than when you do not. Sweating during your workout increases
your loss of minerals like sodium, potassium and magnesium.
The elevation in free-radical production, caused by exercise, increases the need for antioxidants like vitamin C and E.
Planned
nutrition is, thus, an extremely important part of any fitness
programme. Even if you only exercise a few days per week, your daily
diet and supplements is vital for best results.
After exercise,
your body uses nutrients to strengthen and rebuild itself. If you do not
provide the cells of your body with the right nutrients during that
important period, your recovery will be compromised, and you lose the
full benefits of all your efforts.
Exercise damages your muscle
fibres (micro-trauma), which are in turn healed and repaired using amino
acids from dietary proteins, resulting in healthier and stronger
muscles.
Bones subjected to the stress of exercise afterwards
strengthen and remodel using nutrients like calcium, phosphorus and
magnesium.
Optimise protein: Protein is the main food class that
the body uses to repair and heal. Your own protein requirements depend
on lean body mass and exercise programme.
In general, the more
intense your exercise and the more muscles you have, the more protein
you need in your diet. On average, women need 75 to 100 gm and men 100
to 150 gm of protein daily.
Sources of protein
Choose
plant protein like soy, nuts, beans, peas and seeds, along with animal
sources like fish, eggs, whey protein and organic poultry.
To speed up your recovery, have some protein like a soy protein shake within an hour after exercise.
Use
energy foods: Complex carbohydrates, particularly fruit or fruit
juices, vegetables, ground provisions, along with healthy fats, should
provide for your energy needs. The more intense your exercise, the more
high-energy foods you will need just before exercise.
Hydrate:
Water is the largest component of the human structure accounting for
more than two thirds of your body. Water is essential for healthy
function and exercise increases your requirement for the liquid.
Water
should be consumed before, during and after exercise to avoid
dehydration. The more you sweat, the warmer the climate, the more water
your body needs. Added electrolytes, as found in dilute fruit juices,
coconut water and packaged hydration fluids like the one I use, H3O.
Dehydration emphasises the signs of ageing on the skin.
Take
supplements: With superior supplementation (I use a plan called Cellular
Nutrition) your body can adapt optimally to the physical stresses of
exercise. Several vitamins - B complex, C, E, A, D and K and minerals
like magnesium, zinc, potassium and calcium are especially important.
Take a high-quality multivitamin and mineral tablet with each meal to
provides the recovering cells in your body all they need all the day.
Several
phytonutrients, (nutrients that come from plants) also enhance the
benefits of exercise and the best multivitamin formulations have some of
them added. The list includes energy enhancers like green tea, ginseng,
guarana, CoenzymeQ10 and muscle builders like creatine. I also
recommend taking extra antioxidants and the omega 3 fatty acids.
If
you exercise without good nutrition, you waste much of your effort. So
experience greater fitness, stronger muscles, joints and bones, better
cardiovascular health, improved mood, balanced emotions, a lower risk of
disease, less body fat and a more youthful body.
Once you get to
age 40, your body starts ageing faster than before. Studies have shown
that after 40, without the proper nutrients and exercise, your body will
age an extra six months for every passing year. That means that if you
are now 40, when you get to 50 you may look and feel like 55, and by 60,
you could have a 70-year-old body.
After age 35, most people
begin losing the muscle that helps prevent them gaining more body fat.
That means you not only lose muscle, the tissue that gives your body
shape, tone and strength, but you also get fat, the thing that
contributes to many diseases. These negative changes are reversible as
there are specific ways to eat and exercise that can slow and even stop
this rapid ageing process. You can look younger at 50 than you did at
40.
You may email Dr Tony Vendryes at tonyvendryes@gmail.com or
listen to 'An Ounce of Prevention' on POWER 106FM on Fridays at 8 p.m.
His new book 'An Ounce of Prevention, Especially for Women' is available
locally and on the Internet.
![Photo: Fatty liver, also known as fatty liver disease (FLD), is a reversible condition wherein large vacuoles of triglyceride fat accumulate in liver cells via the process of steatosis (i.e., abnormal retention of lipids within a cell). Despite having multiple causes, fatty liver can be considered a single disease that occurs worldwide in those with excessive alcohol intake and the obese (with or without effects of insulin resistance). The condition is also associated with other diseases that influence fat metabolism.[1] It is difficult to distinguish alcoholic FLD from nonalcoholic FLD, and both show microvesicular and macrovesicular fatty changes at different stages.
Accumulation of fat may also be accompanied by a progressive inflammation of the liver (hepatitis), called steatohepatitis. By considering the contribution by alcohol, fatty liver may be termed alcoholic steatosis or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and the more severe forms as alcoholic steatohepatitis (part of alcoholic liver disease) and Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).](https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10563087_10204579997886620_1670231956502363590_n.jpg)
