Diet Tips for Exercise Enthusiasts

I consult the dictionary for the word fitness. It means a special exercise to keep the body in good condition, like:

• Aerobic exercises.
• Combining both physical workouts and foods to build the body.
• Daily diet plan.
• Attending the gym for instructions.
• Taking part in sporting activities like basketball or football.

But here I will confirm my article on combining both physical workouts and foods to build the body. I write this article so that diet tips for men or women to build the body before and after a workout is actualized.

Organic foods are those grown without the application of synthetic fertilizers. These are:

1. Carbohydrates or carbs.
2. Oils and fats.
3. Proteins.
4. Fruits.
5. Vegetables.

Foods grown without fertilizer are more nutritious and impact immense health benefits. Some authorities have gone beyond these five and added a sixth, water. Yes, water is food. You cannot live with proteins, fruits, vegetables, fats and or oils, and carbs for a week. But you can live with the water. Water is more than food. Water is life. It is needed to dissolve all the digested food nutrients into the bloodstream.

Carbohydrates or carbs include 'sugars, starch, and cellulose'. They are two groups of carbs to note. Complex and refined carbs. Complex carbs are those that retained their natural constituents such as vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. You get these in brown sugar, brown rice, and whole wheat flour. These nutrients are removed in refined carbs like white rice, white flour, and white sugar. You can find carbohydrates in a wide variety of plant foods.

According to the Institute of Medicine, you need between 45% to 65% daily. Fitness enthusiasts should take more in the form of fruits and vegetables. Complex carbs contain vitamin B-complex that improves the muscles. They are also rich in fiber, minerals, and antioxidants.

Fats or oils are also energy giving. The energy value is double and more than carbs. Fitness enthusiasts should eat some organic fats and oils like:

1. Animal fats.

2. Vegetable fats.

Animal fats include butter, milk, eggs, red meat, and cheese. Eat these fats and oils regularly.

Vegetable fats will include sunflower seeds and groundnuts; plus fruits like avocado, the best fruit fat. It contains 48% fat. Coconut meat also gives healthy fats. Vegetable fats like peanuts and cashew nuts are unsaturated. However, coconuts and palm kernel nuts are saturated with 90% more than animal fats. But the saturated elements come under the Medium-chain triglyceride acids (MCFAs). The acids in MCFAs are easily digested, and the human body finds it easy to metabolize and absorb. Fats or oils in organic form are more healthily than the process ones and help build muscles.

Fresh fruits and vegetables varied in nature. The vitamin and mineral contents made them indispensable in a diet. Fresh fruits contain vitamin C, and sugar and yield energy. Fruits that are red have a high Glycemic Index (GI). The sugar content is high. Eat less of these. Go for those with high electrolysis water content, like cucumber, watermelon, and lime.

Limes and lemons contain high vitamin C and nitric acid. They help develop, and nourish the muscles, and prevent cold symptoms. Cut a piece and squeeze its juice into a glass of water, and drink the solution with a little salt added. Some persons being sensitive to the nitric acid in citrus fruits should go for blackcurrants and grapes.

The best way to eat fruits and vegetables is to eat them with meat and fish and in a combination of at least three or five colours, green, red, yellow, white, and blue. This ensures that you get some benefits and retain optimum health.

Lettuce, cabbage, celery, kale, onions, garlic; and ginger are to be eaten regularly. Others are Brussels sprouts and broccoli. This helps in regular bowel health movements and increases your energy level. All these vegetables contain significant amounts of vitamin C.

Green leafy vegetables contain vitamin B-complex, and minerals like calcium, and potassium, which builds muscles and bones.

Protein is being made and destroyed by body cells. In each cell of the human body is a protein structure. This needs to be replaced daily. Protein specifically builds muscles. You get proteins from an animal source like egg white, casein, and whey in milk. Others are chicken, lean meat, kinds of seafood, or fish. Tilapia mostly overlooked has 21 g protein in a 3 oz serving.

Muscles alone contain 40% of body protein. During an exercise session, the tears going on are to be replaced with new amino acids from protein-rich foods. You should eat the rich sources of protein foods mentioned above. Supplement these with quality soy, quinoa, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, and ground nuts. Others are cashew nuts, almonds, and peas. Add legumes like white and red beans, navy beans, and dried lentils. These proteins will boost your muscle and bone development. You need between 45 and 70 grams of protein a day.

First, look for the immediate energy needs of your muscles and bones before a workout. If you do not, except for medical advice, you will be putting your muscles and bones in trouble.

The energy you take in will fuel and power your bones and muscles for the aerobic workout. This will come from simple sugars like glucose and fructose. You can eat nuts, seeds, and fish before a workout routine. And, after exercise, the best diet plan for high-quality protein foods like meat and milk which have muscle and bone building elements.

Here are certain foods that, when eaten regularly, result in improvement in the health of the muscles and bones of fitness, exercise, or stretching enthusiasts. These will include:

• Fresh oranges or fresh orange juice.
• Fresh coconut meat.
• Avocado pear.
• Oily fish, and
• Red meat.

Fresh orange is a fruit, and it is also a carb. Oranges have the following nutrient:

• Carb. 11.8 g
• glucose, fructose and sucrose 9.4 g,
• Vitamin C 100%.
• It also contains potassium.

As said earlier, your muscles need immediate energy as their primary fuel. It is best that you get it in organic form. This informs that your blood sugar is not spiking. Ordinary artificial drinks that contain refined sugar in the form of glucose or sucrose will spike the blood. And, during an exercise like jogging, you will be chasing your heart.

Potassium is a mineral that aids bone development. It helps calcium to be well absorbed. Orange has all these nutrients.

After your workouts, eat complex carbs. They are essential for the working of the body's muscles due to the B-Complex vitamins.

Root tubers like yams, coco yams, potatoes; cereals brown or semi-polish rice, are complex carbs. Brown bread is to be preferred to white bread. Parboil rice can be eaten with lots of fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. You must cook the African yam for 20 minutes, otherwise, you lost the advantage of its nutrient contents.

In my opinion, a yam being a complex carb is also loaded with bio-active proteins that make them functional food. That is why they play a pivotal role in bone development and enhanced strong bones. Otherwise, yams could not play any protective roles, as in fighting colds and flu and the quick healing of wounds. Its vitamin K and protein, found in the skin, protect the bones from osteoporosis diseases. I always eat my yams with their skin, but discard the brittle wax.

Sugarcane is one of the most important sources of easily digestible simple sugars that impart immediate energy for aerobic fitness. It contains bone-sustaining minerals like calcium, manganese, potassium, and magnesium. It is alkaline, and so, like orange, helps digestion. Its importance lies in helping to hydrate the body immediately after physical exercise, since it contains fructose and glucose. Sugarcane is good for joggers. I chew it before jogging with a glass of dilute lime or lemon juice and add a pinch of salt to the juice.

It fights diseases such as osteoporosis, and retarded bone degeneration. It is rich in amino acids, and calcium, including potassium and magnesium, enabling the calcium to be absorbed. As a keep fit person, eat coconut meat and drink its delicious fresh water regularly.

Eat avocado 2 or 3 times during the week. This fruit butter as it is sometimes called should be in your food baskets always. Saponins are found in avocados. It fights knee pains or osteoarthritis.

'Vitamin K is often overshadowed by calcium and vitamin D when thinking of nutrients important for maintaining healthy bones, however, eating a diet with adequate vitamin K can support bone health by increasing calcium absorption and reducing urinary excretion of calcium. Avocado pear has much vitamin K for bone health' according to Dr. Mercola. K1 is found in all vegetables and fruits; while K2 is in animal and dairy products.

This is the flesh of cows, goats, sheep, and poultry. The human body tolerates these more than others. Red meat from animals grazing in the sun and feeding on green vegetation produces the best organic nutrients.

Some school of thought opined that eating red meat pose health risks like heart diseases. However, this opinion can only hold good for a sedentary person, and significantly when one eats beyond recommended limits. Eat the liver, heart, and leg of a cow, and chicken.

These contain vitamin D which enables calcium and phosphorus to be absorbed and strengthens and develops bones. Other nutrients found in mullet fish are shown in the below table.

Try this meal as part of a noonday snack.

• Cut 100 g ripe avocado pear into two halves.
• Slice lime and squeezed its juice into one part and eat it up. Do the same with the other half.
• Wait for 10 minutes.
• Chew 60 g meat steak or 60 g fried mullet thoroughly, with a handful of peanuts or almonds.
• Wash it down with a glass of fruit juice.
• Do it at most 3 times a week after your workouts.
• For the last week of the month, I spoil myself with such snacks up to five times a week when I am in a recovery session.

During an exercise regime, the foods you eat drain rapidly to replace the energy lost. When you rest, the energy used is also stored as a reserved fuel. Hence, you gain weight in muscle and bone development.

As a person on a keep fit program, your best meals should come mostly from organic rather than inorganic sources. Organic sources of foods are entirely natural. The nutrient contents in vitamins, mineral matters, and so on are very powerful, delivering vital health benefits. I suggest that you try the foods for over three months to see results.

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4. Top 23 Benefits Of Sugarcane Juice For Skin And Health

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