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THE NUTRITION EDGE
How to Look Healthy, Fit and Strong and Outlast Anyone on
the Dance Floor.
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How much Protein do you need
The body uses protein for muscle growth and repair. During intense
training and competition muscle tissue can be severely broken down.
Therefore the competitive athlete must consume enough protein for
repairing damaged muscle fibers and growing new ones.
Remember that muscle tissue is made up of 22% protein and 78% water.
Without adequate protein intake damaged muscle tissue cannot be
properly repaired and your body cannot build new fibers. This will
in turn limit your dancing and eventually lead to injury.
Endurance athletes need approximately 1.4 to 1.7 grams of protein
per kilogram bodyweight [BW], (1 kg is approximately 2.2 pounds).
Some good sources of protein include lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs,
tofu, nuts and dried beans. Approximately 15-20% of your daily calories
should come from protein.
How much fat do you need?
Fat is the body’s primary energy source during low to moderate
intensity endurance activities. This does not mean that extreme
athletes don’t need fat in their diets, just the opposite.
The body needs Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s--––omega-3
and omega-6 fatty acids) that assist with almost all bodily functions,
including the transport of vital nutrients across the cell membrane
for energy production.
These fats are called essential because your body cannot produce
them; they must be supplied by your diet. Some good sources of EFA’s
are cold water fish (like salmon and trout) and flaxseed oil. Approximately
10-15% of your daily calories should come from fat.
What about the micronutrients?
Dancers, runners, cyclists, bodybuilders, martial artists, these
are athletes whose bodies require a great deal of energy to sustain
the level of intense activities they perform—to name a few.
Unfortunately, I find that the average exerciser is far more nutrition
conscious than most athletes. If you are an athlete or very active
person, take note. Extreme athletes experience more strokes and
heart attacks than the average non-exercising individual. Shocking
isn’t it?
If you are a very active person, your body requires a great deal
more nutrients for the energy production cycle. Energy for your
working muscles come only from the foods you eat. And if you only
eat one or two meals per day, which for most athletes is junk food,
your body is nutrition starved.
Every time you dance, run, jump, kick, bike, or swim without proper
nutrition, your body has to draw upon its reserves. In many cases,
it has to pull nutrients from other important body functions…like
getting rid of toxic waste build-up, making sure enough blood and
oxygen is supplied to your heart and working muscles, keeping internal
body temperatures at a safe level, and a host of other critical
functions.
In short, to engage in athletic activity without proper nutrition
is not only stupid, over the long run it will also prove to be deadly.
When you burn wood in a fireplace you get fire and ashes. Likewise,
when your body converts food into usable cellular energy (ATP),
you not only get energy, but you also get cellular waste…those
deadly free radicals you’ve heard about that bounce around
your body and burn holes into the membrane of healthy cells.
If free radicals continue to build up in your body, which is the
case with very active people with poor nutrition habits, eventually
this build up may lead to a stroke or heart attack even in a seemingly
healthy individual.
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