Good nutrition is important. Our health depends on the nutrients we consume and not only when we work out, but every day. Nutrition has its effect on growth and performance in mind and body. It is vital that you consume what is necessary and benefits your needs.

Although people in the western world eat a lot, that doesn't mean they are in good nutritional health. People tend to eat whatever is easy and available but is not always nutritional. The lack of the need for proper food starts with a good education on what type of food you need on a daily basis. There are people who don't know what they are eating or if it is beneficial for their health. There are also people who just don't care and people that just can't help themselves.

For some it is really hard to resist the food that is presented in the media; because it's available and tasty, they eat it. The media also tends to advertise more unhealthy junk foods rather than healthy ones. This is what they do and they are pretty good at it. But it is your decision to eat it or not. If you don't exercise on a regular basis, all this eating can lead to being overweight. All the food that is digested that is more than the body needs will be stored as fat. As an athlete you are likely not to fall into this trap.

Although you might think that athletes don't fall into this trap, you would be surprised to know how many still do. Some of these athletes just don't understand the sports nutritional principals. It's all about education.

The nutrition an athlete needs depends on several factors like sex, age and body type. The training program and the nutritional program need to be made for that special athlete.

Another mistake that some athletes make is to go on a diet. When a diet is not consulted by a physician the performance can be less than expected. For an athlete, diets need to be tailor made and when you're just following a popular diet the lack of knowledge often results in bad performance. Athletes should be very careful when going on a diet. The diet can do more wrong than right. Just dieting is not much more than starving yourself. Dieting and doing too much exercise will increase the risk of slowing down your metabolism and your body might start using the protein found in your muscles as a source for energy. You will loose weight and muscle tissue. This can be very harmful and therefore should be avoided.

The right amount of fat in our body is good. We need the fat for certain physiological processes in the body and fat holds toxins. When we lose our body fat too fast, the toxins that were encapsulated within the body fat, are released back into the body. These extra amounts of toxins in our system can make us sick.

There are two types of fat in our food. There is saturated fat and unsaturated fat. The saturated fat comes from certain animals (pigs and cows) and will make you gain more weight. Thus this fat needs to be avoided. The unsaturated fat comes from fruits, olives, nuts and oily fish like salmon. This is good fat. This fat will help your blood flow and make your body healthy. Look for these in olive oil, walnuts, avocado and margarine (see food labels).

As mentioned before, an athlete needs to be more careful with diets because the diet can be harmful for your body. By following a popular diet you're depriving your body of proper nutrition and you're risking using muscle proteins as a fuel source. When you need to lose weight, consult a sports medicine physician and follow this diet.

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