Performance Nutrition

Proper nutrition is a huge part of good health and most of what I know about nutrition is based on an overwhelming desire to stay healthy  And lest I seem self-righteous about my personal pursuit of good health, let me state for the record that it goes back to when I was 5 years old and my father had his first heart attack.

Back then, there wasn't a lot you could do if you had a heart attack.  He was told to sit mostly, and to participate only in sedentary activities.   He never saw me play high school football--the doctors were afraid he would get too excited.

They even told him he shouldn't hold his arms over his head.   We dried clothes on a clothesline and he couldn't even hang wet clothes on the line.  Hobbies were paint-by-number painting and making fishing lures.  We had honeybees and he would watch from a lawn chair while I did the work.

He started taking anti-coagulant medicine, which he took for the rest of his life. Fried food was forever banned from our table.  Instead, it was skim milk, corn oil margarine that we had to drive to Knoxville to find, lots of fruits and vegetables, and nary an egg to be found.

That's how I grew up and it stuck with me.  So all my dedication to good health and healthy eating is merely paranoia--I didn't want to end up like my dad, quite handicapped in what he could do.

So I've made a point to eat smart ever since.  Oh, I backslide from time to time but 95% of my diet has been healthy.

Nutrition is a big part of sports performance as well.  The old saying is "garbage in, garbage out."  You need good fuel in your engine to perform well.

Nutrition science seems to change all the time (although I'm still waiting for someone to declare the bacon is good for you), but the basics stay the same:  Limit fried foods, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, more fish and chicken. 

I'm also convinced that  we should eat more fresh food, prepared simply... that we should rely on what I call "real" food.   Food with a short shelf life and an even shorter ingredient list.  Food that hasn't been processed, canned, or frozen.

Do you know everything that is on the label found on your food?  Too often, you find additives, preservatives, and a whole lot of things that you need a chemistry degree to understand.  If it goes in your mouth, know what is in it. 

Have you looked at the ingredients in margarine?  It's about a molecule away from being plastic.  I prefer butter.  Pure. Simple.  Food.

What is the only thing to fail pretty much every test ever invented for determining if something was bad for us and yet got government approval?  Artificial sweetener.  So what do we use if we're trying to lose weight?  Yep--artificial sweetener.  Just doesn't seem prudent.

Carbohydrates are still the cornerstone for athletic performance.  There just isn't a better way to provide our body with the fuel it needs to perform.  But genetically engineered grains that have dramatically increased the gluten content have created a huge problem for a lot of folks.  Gluten-intolerance is a serious medical problem.  

I see more people growing their own food and our own Farmer's Market is clear evidence that people are looking for fresh food.  At my house, we're spending more time on our garden.  Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash.  We also grow blueberries, blackberries, cherries, apples, and pears. 

It takes more effort and it costs more in the short run but I'm convinced that in the long run, you'll save money  by being healthier throughout your lifetime.