Nutrition for Physical Activity
By: News Canada

Q: I am physically active, but do not always eat a well balanced diet. How can I improve my overall nutrition to complement my active lifestyle? Samara Felesky-Hunt, a registered dietitian in Calgary, provides advice:

A: Good nutrition plays an important role in exercise performance. The recommended diet for active individuals, at all fitness levels, is a high carbohydrate diet containing adequate protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and fluids. Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for exercising muscles. The more vigorous the exercise, the more carbohydrate is required to fuel the activity.

Use Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating to figure out how to balance your food choices for your age, sex and activity level. Enjoy a wide variety of carbohydrates such as whole grains, breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables. As protein and mineral needs are also important, choose lower fat dairy products, legumes, nuts, eggs and leaner meats. Regular exercise may increase the loss of some minerals and alter the needs for certain vitamins. To ensure you meet your daily quota of vitamins and minerals, be sure to vary your food choices.

Due to hectic lifestyles, it can be a challenge to obtain your nutritional needs on a daily basis. I recommend that active individuals take a daily multivitamin, such as Centrum®, and eat well-rounded healthy meals to support their nutritional needs. Centrum® contains the essential vitamins and minerals necessary to maintain good health and to meet the needs of physical activity.

About The Author News Canada provides a wide selection of current, ready-to-use copyright free news stories and ideas for Television, Print, Radio, and the Web. News Canada is a niche service in public relations, offering access to print, radio, television, and now the Internet media, with ready-to-use, editorial "fill" items. Monitoring and analysis are two more of our primary services. The service supplies access to the national media for marketers in the private, the public, and the not-for-profit sectors. Your corporate and product news, consumer tips and information are packaged in a variety of ready-to-use formats and are made available to every Canadian media organization including weekly and daily newspapers, cable and commercial television stations, radio stations, as well as the Web sites Canadians visit most often. Visit News Canada and learn more about the NC services.

This article was posted on August 7, 2002

email this page

Return to Nutrition and Supplement Index

Haven't found what you were looking for?
Try this search:

 

Free Email List Reveals health, fitness and wellness tips - secrets and information - delivered directly to your inbox

Email address: First name: