Fitness health centre

The zeroes and heroes of sport supplements

So, are they just a little bit right? Do some sports require a special diet before you can become a serious competitor?

The answer is yes, but it’s also yes for everyone else too.

It shouldn’t matter whether you take a thirty-minute stroll to the shops three times a week or run 20km every day, your diet still needs to include the right number of calories, vitamins and minerals to fuel your body for its daily needs.

The basis for this is a balanced diet. Eat healthily and get the right mix of foods and you’ll be eating like a sporting king even if you haven’t got a gold medal to prove it.

Sounds easy? Of course, it’s not always that simple. Evidence from a study of university level and amateur athletes published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in 1983 suggested that many sportspeople do not get the vitamins and minerals required to meet their daily demands.

Not eating the right diet can make your sporting life harder and reduce your performance, no matter how hard you train or for how many hours, so you should be looking to plan your diet with as much care as your all-important training sessions.

Improving your fork and knife skills

If you’re not eating a balanced diet, your first option should be to review what you’re eating so that you can improve it. A balanced diet should contain a good portion of calories, protein, vitamins and minerals from sources such as lean meat, oily fish, wholegrains, fruit and vegetables.

"A healthy diet is important to keep the immune system strong,” says Boots nutrition expert Vicky Pennington, “eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is a great way to boost your protective antioxidant intake. Remember that it doesn't have to be fresh... frozen, canned and dried fruit, vegetables and pulses (such as peas and beans) can offer good value and count towards your daily five."

Unfortunately, the truth is that most of us who play sport regularly, and have felt that unwelcome stitch rip up through the ribs after an early morning fry up, know what we should be eating, but also how difficult it can be to ‘eat right’. Squeezing in gym, cycling or running time around a busy job, social commitments, family and even shopping for your ‘five a day’ means that preparing, cooking and sitting down to a carefully balanced diet doesn’t always make it into the daily routine.

Even if you avoid ‘unhealthy’ convenience foods and sugary or salt laden snacks, a healthy diet is more about knowing what you need than simply banning ‘bad’ foods.

Research into the diets of athletes suggests some can have low levels of vitamins and minerals because frequent exercise sometimes goes hand in hand with restricting calorie intake in pursuit of the perfect athletic body.

The basic rule is that if you play a lot of sport, you should generally eat more, not less. It’s a fact that often scares those who regard a hot body as a significant perk of a sporting lifestyle, but if you don’t eat enough you probably won’t be getting enough of the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

"In addition to being mindful of the fat, sugar and salt in our diets,” says Vicky, “healthy eating is also about consuming a wide variety of different foods. This helps to ensure our diet provides all the necessary vitamins and minerals in adequate amounts."

In terms of calories, if you really want to, you can try and calculate what your body needs according to the average recommended daily intake for your sex and adjust it for how many extra calories you burn when you exercise. Just remember, your body is the best indicator of what you need. If your weight stays the same over a period of a couple of months and you’re eating a balanced diet, you should be getting the vitamins and minerals your body requires.