Eating Well: The Best Fitness Foods for Women

ronadams52

Eating Well: The Best Fitness Foods for Women

Eat these ultimate workout foods for a better workout and better results

A great article from Women’s Health 06/28/2012

Who needs expensive supplements when you can get all you need from natural whole foods?

Whole Grain Bagels

Never mind Dr. Atkins—carbs are the optimal workout food. "Not the simple ones, because they wind you up and drop you down," says Jackie Berning, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and counselor to sports teams. "You want complex carbohydrates in their natural package, aka whole grains." A whole-grain bagel is an ideal pre-sweat-session pick: You'll digest it slowly because of all the fiber, which will deliver a steady flow of energy over time rather than one big burst.

Bananas

Thanks to bananas' high potassium content, peeling one is a speedy solution to that stitch in your side. While a lack of sodium is the main culprit behind muscle cramps, studies show potassium plays a supporting role: You need it to replace sweat losses and help with fluid absorption. Bananas are also packed with energizing carbohydrates. One medium-size fruit has 400 milligrams of potassium and as many carbs (29 grams) as two slices of whole-wheat bread.

Berries

USDA researchers recently placed fresh berries on their list of the 20 foods richest in antioxidants. Just a handful of blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries is an excellent source of these potent nutrients, which protect muscles from free radical damage that might be caused by exercise. Shop for berries by the shade of their skin: The deeper the color, the healthier the fruit.

Carrots

Close your eyes and they almost taste like crunchy candy. Carrots pack complex carbs that provide energy to muscles and potassium to control blood pressure and muscle contractions, says Leslie Bonci, R.D. And a half cup has just 35 calories.

Whole Grain Cereal

Looking for something to nosh before you hit the gym? Raid your cereal stash. The healthiest brands contain endurance-boosting complex carbs and muscle-building protein. Sixty minutes before a workout, fuel up with a 200-calorie snack: ¾ cup of whole-grain cereal with 4 ounces of fat-free milk. "When you eat something before exercising, you have more energy, so you can work out harder and perhaps longer. And you'll be less likely to overeat afterward," says Leslie Bonci, R.D.

Chicken Thighs

Skimp on iron and zinc and your energy will flag. Cooking up some juicy chicken thighs or turkey drumsticks is the best way to get more of both. "Dark-meat poultry is significantly lower in fat than red meat yet has all the iron, zinc, and B vitamins that women need in their diets," says Seattle sports nutritionist Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., author of Power Eating.

Chocolate Milk

There's way more to milk than just calcium. In fact, it's a damn near perfect food, giving you a lot of valuable energy while keeping your calorie count low, says nutritionist Susan Kleiner, Ph.D. The chocolate kind is loaded with calcium, vitamins, and minerals just like the plain stuff, but new studies confirm that milk with a touch of cocoa is as powerful as commercial recovery drinks at replenishing and repairing muscles.

Low Fat Cottage Cheese

Despite its frumpy image, this diet staple packs 14 grams of protein per half-cup serving, along with 75 milligrams of calcium and 5 grams of carbohydrates. That protein is crucial to healing the microscopic muscle tears that occur during exercise, says Amy Jamieson-Petonic, R.D., health education manager at Cleveland's Fairview Hospital.

Cranberries

This packable fruit delivers a generous pre- or postworkout blast of carbohydrates (25 grams per ¼ cup). Plus, cranberries have proanthocyanins, compounds that help prevent and fight urinary tract infections. Running to the bathroom every 5 minutes definitely isn't the kind of workout you need.

Ground Flaxseed

"Flaxseed is full of fibers called lignans that promote gut health," says nutritionist Susan Kleiner, Ph.D. Since flax lignans contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, they keep you regular. "When you're trying to do an endurance sport, it can be disruptive to have digestive problems," she notes. A daily dose of 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed tossed in your cereal nets you fiber without fuss.

Hummus

Complex carbohydrates, protein, and unsaturated fats—all the right elements to fuel activity—meet in one healthy little 70-calorie, 3-tablespoon package. Plus, hummus is often made with olive oil, which contains oleic acid—a fat that helps cripple the gene responsible for 20 to 30 percent of breast cancers, according to Northwestern University researchers.

Oranges

"They're portable. They're a fruit you can get year-round. And they're a rich source of vitamin C," says Leslie Bonci, R.D., "which helps repair muscle tissue." One orange has all the C a woman needs each day—close to 75 milligrams. Vitamin C is also key for making collagen, a tissue that helps keep bones strong.

Peanuts

No wonder Mr. Peanut never stops tap-dancing. Female soccer players kicked and sprinted just as well in the final minutes of a game as they did at the start when they added 2 ounces of peanuts a day to their regular diet, says University of Buffalo professor, Peter J. Horvath, Ph.D. The extra fat may help improve endurance by giving muscles energy to burn up front so they can spare muscle glycogen stores later.

Potatoes

Sweat like a pig? Four shakes of salt (about 1,100 milligrams of sodium) and a small baked potato is the perfect recipe for electrolyte replacement. "The electrolytes, sodium and potassium, help maintain fluid balance in and around cells and make sure muscles contract as they need to," says Leslie Bonci, R.D.

amysj303

bumping, I will have to incorporate more of these.

januadiaboli

Thanks for sharing ... I'll have to take a closer look at these!

SnowAngel80

Awesome! Thanks so much for the information...time to hit the grocery store! :-)

meshashesha2012

i always forget about chocolate milk. i think because i havent bought real milk in months.

thanks in posting these

Sproutlady135

I suggest eliminating regular table salt and replacing it with Himilayan Salt.


Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt contains the full spectrum of 84 minerals and trace elements just like Mother Earth intended. It is an unrefined, unprocessed "raw" salt that's hand-mined from abundant salt caves that were formed 250 million years ago as ocean salt settled in certain geologic pockets around the earth.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028724_Himalayan_salt_sea.html#ixzz20ebc2SW2

Most of the western world thinks of salt as sodium chloride -- a highly refined, processed white substance that's devoid of nutrients. Salt is so devoid of nutrients, in fact, that in the early 20th century, doctors noticed that people who ate white table salt started to suffer chronic degenerative diseases such as goiter. This was caused by the lack of iodine in the salt.

Iodine deficiency, by the way, is the No. 1 most preventable cause of mental retardation. Eating processed salt that lacks iodine, in other words, can cause your offspring to be retarded.

Now what's really interesting about processed table salt is that it's missing over 80 minerals. But they only put ONE mineral back in -- iodine. That's because iodine is the one mineral that causes the most obvious disease (goiter is sort of hard to not notice).

Iodine is a naturally occurring mineral in the ocean. It's abundant in seafood and in real sea salt, but it's completely missing from refined white table salt.

So they started adding iodine to table salt, creating "iodized salt."

But why would you want to eat salt that's been artificially enriched with ONE mineral when you could be eating salt that naturally contains eighty-four minerals?

Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt contains 84 minerals and trace minerals, including iodine!

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028724_Himalayan_salt_sea.html#ixzz20ebIbZbo

Sproutlady135

I do not agree that milk and other dairy products are healthy foods. I base my decision on the following study:

The China Study of the title is taken from the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, a 20-year study that began in 1983 and was conducted jointly by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Oxford. T. Colin Campbell was one of the directors of the project, described by The New York Times in 1990 as "the Grand Prix of epidemiology."[3]

The study examined mortality rates from 48 forms of cancer and other chronic diseases from 1973-75 in 65 counties in China, and correlated them with 1983-84 dietary surveys and bloodwork from 6,500 people, 100 from each county. It concluded that counties with a high consumption of animal-based foods in 1983-84 were more likely to have had higher death rates from "Western" diseases as of 1973-75, while the opposite was true for counties that ate more plant foods in 1983-84. The study was conducted in those counties because they had genetically similar populations that tended, over generations, to live in the same way in the same place, and eat diets specific to those regions.[4]

The authors conclude that people who eat a plant-based/vegan diet—avoiding animal products such as beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of chronic diseases. They also recommend adequate amounts of sunshine to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D, and supplements of vitamin B12 in case of complete avoidance of animal products. They criticize low-carb diets, such as the Atkins diet, which include restrictions on the percentage of calories derived from complex carbohydrates

Click on the link below and scroll down to enjoy watching a free movie titled "Forks over Knives"

http://www.becknaturalmedicine.blogspot.com/

meshashesha2012

^ quality of life is also just as important as quantity of life to me, and sorry eating a vegan diet wouldnt cut it for me.

besides that, people in my family live well into their 80's and 90s and even 100s without any chronic diseases and eat meat and dairy, drink whiskey, and gamble :laugh: i really dont see any need for me to live to 120 instead of 110 :laugh:

ronadams52

@meshashesha20 Since you are so genetically blessed I am not sure why you bother with the effort required of even being on here? The artcle was just a suggestion on how woman can make healthier choices and was not iintended to say eating meat, etc., should be eliminated. The article was also telling people how to get adaquate nutrtion without taking supplements. Perhaps you don't workout so that is not a concern of yours.

TavistockToad

Interesting!