Nutrition
By Grace
Some Questions We Have
How long do you have to wait after eating to start running?
A large meal is a meal containing 600 or more calories. The reason why running is so hard is because the body directs more blood flow to the stomach and other internal organs to accomplish this work. This also the reason we often feel sleepy following a large meal. More blood flow means less blood flow to muscle groups, like our legs and arms.
When we have a large amount of food in our stomach, running is difficult because our body is not designed to do both digestion and exercise at the same time. Stomach cramps and stomach aches are the most common when trying to run on a full stomach.
Some athletes can eat and run at the same time . Endurance athletes train their bodies to eat on the run. Marathon distance runners must ingest some nutrition during the race, but not a large meal.
What are the different benefits of each food group?
Protein: (2 servings)- Important component of every cell in the body. Your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. Protein also makes enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood.
Fruit and vege (5+ servings)- Their high fibre content helps control blood glucose levels , may reduce cholesterol and probably reduces the risk of colon cancer and other cancers.
Dairy (3 servings)- improve bone health and make them stronger. It is most important when you are a child. also a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and lower blood pressure in adults.
Fats and oils (occasional:) - monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good for you and can lower the risk of heart disease.
Carbs (6 servings)- Energy in the form of glucose. When we eat foods containing carbohydrate, digestive enzymes in the mouth, stomach and intestine rapidly break it down into simple sugars and ultimately glucose.
what are the side effects of eating not enough of one food group? you miss out on the nutritional values of every other food group , An unbalanced diet can cause problems with maintenance of:
Body tissues
Brain and nervous system function
Growth and development
It can also cause problems with bone and muscle systems.
for example a lack of carbs can lead to symptoms such as
low energy
muscle, tissue loss
dehydration
- constipation