Scientists in Sport - Food for Success: How nutrition fuels performance.

there's two aspects of nutrition which

is hugely important there's an athlete's

holistic nutrition which is kind of what

you eat on a day-by-day basis and then

secondly there's a nutrition around

making sure that your body is able to

perform at its very best when you do

actually compete and when you're

training as well

we essentially look at food by to waste

macronutrients which are our proteins

our fats and our carbohydrates and

micronesia nutrients which are made up

of all vitamins and minerals protein is

important because all all our structures

in our body armor on muscle tissue

structures are made up of amino acids

essentially you need those amino acids

of the basic building blocks of protein

to maintain that replenishment and

rebuilding most of our brain tissue is

fat fats are essential in most joints

and in the general upkeep of our immune

system carbohydrate is one of the other

three macronutrients that make up the

basis of all our diets carbohydrates can

vary from vegetables to fruit bread rice

pasta and right up to a cakes and and

sweets they're very much termed like

high and low glycemic index and what

that means is your body's ability to be

able to cope with that carbohydrate

input and what kind of carbohydrates it

is for athletes it's a very important

area for them to understand if they're

not utilized they will turn to fat

I might show my buddies powered by good

food different varieties of food you

know not keeping on the same things I'll

double up on on Viet Minh season and

zinc and via Mindy because you don't get

a lot of Sun have a certain foods that

help me in beetroot for endurance

stamina opens the oxygen levels in the

red blood cells so so you can get that

performance out a higher level but even

things not frying chicken boiling the

chicken instead of frying it you know

just little things like that I used cups

more because of the amount of mileage at

Iran so basically in the morning I'd

have scrambled open beans you've got

obviously the protein there you've got a

bit of energy so I can go into a

training session and be confident that

I'll sustain enough throughout the

session I would have my main meal at

lunch whether that's chicken and pasta

chicken and rice got you meat for the

protein and then obviously I'd have

another training session in the

afternoon in the evening I tend to have

a smaller meal if you're eating late at

night it's it's on you you're not using

that energy up so that's how I found it

was best for me to Train and so need

mins I'd have soup salad make sure that

I've got some protein to allow my body

to recover overnight ready for next

session

generally athletes require slightly

higher levels of protein intake than the

normal population but the degree of that

intake varies depending upon the type of

activity you're undertaking on an

average training day I eat quite a lot

you know I might have done five six

seven hours of training so that's quite

a lot of calories you go through and

quite like a nutrition needs to replace

that I swim at seven o'clock in the

morning so I tend to maybe grab a snack

on the way there and ends about or

whatever and then have a good breakfast

when I get back which might be pouring

cereal those simple things and at the

end of the day especially for the hard

session I'll always have a recovery

drink normally

a milk based drink most important is to

say straight aways every person's

individual so everyone will have their

own balanced diet based on them as an

individual if you kick up at 3 o'clock

they probably take it on quite a lot of

carbohydrates sort of mid mid-morning

so stuff you wouldn't normally eat

people eating soup bowls of spaghetti

you know beans and stuff like that maybe

10 11 o'clock you know but also just the

right amount you're not that's a full

your body you're there just to put a

certain amount in your body and it

really is not seeing food as food you're

seeing it as fuel you know this is like

putting petrol in your engine in a game

of rugby and players can lose between 3

& 6 kilos of mass join during much now

that is purely fluid so the hydration

strategy immediately following a match

and in this in the 72 hours post match

and becomes essential in prepare for the

next training session or prepare for the

next match one of the foundation blocks

of athletic preparation and recovery is

hydration

if somebody's dehydrated we lose 20%

cognitive function and then we're in

trouble we've seen in our athletes

increased risk of soft tissue injury

which means one of one of our athletes

will be out for potentially between 3

and 6 weeks but also a decrease in

performance when you've finished

completing that first 10 minutes is so

important because you are exhausted

you've taken all the energy out of your

body you can get some energy and very

very quickly and this is normally

liquids you can't eat really good speed

you're too tired so that fluid you put

into your body this it's a fluid that

specific for your body your nutrition

it's a big factor in performance getting

getting across that line