Published June 6, 2023, 11:20 p.m. by Violet Harris
Supporting your triathlon training with a healthy balanced diet is essential to performance. In this video, we look at which superfoods can give you that extra boost naturally.
There is, of course, no singular food that is magically going to make you a better, stronger and faster athlete overnight. It is the balanced combination of various nutritious foods and a well thought out training plan that will.
That said, some foods pack more of a punch than others when it comes to their nutrient values. It is these nutrient-rich foods that are considered to be especially beneficial for our health, the superfoods.
Find out more about Heather's choice of 11 superfoods you should regularly include in your diet!
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📹 5 Supplements For Triathletes | An Introduction To Nutritional Supplements In triathlon - http://gtn.io/Supplements
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supporting your triathlon training with
a good balanced diet is essential for
your performance today i'm going to be
looking at which superfoods can give you
that natural boost
let's start by addressing the term or
word superfood now many nutritionists
actually shudder at the thought of that
word because there is no one singular
food that can give you that amazing
boost that can make you a better faster
stronger athlete overnight it is about
combination of various nutritious foods
combined with a training plan that will
make you a better athlete that said some
foods pack more of a punch when it comes
to nutrient values than others it is
these nutrient-rich foods that are
thought to actually be more beneficial
to our overall health but before we go
into the foods that i've chosen i had to
obviously cap it somewhere and i
couldn't include every food that's good
for you and i did some research spoke to
some experts and i have chosen my 11
favorite superfoods
[Music]
starting with eggs the standout reason
for eating eggs is for their protein
content because they contain all of the
essential amino acids and they're easy
to digest now on top of this
macronutrient they've also got vitamins
minerals omega-3 and antioxidants well
all of this combined makes them great
for muscle synthesis and recovery well
one of the important parts for me about
the egg is that it's convenient and it's
cheap now admittedly much to my
colleagues disapproval i do quite often
have a hard-boiled egg in my bag which
comes out for a mid-morning snack but if
you don't want to upset your colleagues
there's so many other ways in which you
can include eggs into your nutrition a
great way is to make a spanish omelet so
you can have it hot in the evening and
maybe make a large one and then use the
other half for breakfast if you're on
the go the next day it's also a great
way for using up all the contents in
your fridge
next we have kale now this one does get
some mixed reviews but it's certainly
become pretty fashionable in the last
few years and i remember as a child
actually hating eating kale and my
parents now laughing at me because i
include this and quite a lot of my meals
well this comes from the cabbage family
and it's really high in vitamins a k b6
iron and calcium this super green food
is full of antioxidants carotenoids and
flavonoids which are great for the
anti-inflammatory process something
really important for athletes because we
put so much stress on our bodies i'm
talking putting stress on our bodies we
also need a higher amount of calcium and
iron so it comes in really handy for
that especially for female athletes and
those who maybe don't eat meat or dairy
so you might be wondering how to make
this vegetable exciting or tasty well
recently i actually experimented with
probably in the roasting oven with a bit
of coconut oil and some almonds which
toasted nicely and it came out really
crispy another option is obviously
steaming veg or boiling it but if you do
cook it this way just try to keep it to
a minimum because you don't want to lose
those vital micronutrients
next up we've got the humble root
vegetable the beetroot well this has
increased in popularity recently partly
because of its high antioxidant level in
the form of anthocyanin but more
recently and more significantly for
sport it is because of its high levels
of nitrate now studies have actually
suggested that consuming high levels of
nitrate can help with athletic
performance especially when it comes to
endurance athletes
this veg has become so popular that you
even see it popping up in cakes although
i would not recommend trying to get your
nitrate quantities out of a red velvet
cake for example because the amount of
cake you'd have to eat to get enough
nitrate would certainly cancel out the
benefit there but there are so many
other ways in which you can use this veg
you can pop it into other bits of baking
but probably best kept as a savory dish
either roasting it you can grate it in
salads or add it into smoothies and
juices
another root vegetable the sweet potato
now this one has a lot more health
benefits over the bog standard white
potato one of which being the fact that
it has plenty of fiber and slow
releasing carbohydrates but on top of
that it also contains beta-carotene
giving you vitamin a it also has plenty
of vitamin c so it's packed full of
antioxidants they also help to lower
blood pressure and they're a great food
for athletes because they are so packed
with vitamins and minerals they include
the likes of potassium iron manganese
and copper or vitamins that athletes are
quite often susceptible to lacking and
the latter two copper and manganese are
great for healthy muscle function well
again how to use this root vegetable
there are so many simple options roast
it mash it slice it and have it fried
with breakfast or you could even put it
in brownies although i'd suggest keeping
that one to a minimum
one of the most convenient foods from
this superfood list is the humble banana
not only comes in its own
environmentally friendly packaging it
also packs a punch nutritionally well
it's full of potassium and vitamin b6
they'll keep your blood sugar levels
more stable as well as replenishing your
carbohydrates as well as actually aiding
digestion so it's no wonder that we
often see cyclists with bananas in their
back pockets and at races or other
events you have bananas chopped up as
part of a snack and these are one of the
easiest things to incorporate in your
food you can pop them into smoothies
chop them up in your cereal you can even
experiment a little bit and i've been
making some ice cream with them freezing
them adding a bit of milk and then
blitzing that and it's pretty yummy but
healthy dessert
the perfect recovery drink
milk you cannot get away from the health
benefits of cow's milk now sports
recovery drinks have a ratio of three to
one three parts carbohydrate to one part
protein which is designed for optimal
recovery straight after a workout well
that's exactly the same ratio that you
find in milk on top of this it's also
got high levels of calcium and vitamin d
essential for healthy bones and
especially we're doing triathlon running
we're putting a lot of stresses and
doing micro damage to our bones so
calcium and vitamin d are needed in
abundance
milk is the obvious food for calcium and
vitamin d but it also aids hydration but
if you don't want to drink it then you
look at other dairy products to get
those micronutrients such as yogurt
creme fresh cheese cottage cheese the
list goes on
not the sexiest of superfoods next we
have whole grains now these have been
raved about the last 10 years or so
mainly because of their low glycemic
index or gi which means they've
basically got very slow releasing
carbohydrates but there is so much more
to this group of grains foods such as
brown rice whole wheat pasta barley and
quinoa like i have here are also high in
fiber and protein which makes them great
for sustained energy release as well as
slowing down your digestion and the
fibre is also thought to help maintain
good gut bacteria
[Music]
today i have specifically chosen walnuts
because this is the nut that actually
has the largest percentage of omega-3s
as well as having vitamin b's and
vitamin e on top of this it's got
selenium zinc calcium and iron all
packed into this little nut and
something we haven't really mentioned so
far are fats now all nuts contain good
fat so the monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated fats so all in all it
makes this little walnut great for brain
health as well as helping for physical
recovery from training
this next one is kakoa and before you
get too excited no i'm afraid i'm not
talking about the chocolate
confectionery that you might find at
your local supermarket check out kakoa
is actually full of antioxidants which
is great for your cardiovascular health
as well as defending against free
radicals it also contains high levels of
magnesium and i found a study recently
well actually quite a few studies
suggesting that having high levels of
cocoa can actually help protect your
skin against sun but i'm not suggesting
that you replace eating chocolate for
your sun cream right let's set the
record straight as to what i'm talking
about when i talk about cacao well it is
the purest form of cocoa so when it
comes to chocolate for example you want
to find a dark chocolate that says it
has a high percentage of cocoa or cacao
so for example this dark chocolate here
is 85
i'm going to try some of that later or
you could go for something like cacao
powder which again is full of all the
same benefits and this you can use in
baking or you could even use it in
savory dishes and sauces
right now we've got chia seeds these are
dense in nutrients they've got protein
fiber calcium and iron as well as having
high levels of antioxidants which
actually surprised me plus omega three
you can obviously get them in seed form
or as we have here the milled version
but it's worth noting as well that flax
seeds or otherwise known as linseeds
these have very similar nutritional
values but usually fine they come in a
little bit cheaper so a great
alternative
now i'm not a nutritionist but i would
say that anything that is this rich in
color is pretty likely to be packed full
of goodness and nutrients well the
cherry is no exception and one of the
selling points of the cherry is the fact
that it is full of antioxidants so works
really well as an anti-inflammatory and
athletes and sports nutritionists have
been experimenting with cherry juice
actually having higher concentrates as a
cherry shot to help aid that
anti-inflammatory process the hardest
part for this video is actually
narrowing it down to just 11 superfoods
but as i mentioned at the start
incorporating all of these foods into a
healthy balanced diet is the best way to
get the benefit from all the different
nutrients and admittedly some of them do
overlap so it is going to be a matter of
trying out what you like and also
something that you're realistic you can
include in your everyday cooking on a
regular basis but anyway enough talking
of this food i think it's time i went
and did some baking got my fingers a
little bit dirty and you might be
feeling inspired to go and do so as well
but before you do make sure you hit the
globe to subscribe hit the thumb up
button if you've liked this video and if
you are interested in how you can get
some of these vitamins or minerals from
a supplement form we've actually done a
video looking at five supplements for
triathlon you can find that just here
and mark recently made a video looking
into whether you should train when
you're ill and that's just here
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