Sports, Athletes, and Nutirion - Athletic Fuel

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An athlete's diet must include foods particularly suited for the athlete's sport. This has been an area of great study in recent years. Researchers are creating diets that provide athletes with the foods that contain high levels of the nutrients needed for each particular sport. For an athlete to have proper nutrition in sports, one must have knowledge of the six classes of nutrients and the four basic food groups. The six classes of nutrients are water, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Each class plays a different role in the energy cycle of the body.

Water is essential. An adult male body weight is about 60 percent water. The average person needs two and a half liters of water a day. It is also known that a person's water mass is replaced every 11 to 13 days under light physical activity (Smith 91). With these facts in mind, it is understandable why an athlete, who undergoes heavy physical exertion, has an extreme need for large quantities of water. This water comes from the intake of all fluids and food during a day.

Vitamins are needed in small amounts. It was the last class to be discovered. It is divided in to fat-soluble and water-soluble groups of vitamins. Vitamins help regulate body functions and are not a direct source of energy. Vitamins are needed in such small quantities that a person's natural diet will provide most of the necessary amounts (Smith 5-7).

The third class is minerals. This class is divided into the minerals needed in large amounts and the minerals needed in small amounts. The minerals needed in larger quantities include sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, and various chlorides. Sodium is needed in extremely large amounts for very active athletes. This is because a person's sweat contains sodium; profuse sweating will cause a large drop in the sodium level of the body. Potassium is directly associated with muscle cells and muscle fatigue. It affects the amount of water a person's body will hold. The other large-amount needed minerals provide for an athlete but have no direct effect on an athlete's performance. The trace minerals number about fourteen.

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