Sports Supplements or Good Food?
What is best for athletes, sports people and bodybuilders: Sports Supplements or Good Food?
Without doubt, good food is always best. A good diet, which contains plenty of fruit, salad, vegetables, wholegrain cereal, wholemeal breads, rice and pasta, along with high protein foods, such as eggs, milk, fish, beef, turkey and chicken will always out-perform a supplement based diet. This is because eating a varied diet supplies your body with all of the macronutrients and micronutrients that your body needs, in their natural form. Also, these foods are likely to contain other nutrients that are unknown, or unresearched that have a positive effect upon the body. Compare this with someone who eats a poor diet containing greasy bacon sandwiches on white bread, crisps, chocolate, pasties, ready meals and takeaways, then boosts their protein intake by using protein shakes five or six times per day. Assuming genetics were comparable, the person with the good diet would always achieve higher performance leves and would most likely have a lower body fat level, lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure… not to mention better recovery times, more energy and better fitness.
What is the Point in Sports Supplements Then?
Sports supplements are intended for sports people, athletes and bodybuilders, who already have a good diet, but perhaps need to:
- increase their protein intake, without adding to their calorie intake too much; or
- require a fast absorbing energy drink before during and after exercise/sport to boost performance; or
- want the extra strength and power that creatine would give; or
- don’t have time to prepare and consume 6 healthy, high protein meals per day, so use meal replacement shakes between their regular meals; or
- need to reach a higher intensity during training to achieve better results, so use Nitric Oxide.
The list of uses of sports supplements is endless and the positive benefits are seemingly limitless. The point we are trying to make though is that you should make sure you eat a good diet before you consider using sports supplements to boost performance. You could boost your performance much quicker by ensuring that your daily diet contains all of the types of foods mentioned at the top of the article and that you keep well hydrated. There is no reason why you can’t make the changes to your diet tomorrow and start using sports supplements as well, that would be the best of both worlds.
Sports Supplements and Good Food: Conclusion
- Eat a good diet – every nutrient has it’s own process in the human body and when certain nutrients are lacking, so is your performance.
- Keep Well Hydrated – dehydration, even slight dehydration can significantly affect performance.
- Sleep Well – your body needs sufficient sleep anmd rest to perform optimally.
- Be smart with Sports Supplements – don’t use them unless you are going to commit to using them continuously over time, or you will never appreciate their benefits. Figure out where your diet or performance could be improved most and buy a supplement to make the improvements. The following types of supplements come to mind: Protein Shakes, Meal Replacement Powders, Creatine, Nitric Oxide and Joint Protection supplements.
You can browse our range of supplements, by visiting our Sports Supplements website. Every product comes with free UK delivery.
Regards,
Martin.
