Healthy eating habits/Dairy and Post Workout Nutrition

Good post workout nutrition is vital for optimal recovery. Dairy foods offer a variety nutrients that aid recovery and allow for improvements to be made.

Dairy

Dairy includes milk and products containing or made from milk. Examples include:

Yoghurt Cheese Custard Dairy desserts

According to the NHMRC, one serve is equivalent to a glass of milk, 200g tub of yoghurt, or two slices of cheese. Whilst dairy products can provide us with many different vitamins and minerals such as calcium__________, in sports nutrition we focus on the carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes in milk, and how they can help with sporting performance and recovery.

What are Carbohydrates?

Needed to give us energy. Carbohydrates can be divided into two groups; complex and simple. Complex come from foods such as pasta, rice and bread, and simple carbohydrates or sugars come from fruit, lollies and milk!

What is protein?

Needed for muscle repair and building. Sources of protein include meat, eggs, beans and legumes.

What are electrolytes?

The two main electrolytes are sodium (Salt) and potassium. These are needed to prevent and recover from dehydration

Post Exercise Nutrition

Good nutrition after exercise is essential for optimal recovery, so that the body can perform exercise on a regular basis and improve.

There are three main nutrition goals of recovery:

-Rehydrate

-Refuel

-Repair

Rehydrate

Rehydration should start immediately after exercise to replace fluids and electrolytes lost in sweat. The human body is made up of 60-70% water. Fluid is lost from the body via urine, faeces, sweat, evaporation, and breathing. The main cause of dehydration is loss of fluid through sweat. The amount of sweat varies greatly between individuals, but also within individuals as it depends on activity level and surrounding climate. So we need to restore these lost fluids in sweat to prevent dehydration. Why don’t we want to get dehydrated? Fluid losses of about 2% of your body weight are enough to cause a decrease in muscle function and performance (strength, endurance and stamina) and dizziness, and as dehydration gets worse, it can cause loss of coordination, nausea, vomiting & diarrhoea, overheating and also can cause you to collapse. Milk and semi-solid dairy products (yoghurt, smoothies, custard) provide fluid and help with rehydration after exercise. They also contain the electrolytes, sodium and potassium, which assist with rehydration. Sodium and potassium act to replace the salts lost through sweat. Sodium also helps with fluid absorption and potassium after exercise can help prevent muscle weakness and mental confusion that occur when levels are low due to sweating.

Refuel

After exercise, it is important to refuel so that muscle and liver glycogen (carbohydrate) stores can be replenished. Carbohydrates are our main fuel source and when exercising and as our heart rate increases, our body uses carbohydrates more quickly than usual. Just like petrol in a car, we need to refuel when the stores get low. If we don’t refuel after exercise it can affect our ability to train and compete on subsequent days and cause muscle fatigue. Dairy products are a great source of the simple carbohydrate, lactose. They are also a great alternative to other carbohydrate fluids such as sports drinks, which can cause tooth decay due to their high acidity.

Repair

Both prolonged and high intensity exercise causes a breakdown of protein in muscle. It is important to have protein in the first hour after exercise to replace the protein lost during exercise, and repair muscle tissue and encourage growth to recover and improve future performances.

DAIRY SNACK AND MEAL IDEAS FOR RECOVERY

An ideal snack or meal for recovery should include fluid, electrolytes, protein and carbohydrates, as they all play major roles in recovery, and carbohydrates increase the uptake of protein. The snack or meal should be consumed within an hour after exercise for optimal recovery.

As dairy products contain fluid, electrolytes, protein and carbohydrates, they can be ideal for recovery. Dairy alternatives such as soy milk and lactose-free products are also beneficial, if you don’t tolerate lactose well or dislike milk.

Snack ideas:

-200g tub low fat yoghurt or drinking yoghurt

-40g low fat Ricotta on 2 slices fruit toast

-250ml tetra pack flavoured milk

-Up & Go, energise

More substantial snacks:

-1 large bowl of cereal with 200ml milk

-600ml flavoured milk/smoothie