Sports Nutrition and Antioxidants
Sports Nutrition and Chemistry
Sports nutrition is a vast industry with an emphasis on optimizing PERFORMANCE. Offhand, I can think of quite a few categories involving sports nutrition:
sports nutrition and supplements for athletes,
sports nutrition and athletic performance,
sports nutrition and bodybuilding,
sports nutrition and endurance training,
sports nutrition and special diets in a variety of sports,
sports nutrition and strength training,
sports nutrition for running, jogging, walking, skiing, swimming
There’s even Rocky Mountain sports nutrition
The list is endless.
So far, no surprises, huh? Well, here’s one for you. Did you know that when you exercise intensively you INCREASE the free radical burden in your body? If you’re a serious sports enthusiast, you should know that.
But the real news is what science is now finding out about that free radical burden of yours. You should pay close attention here.
Suddenly, chemistry gets really personal.
Every one of us has, what may be called, our antioxidant protective capacity. That means our bodies normally utilize antioxidants to protect us against the harmful impact of free radicals.
First of all, what are antioxidants? They are molecular substances that offset free radical damage to the body. Antioxidants, “quench” free radicals (for lack of a better metaphor) neutralizing their damaging effects on the cells of body.
“Antioxidants are found in foods such as cranberries, green tea, and even chocolate.
“Antioxidants are found in vitamins such vitamin C and E.
“Antioxidants are found in carotenoids such as beta-carotene.
“Antioxidants are found in many substances supplied by the body such as glutathione.
“Antioxidants are found in many herbs and enzymes.
The impact of antioxidants is boosted by glyconutrients to offset free radicals in your body and, as a result, your athletic exertions.
Antioxidant capacity must be provided in your sports nutrition regimen or you could be “robbing Peter to pay Paul” with your workouts. As you will see, without a glyconutrional presence in your sports nutrition, the healthful gains made by your physical workouts will be offset by your own free radical burden.
Free radicals, sports, and sports nutrition
Free radicals are those chemical species that contain one or more unpaired electrons, capable of independent existence. They form in the body due to a variety of reasons as offshoots of cellular activity or as products introduced to the body from the outside.
As an analogy, think of running a car engine as the cellular production
and the car emissions as the free radical production. The engine produces products that cannot stay inside the car without further damage. They simply must be neutralized and expelled.
Free radicals form and cause damage by reacting with many substances in your body. It is estimated that upwards of 200,000 free radical attacks occur in our bodies daily.
When free radical damage is done, the body can remove the compounds formed by its cellular repair system. However, if the body cannot handle the free radicals (with antioxidants for example), nor remove the compounds, then disease can be the result.
Wherever they form, they will damage the surrounding areas, unless prevented by the body So the body does NOT have the luxury of just filtering away any circulatory fluids to find the free radicals. The body’s defense systems must be well fairly omnipresent to neutralize the effects of free radicals. The antioxidant protective system must be healthy.
Since they are highly reactive substances, they react with all sorts of cell elements readily. But, when they do react with your body cells, they can damage the cells and even kill them. Often, the damage from free radicals can CHANGE the cellular structure enough to cause DISEASE such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and a host of others.
The type of disease that occurs is dependent upon which of the free radical defenses in the body weren’t functioning properly and where the free radical attacks occur.
The body has pretty sophisticated antioxidant defense systems. But, the body CAN get overwhelmed in its antioxidant protection against such free radicals.
Indeed, unless antioxidant-enhanced sports nutrition (with glyconutrients) is used to offset the increased free radical burden, the BODY will suffer as a result of intensive sports training, stress, and competition.
Glyconutrients VITAL to sports nutrition
Studies comparing marathon runners who did and did not take glycol nutritional sports nutrition supplements were undertaken. The results were reported by the Proceedings of the Fisher Institute For Medical Research ( August 2003, vol.3, no.1). The results “demonstrated strikingly different patterns.” Antioxidant protection appeared to be powerfully enhanced against free radicals with glycol nutritional supplementation. Thus, the body was protected for several days after the marathon run.
However, when glycol nutritional sports nutrition was NOT used, the damaging effects of the free radical burden appeared to remain in the body for about five days. Thus, the subject “consistently excreted higher concentrations of free radical byproducts” as compared to that of the glycol nutritional subject. It should be emphasized that the subject studied WAS TAKING other antioxidants, though not glyconutrition. Despite that fact, the above-cited results were obtained.
That’s another way of saying that when glycol nutritional supplements were not used, the free radical burden upon the body was not lifted. Antioxidant protection does appear to be (significantly) strengthened with glycol nutritional sports nutrition. Such antioxidant protection appears to be of benefit for athletes overall, including training, stress, competition and dietary issues.
The glycone trional revolution in sports nutrition and therapy is just beginning. More studies are being done. More results are coming in concerning free radicals and the capacity of the glycol nutrients to boost the antioxidant effect against free radicals.