If you exercise, be sure to increase your uptake of nutritional supplements and superfoods
June 7, 2007 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews
Key concepts: nutrition, health, nutritional supplements
Here's an important tip for those of you who are either currently engaged in an exercise program or are considering beginning one. It's a simple tip, but one that many people, unfortunately, forget. When we exercise, we use up more nutrients than if we were to avoid exercise. (Simply sweating, for example, causes a loss of minerals.) People who engage in regular exercise, therefore, need more nutritional supplementation than those who don't.
It is easy to think exercise itself is what makes people healthy, but that's only half the picture. The exercise simulates your body, but it is the adaptation and recovery period after exercise that ultimately makes you healthier. You do not improve your health during the exercise experience, nor do you burn significant amounts of fat during exercise. Virtually all the health benefits associated with exercise are created during the recovery and adaptation period after exercise, which can take anywhere from 24 hours to several weeks, depending on the intensity of your exercise.
It is during that time your body is using nutrients to adapt and rebuild. If you do not have the proper nutrients available during that recovery period, then you are not going to recover fully, and you won't get the full benefits of all the effort you put into exercise!
Why supplementation goes with exercise
Nutritional supplementation is extremely important during any kind of exercise regimen. Even if you only exercise three days a week, you need to supplement every day of the week. And I'm not talking about just supplementing with protein. This is where a lot of people who engage in exercise go wrong. They think protein is the only nutrient they need to supplement.Even though proteins important to supplement if you are not already eating a high protein diet, it is far more important to supplement trace minerals, macro minerals like magnesium, zinc and calcium; various vitamins including all the B vitamins; plus vitamins C, D and K. In addition, you need to supplement numerous phytonutrients, which means the medicine that comes from plants. Those include various carotenoids like beta keratin or zeaxanthin, lutein, anthocyanidins, Proanthocyanidins like those found in grape seeds or even Resveratrol found in grape skin.
There are hundreds, actually thousands, of different phytonutrients found in foods and nutritional supplements. These are also very important to get into your body when you follow an intense physical exercise program. Eating raw nuts and seeds, I think, is also extremely important. It does not mean this has to be half of your diet, but it needs to be present in your diet at least once a day, if not more than once a day.
It is only through this superior supplementation that your body can adapt to the physical stresses you have placed upon it through exercise. In terms of bone density, for example, you already know that subjecting your bones to stress causes your body to build stronger bones. This does not happen in a matter of hours. It takes days, weeks, even months to rebuilt bones, especially if you start out with very low bone mineral density. During this adaptation period, your body is rebuilding bone mineral density by depositing nutrients, mostly minerals in this case, into the bone structure of your skeletal system.
Obviously, if you do not have excess nutrients available in your body at the time your body is attempting to make this adaptation, then you are not going to build strong bones. In other words, if you exercise and do not supplement with good nutrition, you are wasting most of your exercise effort. You could multiple your results if you were willing to add some good supplementation on top of your physical exercise.
Supplements that boost your health with exercise
What kind of supplements am I talking about? Superfood nutrients and high-quality nutritional supplements from the kind of companies I recommend here on NutritionHeadlines. Aim for a combination of food-based and supplement-based nutrition. Personally, I start each morning with a superfood smoothie that contains a massive serving of various superfood concentrates. This preps my body for the day, allowing me to engage in intense exercise without entering into a nutritionally deficient state.Remember when you exercise, you place a much higher nutritional demand on your biochemistry. If you do not supplement, then you are not going to get the results you expect from your exercise program.
On the other hand, if you choose to supplement with good nutritional products, then you can multiple the results of any exercise program and experience improved bone density, enhanced cardiovascular health, improved mood and emotional health, prevention of cancer and diabetes, natural reduction in stored body fat and many other phenomenal benefits. Exercise is the single most powerful medicine for enhancing your health, but if you exercise in a nutritionally deficient state, you're only putting unnecessary biochemical stresses on your body.
Exercise all you want, but supplement your nutritional needs to compensate.
About the author: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, is the editor of NaturalNews. Author of over twelve books, and fifteen hundred articles on natural health, Adams is widely considered the most prolific writer on natural health today.
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