Choosing Food to Fit your Diet (What to Eat?/ What Not to Eat?)

            Everybody is different and we all know what makes us perform well. Choosing food to fit your diet depends entirely on what you prefer. But there are basic needs that everybody needs daily and that would be everything on the food pyramid. But as an athletic teenager you need to consume a reasonable amount of carbohydrates, not too much or not too little, because this macronutrient is the one that will fuel you muscles during your workout. You want to consume 3-5 grams of carbohydrates to every pound of body weight, but if you were to consume a lot of carbohydrates and you didn't use them, they would turn into sugars.  Americans lack the amount of fiber that we should consume; fiber is a carbohydrate that helps to slow the digestive system so then we know what the feeling of full is, so then we don't over eat. Fiber also helps to slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream so then the sugar level in the bloodstream is equal and we don't get those sugar rushes.

            Even though carbohydrates plays a big role when we are active, we also need to get all the other nutrients that we need, and those would be found in the other groups on the food pyramid. The thickest part on the pyramid is what we should eat the most of and the skinnier the line gets the less amount of that food you should eat. When we are deciding on what to eat we want to make sure that we have all to most of the good groups on our plates. We want our plate to be as colorful as possible and not plain neutral colors. Because if it has neutral colors, that means that you are not supplying most of the food groups in that serving.

            We want our eating habits to be based on what we know is healthy and what we know is unhealthy. In order to know if our diet is balanced, we should ask ourselves, are we including carbohydrates? Protein? Fruits? Vegetables? Healthy fat? We want our diet to be as healthy as we can, because as athletes we don't need a lot of sugar to keep us going, that is what the carbohydrates are for, or you can substitute the refined sugar for fruits. Fruits can help reduce our cravings for sugar, and vegetables contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. (note when cooking vegetables, we want to keep them as close to fresh as possible, steam them, but don't over steam them). We often think of red meat as the kind of meat that we need to eat, but there are lean meats out there that contain less amount of fat, and it is a wiser choice, it is good to have red meat once in a while but we don't need to eat it every day. And we can substitute red meat in for chicken, pork, turkey, or fish for one of the days. Salt-water fish contain a high source of omega-3 that we lack as well. We should also stay away from the processed meats, they are often contain a high source of sodium and junk stuff that an athlete wouldn't' want in their body.  Dairy products contain a high source of calcium, that help keep our bones strong, if we happen to break a bone and have to sit out for a while, at least we would know that we would have a fast recovery if we ate dairy every day.

            When you are snacking, make a note to yourself that we don't want to eat a lot of the calories in a snack, because those calories are more useful during a meal. We want to eat the whole foods like fruits and vegetables, not much of the chips and cookies. We can eat chips sparingly but not every single day, they contain a high amount of cholesterol. Another thing that can contribute to snacking is skipping meals and every meal is important, just like how every play in a game is important. Skipping a meal can cause snacking later in the day, because we are asking our body for more energy because we can't function. But if we were to have breakfast, we could last through the morning because we have the energy from breakfast to function. Staying hydrated can prevent us from snacking.

            Every person is different, but we all have the same expectations that we need to meet daily in order to keep a well balanced diet. As athletes we do sacrifice more than an average teenager, because we need to keep our muscles strong, and keep our bodies feeling good.