Being physically active is essential if you want to be healthy. Many people falsely believe that you have to be a super-athlete to take advantage of the health benefits. This is not true. Moderate exercise is much more sensible health-wise and time-wise. Others believe that being a super-athlete is dangerous. Who’s right?
I frequently get comments of confusion when an athlete dies. The general thought process is that if the person is very athletic, they won’t die until they die of old age. In the past (decades ago) that may have been true, but today we are faced with other issues that frequently get ignored.
An athlete puts the body under stresses above and beyond the normal nutritional thresholds. My experience with athletes is that they consume a diet that is generally nutritionally devoid. This is due to the desire to get quick fuel into the cells – carbohydrates. Carbohydrates do provide quick fuel, but no long-lasting fuel. Unfortunately, they contain virtually no other nutrient to run the body’s many systems. We require mass amounts of nutrients to run these bodies of ours. Every day billions of cells in the body are being torn down and discarded and daily these cells need to be rebuilt. An athlete breaks down cells at a rate faster than the average person due to the increased physical demands placed on the body. The body requires a certain amount of nutrients as raw materials to rebuild these billions of cells lost every day. It requires proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, water, enzymes, essential fatty acids and other cofactors in order to make these cells. A diet missing these vital nutrients will result in fewer cells being made or in making weaker cells. After all, the body can’t make something out of nothing! If the body is breaking down faster than it is being rebuilt, it is called degeneration. So if anything, an athlete must have super nutrition!
Unfortunately, many athletes run to the health food store or gym to buy vitamins or power drinks in an attempt to make up the deficiencies in their diet. What they don’t realize is that most of the time what they are getting are devitalized, chemical supplements and they’ve gained nothing! Canned protein powders for instance are heated at extreme temperatures during processing, destroying much of the very proteins they are trying to replenish. They contain synthetic vitamins that the body generally is unable to convert to a usable form; or if it does, it takes more nutrients to convert it than the value received. In other words, they end up worse taking the powder than if they took nothing at all. Protein is critical, but it needs to be in a bio-available form.
Another athlete faux pas is energy drinks. These can be dangerous when used as substitutes for good nutrition, which is how they’re generally consumed. They drive the body in an unhealthy way, weakening vital systems and pushing them to their brink. Used regularly they can undermine the health in a myriad of ways.
Aerobic exercise, especially sustained aerobic exercise is essential for good cardiac tone. It keeps the circulation moving which is good for the entire system, including the liver and kidneys. However, as the heart is dependent upon the electrical mechanism within it to function properly, it is also dependent upon minerals to carry out its vital functions. Unless the athlete is consuming large amounts of organic, green-leafy vegetables, root vegetables and sea vegetables, it is unlikely the body will keep up with the mineral needs. Every organ in the body is dependent upon minerals to function properly. If not in the diet, all functions suffer. When performing, an athlete’s heart requires a substantial amount of nutrients to keep up with the demand placed upon it. Generally, the heart will take priority over other organs. If the body’s nutritional resources get depleted, where will the body get enough nutrients to survive? As our traditional food sources continue to be depleted nutritionally by poor farming practices, over processing, and the chemicalization of our foods adding more difficult demands on the body, it is no wonder athletes can drop dead if they’re not nourishing their bodies! Our body is capable of keeping up with the profound demands of heavy exercise, if we give it the raw materials, in the proper amounts to support function. Only by eating extraordinarily well, taking whole food supplements and doing other natural health care recommendations can the athlete do so without compromising health at the same time. Whole food supplements are designed to replace the nutrients not found in the diet. They are processed on low temperatures to maintain biological activity, concentrated to therapeutic dosages and do not contain synthetic vitamins to spike up their RDA’s. They will build and help to restore function – even under extreme demands.
© 2008 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
