How Eating A Rainbow Can Improve Your Performances
Keeping physically active through dance has a ton of positive effects on your body! Although if you over train or lack enough fuel, your body may be inflamed (1). Good news is that with eating beautiful colourful foods you may avoid this inflammation and dance your way right through to the end of the year, feeling energised and stronger than ever.
Dancing is an endurance-based exercise, which relies on oxygen to create energy. This is why you may get out of breath after a long routine. To give you power, oxygen is needed by the cells in our body to create energy known as ATP. This reaction produces waste products, one of which is called ‘oxidative stress’. Too much of this oxidative stress can damage cells in your body. Although this is a normal function, it activates your immune system to produce inflammation. A small amount of inflammation is normal and can help you to adapt and build strength. But over-exercising and under fuelling may result in high levels of oxidative stress and inflammation, increasing the risk of injury.
The key to combating this inflammation is by eating bright colourful fruits and vegetables (and maybe some chocolate too!). These foods contain ‘antioxidants’. As the name may suggest it stops oxidative stress. Therefore, helping to decrease inflammation and enhance our immune system. For example, blueberries have been shown to increase performance and reduce fatigue during exercise, as well as decrease inflammation after exercise (2).
Other colourful fruits and vegetables with high antioxidant levels include (3,4):
|
Fruit and Berries |
Vegetables |
Legumes |
Grains |
Spices |
Chocolate |
|
Pomegranates Dates Guava Persimmon Grapes Lemon Black currants Wild strawberries Blackberries Goji berries Sea buckthorn Cranberries Tomatoes |
Broccoli Red cabbage Kale Artichokes Beetroot Red Capsicum Eggplant Brussel sprouts
|
Lentils Black soybean Black bean Green pea |
Red rice Black rice Buckwheat |
Turmeric Oregano Cinnamon Clove Garlic Peppermint Chili |
70-99% varieties |
What a delicious selection! Research tells us that eating antioxidant-rich foods helps you to sustain and improve training and performance (5). Its simple to include at least one of these foods in each main meal. For example…
- Oat porridge with cinnamon and blackberries, for breakfast
- Black rice, lentil, goji berries and broccoli salad, for lunch
- Buckwheat pasta, for dinner
- Dark chocolate and pomegranates, for a snack
- Peppermint tea or lemon water, for drinks
When picking our foods around training, we have the power to enhance strength, stamina and recovery through food. An easy way to remember anti-inflammatory foods is by their colour, the more colourful your plate, the easier your body will be able to support your dancing goals!
Hope you enjoyed reading this week and you are feeling energetic and inspired to fuel your body with rainbows!
Leah Van Lambaart for Total Dance Australia
@leahvanlambaart
#lovetotaldance #total_dance_aus
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