Foods to improve performance in sports

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Foods to improve performance in sports
Image credit: Image by prostooleh on Freepik

Scientific studies say that some foods actually can help us recover faster from exercise and thus improve our athletic performance faster.

Foods to improve performance in sports

One of the foods that can help us recover faster after training is spinach [1]. According to studies, those who ate spinach for 14 days before the half marathon experienced almost 2 times less oxidative stress after the half marathon compared to those who did not eat spinach.

The study also measured muscle damage with creatine kinase and the non-spinach group had a creatine kinase level of 602±90 24 hours after the half marathon, while the spinach group had a creatine kinase level of 256±35.

Another food that reduces post-workout pain is cherries [2] and cherry juice [3]. Eating cherries may result in less muscle soreness 24, 48, and 72 hours after exercise compared to not eating cherries [2].
Also, drinking 355 ml of cherry juice twice a day for 7 days before the 26.3 km +/- 2.5 km race, including the day of the race, reduced pain after the race to (12 +/- 18 mm) compared to the group that did not drink juice (37 +/- 20 mm) [3].

Another study suggests that, in general, eating fruits and vegetables (with the exception of potatoes) has a positive effect on the growth of muscle power [4].

The study compared how high boys and girls could jump and found that those boys and girls who ate more fruits and vegetables (> 237.71 g/day for boys and > 267.57 g/day for girls) had significantly greater jumping power than those who ate the least fruits and vegetables (<135.09 g/day and <147.43 g/day, respectively).
Similar results have also been observed when fruits and vegetables were consumed separately [4].

Summary

So, what are science-based foods to improve performance in sports?
Well, it looks like scientific research says that spinach and cherry are good foods to eat if we want to improve our performance in sports.

P.S. If you want to learn more about other vitamins, what are their recommended dosages based on science, get healthy meal plan examples, my top science-based recipes that can be cooked in less than 30 minutes each and find out how science-based nutrition can prevent the most common diseases, improve your overall health and help you live longer then you can click here to learn more.

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