Nutrition
Nutrition is the most important for an athlete. It fuels their body and allows them to succeed in their sport. A footballer needs to have a good diet and eat the right foods at the right time.
This does not mean excluding foods from your diet entirely but just limiting your consumption of them.
Diet
A footballer should have a balanced diet, healthy fats from nuts and seeds, Proteins from meats or fish and Carbohydrates from potatoes or pasta. You can also get nutrients from fruits and vegetables, such as vitamins and fibres. Vitamin A coming from carrots, vitamin B can come from potatoes and bananas, vitamin C from oranges and vitamin D from the sun. There are more vitamins, however a footballer should aim to get a good amount of these vitamins daily.
Another nutrient that is important is an enzyme called Omega 3. An enzyme is a protein that helps make chemical processes happen faster in our bodies. Omega 3 can be found in fish. The best source of Omega 3 are small fish including, sardines, anchovies and salmon. A good meal containing Omega 3, would be oats with chia seeds. This is an ideal breakfast for it contains lots of nutrients. If you want to add a sweetener, add a natural one, like honey.
There are two more nutrients that are important, not only for footballers; but for everyone. These are magnesium and zinc. Magnesium helps with the regeneration of bone and is required for energy production.
Sources of magnesium are nuts and leafy vegetables such as spinach. Magnesium is special; for it gets depleted by stress, so make sure to eat magnesium rich foods after a stressful event.
Zinc is also very important as it allows for a good healing of the cells after exercise or intense physical events. Zinc is found in poultry (birds), red meats and oysters.
It is important that a footballer fuels his body properly, Carbohydrates are the energy source for the muscles so prioritise them before a training session or match. This process is called carb loading.
My favourite meal before a training session is two slices of bread with some cheese on top and honey. I normally drink milk with it but I also drink water sometimes. This meal is good because I can digest it quickly, the bread is my Carbs, the cheese my healthy fats and honey provides my body with healthy sugars that my body can use during my training.
Before a match or training, you should try to prepare your body, by increasing your intake of vitamins and fats. This is like packing for a trip or training, you are preparing your body for the match. You should aim to eat 3 hours before the effort, however this varies from person to person.
Afterwards you must eat a good amount of proteins, which you can get from foods like beef, which are important to rebuild your muscles stronger and better than they were before. Fish is very commonly eaten by professional footballers as it contains both proteins and fatty acids. You may also include lentils and chickpeas into your diet.
Being on this diet does not prohibit you from eating what you want, it just means that you may have to limit how much you eat of these unhealthy things.
Most unhealthy foods have healthier alternatives eat these things. Your body needs energy and eating candy would not be the best sources of energy for it. This diet can change due to your age, for when you are older you need to be more conscious of what you eat, but as a young person, it does not really affect you dramatically.
Hydration
As a footballer staying hydrated is as important as eating well. The daily recommended intake of water is 2 litres. A footballer should, especially before, during or after a training or match should drink water. In total a footballer should consume a large amount of water, for this keeps their body running at its best.
It is a very good to bring a water bottle to trainings as this allows you to drink easily and prevent you getting dehydrated during the session.
Supplements can be used to boost recovery such as Isobuffers, which contain electrolytes that your body needs to recover. However, these supplements tend to have a high concentration of sugar in them, so I advise drinking them only after a match or high intensity session. It is best to drink non mineral water, for the less complex the water is, the faster your body can put it to use.
The brand of Isobuffer I use is 6d Sports Nutrition, I have only one scoop of the supplement after a match to help with recovery.
