“Most food has travelled hundreds of kilometres, processed, packaged and frozen before it even gets into your kitchen. “

Studies have proven that the nutrient density of food has decreased substantially over the last 50 years. In fact, the micro nutrients that your grandparents were able to obtain from eating 3 or 4 peices of fruit a couple of decades ago, we would now need to eat up to five times that to match the value.

Scary isn’t it?

So when I get asked what supplements should a person in training take, my response is, something that allows them to miss as little training as possible (in other words staying as healthy as possible). When that’s taken care of the next step is to get the quality of each session up so that you are able to spend more time training at the intensities and levels that will induce the greatest physiological adaptation.

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So supplementation should happen in this order:

1. Boost your health with a very good multivitamin so that you can train as much as your program and goal allows.
2. Take care of your energy requirements with adequate carb and fat from your diet. If you struggle to get to your energy balance, add a carbohydrate supplement (especially endurance athletes).
3. Ensure you have enough protein (remember 1 to 2grams of protein per kg of your goal weight). Consider that 100g of chicken isn’t a 100g of protein- it’s around 30g. Protein supplementation is often the most important as people don’t necessarily get to their daily target. Remember as well that there is some evidence that suggests you can only metabolize around 30g of protein per meal. So spread your protein target over 4 to 6 meals (which could include your whey protein shake)

“You can only train as hard as you recover”

Stay tuned for the next article where we will give some practical tips on how you can apply this info in your life.