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Soccer Nutrition

Athletes must have a healthy diet and watch what they eat. Like any sport, soccer nutrition is important in helping an athlete maintain their strength and endurance and even boost game performance. Weight is not a big factor in soccer. Rather then trying to reach an ideal weight, one should just focus on eating more healthy.

When playing a game of soccer, the body requires Carbohydrates to fuel the body and keep you going for longer. Soccer players should try to eat more Carbs as this will give lots of energy to keep you running for longer. Before a match or important event, it is recommended to increase carb intake and less protain. Foods that are high in carb are starch based foods, such as bread, pasta, potatoes and cereal.

Here is a short list of high carb foods

Bread
Cereal and grains
Fruits. e.g. Banana, Apples, Apricot
Beans
Vegetables.e.g. Carrots, Potatoes
Nuts
Spaghetti

Proteins and essential for building muscles. It is important to have protein in meals to build muscle and tissue for increase strength. Although proteins build muscle, they do not give energy to your body to keep it running.

It is good to try and balance out protein with carbohydrate in-take, unless it is before a big game. In that case, eat less protein and more carbs.

Here is a short list of high protein foods

Chicken
Beef
Pork
Fish and seafoods
Dairy products e.g. cheese, milk
Eggs
Whey Protein

Eating a lot the foods listed above will most likely help you build more muscle mass and become stronger. Proteins also help to recover damaged muscles cells and tissue faster.

Drinking Water
Making sure that your body has plenty of water is important. Abour 60 to 70 percent of the human body is made up of water. The muscles, lungs and the brain all contain water. Water helps to regulate body temperature to keep you cool when you are too hot(hence the sweating). Water also helps to transport nutrients and oxygen around the body whilst removing unwanted waste from the body.

How much water is enough?
Everyones body is different in size and mass. That means that everyone must drink either more or less water to maintain their body at good health. To work out exactly how much water you need, just take your body weight in pounds, then divide it by 2 and change to ounces. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, divide this by 2. This gives you 75. Therefore, at 150 pounds, you must drink about 75 ounces of water per day. If you are exercising, you must drink at least 8 more glasses of water per day or depending on how long you are active for, you may have to drink more. Drinking plenty of water is crucial for good soccer nutrition.

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