03/04/2020
NUTRITION GUIDELINES FOR ATHLETES DURING TRAINING BREAK DUE TO CORONA VIRUS OUTBREAK
• Maintain good hydration:
• Drink plain water or lemon water
• Avoid all sugary drinks
• Stop recovery drinks/sports drinks/pre-workout drinks if you are not training at home for more than 90 minutes
• Avoid packaged fruit juice
• Avoid carbonated drinks like Pepsi, Coke etc.
• Green tea is good to provide antioxidants but drink with no added sugar.
• Include more fresh fruits like orange, berries, guava etc. in your diet to provide adequate vitamin C to boost immunity.
• Switch to low fat milk and curd to avoid excess fat in diet when physical activities are less.
• Maintain good protein intake in diet to ensure good muscle mass. Corona virus is not spreading via meat and eggs so one can continue eating non-vegetarian food. Vegetarians can include tofu, paneer, soya chunks (nutrela), sprouts, nuts etc.
• To avoid excess weight/fat gain during non-training phase include low fat food preparation methods like boiling, baking, grilling and roasting.
• Include curd/buttermilk in diet every day.
• Use more natural herbs in diet like basil, mint, ginger, curry leaves etc.
• Include at least 3 servings of fruits and 4 servings of vegetables in diet. Include more colors of fruits and vegetables to ensure more antioxidants in diet.
• Remember it is important to maintain healthy body composition, due to less physical activity body requires less calories through diet. Protein intake is important to maintain muscle mass, but overall energy intake can be reduced by reducing the portion size and avoiding food that are high in fat and sugar. You may resume your regular diet before you return to regular training.
• Do not use food to pass time when you are at home. Snack on low calorie nutritious foods like salads, fruits, roasted chana, sprouts etc.
• Best way to avoid eating high fat snacks is not buying those in the first place.
• When not training, a good use of time at home is to learn low fat cooking; a skill that would be useful for you and your family.
Stay Healthy, Stay Safe