Don't think that healthy eating has to mean boring food! There are plenty of ways to make healthy eating fun -- try incorporating new ingredients into recipes or trying different spices when making foods like curries or stews curry powder adds an Indian flair; cumin seeds lend Mexican flavors.

If you're looking to improve your health and prevent injuries, it's important to eat a balanced diet. You can help reduce the risk of injury by eating a balanced diet. The best way to ensure that you're getting all the nutrients needed for recovery is by eating foods from all food groups protein, carbohydrates, and fats in moderation.

A healthy diet is important for injury recovery and prevention because it: Helps your body fight off infections and illness; Boosts mood and energy levels; Improves concentration and performance during physical activity if you're an athlete.

Share Share Link. Nutrition plays an integral role in the prevention, treatment, and recovery of injuries In order to prevent and recover from injuries, proper nutrition is necessary. A healthy diet should include: Protein, which helps build muscle and repair tissues. A healthy diet can help you prevent injuries by keeping your immune system strong Your immune system is your body's natural defense against illness and injury.

A healthy diet is important for injury recovery and prevention because of it: Helps your body fight off infections and illness; Boosts mood and energy levels; Improves concentration and performance during physical activity if you're an athlete. Eat a balanced diet. Avoid junk food and eat more fruits and vegetables.

Conclusion If you're looking to improve your health and prevent injuries, it's important to eat a balanced diet. Back to blog.

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Expert nutrition strategies for injury prevention and repair when athletes and active clients suffer a setback. Injuries are an inevitable part of sport.

While injury may be an assumed risk associated with physical activity, there are various cost-effective nutrition strategies that complement standard therapy and can reduce the risk of injury and aid in recovery.

RDs who encounter individuals with activity-related injuries must gain an understanding of injury types and the current evidence-based nutrition guidelines for the treatment and prevention of these injuries.

In particular, they need to become familiar with nutrition recommendations for energy, protein, carbohydrates, and fats and whether supplements may be of benefit for soft tissue and bone injuries. Injury Types The most common exercise-related injuries affect muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments.

Primary concerns during an injury include muscle and strength loss. While the recovery process involves several stages, inflammation plays a key role in the initial healing phase.

Due to stress response, this phase typically requires a greater energy demand, which increases the need for protein. Following this phase, minimizing excessive inflammation via dietary interventions may help accelerate the recovery process and get athletes back on the playing field more quickly.

Treating and Preventing Soft Tissue Injuries Soft tissue injuries can be acute or chronic overuse and may include damage to muscle, ligament, and tendon. However, it should be noted that these studies have limitations, given there are obvious structural differences between a muscle tear and exercise-induced muscle damage.

Changes in energy requirements and nutrients to help with muscle repair also must be considered. There are several potential nutrition strategies that may help treat—or possibly prevent—soft tissue injuries by reducing inflammation, promoting healing, or decreasing the loss of lean tissue.

However, in the absence of a dietary deficiency, some of the following nutrition interventions have limited research to support a benefit. RDs must gain a better understanding of changes in energy demands.

For example, while recovering from injury, some athletes may want to decrease energy intake, given that energy expenditure is lower.

However, adequate energy availability is needed to support healing. Increased protein may not prevent muscle injury, but higher protein intakes 1. An emphasis on equal protein distribution throughout the day will help attenuate muscle mass loss. RDs should emphasize a diet rich in high-quality protein from whole food sources, but a protein supplement can be an easy and effective way to meet protein needs during the recovery period.

For example, whey protein contains the highest amount of leucine 2. If an athlete chooses a plant-based protein supplement, about 40 g of soy or pea protein—the highest quality of the plant-based options—is needed to match the 2.

Carbohydrates provide energy for healing during injury recovery. Omega-3 fatty acids, such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, nuts, and avocado, may decrease the extent of prolonged inflammation after the initial inflammatory phase , which can be counterproductive to recovery.

However, this is based on studies examining inflammation and function after exercise-induced muscle damage. Given the potential risk of mercury contamination in fish oil supplements, the quality of fish oil should be taken into consideration. Creatine has been shown to be one of the most effective supplements for increasing lean body mass when combined with exercise.

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables provide polyphenols and micronutrients, each of which can help speed the recovery process. For example, polyphenols may help decrease muscle damage caused by inflammation.

While these strategies provide more benefits for the muscle, vitamin C and gelatin have been suggested to stimulate greater collagen synthesis following a tendon or ligament injury.

Active individuals should focus on a food-first approach before supplementation. Keep in mind that for many of these findings, more research is needed to examine the benefits of the role of macro- and micronutrients in the prevention of or recovery from muscle injuries.

Bone Injury Treatment and Prevention Bone strength is determined earlier in life, yet bone loss occurs as a natural part of the aging process. Due to bone-related consequences ie, reduced calcium absorption and bone mineral density associated with a higher incidence of relative energy deficiency in sport syndrome, stress fractures are more common in active females.

Although there are many nutrients that play a role in bone health, the following nutrition factors may help support bone health and aid in the recovery and healing from bone injuries. Many female athlete triad and relative energy deficiency in sport studies have found that reductions in energy availability, especially if chronic, have been shown to reduce hormones estrogen, testosterone that are vital to bone formation and resorption.

Protein plays a role in the production of hormones that affect bone health and provide structure for the bone matrix. Adequate protein intake ~1. Contrary to previous beliefs, protein intakes higher than the recommended daily intake have no negative impact on bone health if calcium intake is adequate.

In fact, although more research is needed, higher protein intakes have been shown to have a small, beneficial impact on bone.

Therefore, inadequate calcium intake can impair bone healing. Furthermore, one study found that consuming a calcium-rich meal or supplement ~1, to 1, mg before exercise can offset sweat calcium losses in endurance athletes.

Calcium-rich foods include milk, fortified orange juice, kale, tofu, yogurt, and sardines. Athletes can boost calcium intake by consuming milk dairy or soy and yogurt. It has been suggested that active individuals who are vitamin D deficient are at greater risk of bone fracture. Depending on vitamin D levels, supplementation may be needed especially during the winter months to ensure levels are adequate.

Of course, sunlight is the best source of vitamin D, but dietary sources include fatty fish, sun-exposed mushrooms, sardines, and milk.