Nutrition Tips from "Everyday Health Tips for Runners" By Runners World

In agreement with what Jake posted earlier, here is a great opening paragraph to the nutrition section in this awesome little book I got:

"Running can do great things for your health. But bad eating habits--consuming too much fat, salt, sugar, for example--will practically undo any good that your exercise program is doing. What's worse, a diet deficient in necessary nutrients will leave you weak, listless and in no shape to run."

Carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates are the most important type of nutrient for runners, and they recommend that--depending on the intensity of your workouts, you should consume 60-70% of your daily intake through carbs, "particularly those of the complex variety, such as pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, fresh vegetables and fruits."

Power Through Protein:

Protein helps build and maintain muscle mass. The interesting statistic they said in this particular handbook is that the average Daily Value for protein is .36 grams per pound of body weight. But if you're training seriously, you may need more--as much as .55 grams.

That's actually less than I've heard, which is as high as 1 gram per body pound, if you are trying to lose weight--which I've tried doing, and it is extremely difficult without loading up on whey shakes, but .55 seems pretty doable.

Fats

"Limit your fat intake to 30% of your total daily calories, with 20% coming from monounsaturated fats (canola or olive oil) and 10 % coming from polyunsaturates (peanu, safflower, corn or sunflower oils)."

"Just say no to saturated fats... which include animal fats (butter, lard, cream and fatty meats), hydrogenated vegetable oils and tropical oils.

Tips for cutting FATS:

If you're a meat eater, trim visible fats from meats
Avoid all fried foods, which are loaded with saturated fats.
For flavor's sake, substitute canola oil or "light" olive oil in recipes calling for melted butter, margarine or vegetable oil.
If you like the flavor of butter, use a small amount along with some canola oil, but try a flavorful olive oil as an alternative to butter or margarine on bread
When buying margarine, choose a brand that lists vegetable oil as the first ingredient, and check for low-saturated content.
Read labels when selecting snack foods. Reject any that have fat as one fo the first three or four ingredients"


As I said before, these are straight from the book I got from Runners' world--and I'm glad to be posting these because it helps me re-commit to changing my nutritional habits for the better.

Tomorrow (if you guys like these tips) I'll try to sum up the section on vitamins, calcium, iron, and some other tips from the nutritional section.

Let me know if this helps!