Importance of Diet for Athletes: Macronutrients and Micronutrients

This fact sheet discusses the importance of diet for athletes, including the role of macronutrients and micronutrients. It provides recommendations for dietary requirements and sports supplementation, as well as considerations for athletes with non-communicable diseases. The sources cited include studies on nutrition education programs, low-carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes remission, and the effects of inulin-type carbohydrates on insulin resistance.

Information resource
fact sheet

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Diet play an important role for athletes which can help to fulfil the energy requirement
which are essential to perform different activities. In this, macronutrients and micronutrients is
necessary to maintain the need and requirement of health. There is discussion about the sports
nutrients which can be helpful during training. This also includes three key micronutrients and
recommendations for dietary requirements. This also includes the recommendation for sports
supplementation (Boidin et. al., (2021)).
MAIN BODY
A) There is role of macronutrient within sports which includes carbohydrate, protein which
are effective for the athlete. These are the nutritive components which are effective and
help to fulfil the needs for energy which can help to maintain system and body structures.
These are effective and can be important for providing energy to athletes to perform in
the sport. Here, carbohydrate can provide long term energy and help in training process.
Here, athlete should include about 50 to 65% of carbohydrate which can help to provide
enough energy that can help in to balance energy during training (Kim et. al., (2019)).
B) There are various micronutrients which include the calcium, magnesium and sodium that
are important for the athlete. Here, Sodium is effective and can help to absorb along with
retaining more fluid that can help in boosting blood plasma volume (Jenner et. al.,
(2018)). Magnesium can help in maintaining normal nerve along with muscle function,
blood pressure, bone integrity, promoting calcium absorption, heart rhythm, vasomotor
tone, immune system and many more. Here, Calcium have also importance for the athlete
which are more likely to lose calcium or other mineral through perspiration. Here, these
are effective and these micronutrients can be helpful in improving better health to
perform well as an athlete (Lohman et. al., (2019)).
C) It is essential to take care of the dietary requirement of athlete which can be effective and
allow to perform activity more effectively. This may include calcium, potassium, iron
and fibre. These are effective that can help in getting better and effective improvement
that are associated with taking care of all the dietary requirement. This may include
source of calories and should focus on the lean meats and whole grains along with
mixtures of fruits and vegetables. For example, they should consume cereals including

rice, pasta, breads and noodles. They may also include the fish, meat, poultry or
vegetarian alternatives in lunch and dinner. Athlete should also consume water about 17
to 20 ounces specially two to three hour before starting exercise. This can be effective
and provide better and effective response (Goldenberg et. al., (2021)).
D) It is recommended that athlete should consume about 45 to 65 % of carbohydrate and
protein about 10 to 30 % and fat about 30%. Here, they should also focus on the fluid
which can help in maintaining body fluid and should be consumed before, during and
after the athletic events (Bernardi et. al., (2020)).
E) There is need to ensure that these should be taken in consideration when athlete is having
any type of non-communicable disease and with type –II diabetes. Here, consumption of
carbohydrate can be effective for the athletic with type-II diabetes. There is also need to
take consideration if any diet can have negative impact on the athlete with any non-
communicable disease. There is need to take in good proportion to avoid the risk of raise
in blood triglyceride levels. Athlete with cardiovascular disease can have high risk when
they uptake of carbohydrate. In this, there is need to ensure about avoid it. Carbohydrate
can be effective and can lead to cause negative health impact which include the risk of
diabetes, fatty liver, coronary artery disease (Huntriss et. al., (2018)).
Here, athlete should ensure about taking care of effective response that should ensure about
uptake of diet like calcium, carbohydrate and other which can help athlete to fulfil their dietary
requirement. This may include various dietary source like carbohydrate which can have risk of
increase the cardiovascular disease. There can green vegetable and mix fruits which can be
highly effective for the athlete which are help to get and fulfil the dietary requirement to perform
well during training (Rao et. al., (2019)).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can have concluded that there is high need to ensure about the
diet which can have high importance in dealing with better and effective response that are
associated with taking care of dietary equipment. In this, there is need to ensure about diet which
can include macronutrient and macronutrients.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bernardi, M., Fedullo, A. L., Bernardi, E., Munzi, D., Peluso, I., Myers, J., ... & Sciarra, T.
(2020). Diet in neurogenic bowel management: a viewpoint on spinal cord injury. World
Journal of Gastroenterology, 26(20), 2479.
Boidin, A., Tam, R., Mitchell, L., Cox, G. R., & O’Connor, H. (2021). The effectiveness of
nutrition education programmes on improving dietary intake in athletes: a systematic
review. British Journal of Nutrition, 125(12), 1359-1373.
Goldenberg, J. Z., Day, A., Brinkworth, G. D., Sato, J., Yamada, S., Jönsson, T., ... & Johnston,
B. C. (2021). Efficacy and safety of low and very low carbohydrate diets for type 2
diabetes remission: systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished
randomized trial data. bmj, 372.
Huntriss, R., Campbell, M., & Bedwell, C. (2018). The interpretation and effect of a low-
carbohydrate diet in the management of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-
analysis of randomised controlled trials. European journal of clinical nutrition, 72(3),
311-325.
Jenner, S. L., Trakman, G., Coutts, A., Kempton, T., Ryan, S., Forsyth, A., & Belski, R. (2018).
Dietary intake of professional Australian football athletes surrounding body composition
assessment. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15(1), 1-8.
Kim, M., Basharat, A., Santosh, R., Mehdi, S. F., Razvi, Z., Yoo, S. K., ... & Roth, J. (2019).
Reuniting overnutrition and undernutrition, macronutrients, and
micronutrients. Diabetes/metabolism research and reviews, 35(1), e3072.
Lohman, R., Carr, A., & Condo, D. (2019). Nutritional intake in Australian football players:
sports nutrition knowledge and macronutrient and micronutrient intake. International
journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 29(3), 289-296.
Rao, M., Gao, C., Xu, L., Jiang, L., Zhu, J., Chen, G., ... & Xu, Y. (2019). Effect of inulin-type
carbohydrates on insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity: a
systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of diabetes research, 2019.