Professional footballers - like all elite athletes - need to pay as much attention to their diet as their training.

And whereas in the past, they might have come off pitch and scoffed a meal of steak and chips, theres now a much greater focus on nutrition and its effect on a players game.

Nutrition impacts everything from a players endurance levels and speed to their recovery to their sleep patterns, sports scientist Armando Vinci, who worked alongside the Chelsea manager Antonio Conte for almost a decade, told The Times.

Its crucial that footballers get the right nutrients in the right quantities at the right times to ensure they perform their best on the pitch.

And there are certain secrets to their diets that we can all take away, whether youre running up and down a field for 90 minutes or smashing a HIIT workout in the gym.

Consuming a sports drink every time you work out may negate all the hard work youve put in, as they're often high in calories and sugar.

You need to be exercising fairly hard for at least an hour to make them worthwhile, otherwise you are effectively giving yourself an unnecessary dose of sugar, John Brewer, professor of applied sport science at St Marys University, Twickenham, said.

Whilst footballers still have isotonic sports drinks on match days to provide a carbohydrate boost, theyve cut down how many they used to consume.

Its no secret that consuming protein is crucial for muscle recovery and supermarket shelves are brimming with snacks that claim to offer protein boosts on the go.

But theres a new post-workout snack appearing on the scene that footballers have been eating for a long time: beef jerky. Its predicted to become an alternative to protein bars, shakes and balls.

Beef jerky is a high-quality protein snack that provides your body with essential amino acids needed to build, maintain and repair muscle, says Nancy Rodriguez, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Many people find foods that are part of the nightshade family - including peppers, tomatoes, aubergines andpotatoes - hard to digest.

And players are being asked to cut down on tomato sauces as a result: They contain compounds that block the absorption of calcium by the body and I always advise players to cut down on the amount of times they consume tomato-based pasta sauces, says Vinci.

Its not just footballers either - American football player Tom Brady famously doesnt eat nightshades as part of his strict diet.

Not just a supposed superfood, blueberries - along with cherries and pomegranate seeds - are anti-inflammatory and thus help with recovery - theyre a bigpart of many footballers diets.

Blueberries in particular are a great choice before a match as they boost the immune system: These antioxidants can neutralise the free radicals produced during metabolism and protect the body against the damaging effects of these free radicals, says sports and exercise physiology consultant, Dr Stewart Laing.

Blueberries are a source of carbs so help fuel players before exercising and they dont spike your insulin levels either.

Burning as many calories as they do, its no surprise that footballers need carbs. But they dont carb-load, as many people think, and the timing is crucial.

Recent scientific research has found that its essential to modify your carb intake based on whether youre working out or not.

Professional footballers need about 7g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight on match days to optimise glycogen resynthesis, but on recovery days this drops to 2g per kilogram of body weight.

Who are the most expensive footballers in the last two decades?

Not only is Greek yoghurt a great source of protein, probiotics and calcium, but it could also help your body recover while you sleep if you eat some half an hour before bed:

The protein in yoghurt and other milk products is almost entirely casein, which digests slowly in the body and is ideal for rebuilding muscle following any intense training session, but particularly a gym workout using weights, Vinci says.

Its a trick that could be helpful for anyone who does weight-training or resistance work.

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Six secret rules of footballers' diets - The Independent

Fitness isnt all about exercise; a healthy diet is just as essential. But eating right doesnt necessarily mean eating less in order to get thinner. A healthy diet means eating a balanced selection of nutritional foods.

Lyda Chum, a coach at CrossFit Gym Training Bootcamp, has been doing weight training since 2015. I changed my diet at the same time as I started working out. I wanted to get abs, so I had to be strict about my diet in order to get that toned look. Working out alone wont do it, she said. Also, its important to understand that sugar, not fat, is the main factor in weight gain, she said.

If you look fit and firm, your diet is probably good. Simply not being fat doesnt mean that youre healthy. It is important to educate yourself about nutrition and eating a balanced diet. Here is a brief introduction to some of the more popular diets, and their requirements.

Paleo

This diet avoids grains and foods based on them (including rice, bread and pasta), sugar, and fruit (except berries). This is one of the healthiest ways to eat. The paleo diet is high in nutrition. Also, you dont have to worry about your personal metabolism to stay lean, strong and energetic; you can eat whenever youre hungry.

Keto

Also called the low carb diet, this is good for those who want to lose weight fast. Carbohydrates are stored in the body as fat, and can make you put on weight, so this diet restricts carbs to 1 or 2 percent of your diet, with the rest made up of healthy fats and protein. By removing fat-producing carbs from your diet, this diet leaves your body free to burn off your excess fat.

Macros nutrition

This diet, popular among people who work out intensely, is a bit more complicated. You have to calculate how active you will be on a given day, and use that as the basis for working out how many calories you can consume. This diet helps you improve your physical performance and strength. You adjust your intake of carbs, proteins and fats based on your physical activity.

Zone diet

This plan is designed for those who do CrossFit workouts, but is less complex than the macros nutrition diet. You do have to keep track of how many times you work out per week, but you eat an equal amount of carbs, proteins and fats.

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There's more than one way to eat healthily - Khmer Times

S

AN DIEGO Everyone at the meeting had one thing in common: a ticking time bomb buried in their DNA.

The engineers, physicians, financiers, and farmers gathered here this month all had learned through genetic testing that they carry a copy or two of APOE4, an allele that substantially increases their risk of developing Alzheimers. Its a disease with no good treatment, and no good prevention strategy. So carriers scour the internet to devise their own tactics for keeping their brains healthy: a high-fat diet. Episodic fasting. Oils. Supplements. Regular blood tests to monitor a specific type of cholesterol. Exercise, exercise, exercise even including barefoot cartwheels across the conference room floor.

Some of these ideas have modest scientific backing; others are more speculative. All are fair game for APOE4 carriers who are desperate to ward off the frightening tumble into dementia that theyve seen afflict far too many of their relatives.

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The advent of low-cost genetic sequencing has opened up the secrets of our DNA allowing us to learn about our Neanderthal origins, our tendency towards lactose intolerance, even (perhaps) our risk of developing tendon injuries when we work out. But that knowledge comes at a cost: Science often can tell us what diseases were predisposed to get, but not how to forestall them.

A simple Google search about Alzheimers prevention turns up countless prospective remedies and few answers. One site might suggest eating more blueberries, while another pushes coconut oil, and a third touts the virtues of oily fish. Amid the cacophony, the carriers gathered here for an APOE4 support group have, in effect, turned themselves into miniature science experiments, which they dub n=1 studies.

It gets overwhelming, in terms of, What the heck do I do? said Theresa, an APOE4 carrier who did not want her full name used to protect her privacy. Thats one of the benefits of this APOE4 group: We discuss all these things, and try and clarify them to make sense of it all.

Finding out you carry APOE4 can be terrifying. About 1 in 10 adults will develop Alzheimers by the age of 65; by age 85, that risk goes up to 50 percent. Carry one copy of the allele, and you have triple the likelihood to develop late-onset Alzheimers disease. Carry two copies, and your chances go up twelvefold.

Sisters Betty Gleason Lacy and Shelley Alvarado are staring down that grim genetic math.

They have a deep family history of Alzheimers: Their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all developed the condition. Their father, too, has dementia, though it likely has a different root.

Each sister carries a single copy of APOE4. Their brother carries two. The sisters know how the disease can slowly take hold; theyve seen their parents once headstrong, accomplished, and independent fade into shadows of their former selves.

The pharmaceutical industry can offer no real hope: Drug after drug after drug has flopped in clinical trials. So Lacy is doing her own research, crisscrossing the country as a citizen scientist, attending conferences like this one to try to gain new insights from others with the APOE4 variant.

I feel very compelled to demystify this disease, Lacy said. We do not have to live with the old myth that theres no hope, and theres no cure.

The problem, of course, is that its not a myth: There is no cure for Alzheimers.

And while many APOE4 carriers believe that dietary changes offer hope for preventing the disease, its been difficult to test that theory, said Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, director of the genetics and aging research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hes working with a company to develop a supplement for brain health, but said its much harder to find funding to test low-cost lifestyle interventions, such as cutting out carbohydrates.

These trials are expensive, he said. If no moneys to be made with a little white pill, whos going to fund them?

A quick science lesson: The APOE gene gives the body instructions on how to produce a protein called apolipoprotein E. This protein ultimately helps regulate cholesterol levels in the blood. There are three major variants to the gene, called e2, e3, and e4. They only differ slightly.

But the very, very tiny difference in APOE4 has a profound effect on the way the protein is handled, said Dr. Robert Mahley, an Alzheimers researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who first discovered the APOE protein about 17 years back.

Its still largely not known how APOE4 increases the risk of Alzheimers. It is, however, associated with a buildup of protein clusters, called amyloid plaques, that accumulate in the brains of people with the disease. These toxic proteins can cause neurons to die, causing symptoms to progressively worsen.

The disease has a number of co-risk factors such as diabetes, smoking, and hypertension so Mahley suggests that his patients control their cholesterol, maintain normal blood pressure, and aggressively treat their diabetes in hopes of reducing their chances of getting Alzheimers. But beyond such measures, science offers few answers to those with APOE4.

These trials [of various diets] are expensive. If no moneys to be made with a little white pill, whos going to fund them?

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, Alzheimer's researcher

One approach thats circulated heavily in the community is the low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet.Much like the popular Atkins diet, its meant to retrain the body to use fat, rather than glucose, as its primary source of fuel.

Ketogenic diets first proved useful in the 1920s to prevent seizures in some patients with epilepsy hinting that the diet may have a broader neuroprotective effect. The diet has not been shown to improve cognition in people with APOE4, but it remains popular among carriers of the genetic variant, who hope it could help stave off dementia.

Others have adopted episodic fasting. They draw hope from whats known as the Nigerian paradox: Although the APOE4 allele is frequently found among elderly Nigerians, theyre not at increased risk of Alzheimers. African-Americans, by contrast, are just as likely to have the APOE4 allele, but develop the disease at much higher rates.

The biggest difference in the populations is that the Nigerians have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease as well as lower levels of fats and cholesterol in their blood. So its possible that the Nigerian diet, which can include periods of low calorie intake, might protect against dementia. (There is some more general evidence that fasting can help prolong life, though the majority of the work has been conducted in animals.)

The concept of episodic fasting has won over George, a 62-year-old from Colorado who asked that only his first name be used to protect his privacy.

He watched his mother decline from Alzheimers and then learned in 2009 that he carried the APOE4 gene. As it turns out, so does his wife.

They consult regularly with Dr. Steven Gundry, a cardiothoracic surgeon by training who has written two diet books and sells a line of dietary supplements. (He has also backed actress Gwyneth Paltrows oftenless-than-scientific wellness site, Goop.) Among his controversial tips: Avoid foods containing lectins, such as tomatoes, peppers, beans, lentils, and pasta.

George said the diet resonates with him: I want to go back to the way our ancestors lived.

Every two weeks, he fasts for four to five days. He religiously tracks his food intake, and is constantly on the move. (He was the one doing cartwheels across the conference room to keep up his cardio.) George also regularly pays out of pocket to test a number of blood biomarkers, including sdLDL, a type of cholesterol that Gundry believes is a primary mischief maker in people with the APOE4 genetic variant. If George doesnt like the number he sees on the lab readout, he tweaks his diet to try to raise or lower his sdLDL.

Im probably more crazy than most people, George conceded.

Mainstream scientists point out that such theories, while intriguing, are still far from validated. Gundry, for instance, said he has some anecdotal evidence but has published no rigorous clinical trials to back his views on using diet to forestall Alzheimers.

And while theres a whole cottage industry of books and games that promise to help preserve brain health, there just isnt a lot of evidence behind it.

The data, I must say, is soft, Mahley said. Its very hard to prove these lifestyle things. Lifestyle is a soft science, and nutrition is a soft science because people respond to diets very differently.

Outside of sharing some DNA, sisters Lacy and Alvarado dont have a lot in common. Lacys a left-leaning psychiatrist, and a bit of a Buddhist. Alvarado, a surgical nurse, is fairly conservative and a devout Christian. They were never all that close, until recently when they found out that they both carry APOE4.

Having watched their parents decline, they know all too well what that could mean.

Their father, a World War II vet, was a physician, and their mother helped found a school for autistic children in Long Beach, Calif. That school, Alvarado joked, was her mothers fourth child written in equally in her will. But their parents memories of their accomplishments have largely all gone now, and the sisters have been powerless to halt the progression of dementia.

Lacy tried to change her mothers diet so that it more closely matches her own high-fat, low-carb approach heavy on leafy greens, fish, nuts, and plant-based oils but thats proven near-impossible in her mothers group home. So the daughters have decided that the next time their mother falls ill, theyll let the infection take its course rather than fighting to keep her alive. Thats what she would have wanted.

In the meantime, theyre sharing tips with new friends at the APOE4 meetup, which was organized to coincide with Low Carb USA, a dietary conference in San Diego.

Were the canaries in the coal mine, Alvarado said.

The meetup was conceived by Julia Gregory, a former marriage counselor who discovered five years back that she carried two copies of the APOE4 gene. She was just about to turn 50, and had sent in a saliva sample to the genetic testing service 23andMe. She found her results were alarming, to say the least. And the advice she was given was certainly lacking: Her doctors could offer few suggestions beyond crossword puzzles and square dancing to prevent the onset of Alzheimers.

So Gregory began to commiserate and brainstorm with the fellow APOE4 carriers she found on 23andMes forums.

The participants shared lifestyle tips and research insights. Eventually, Gregory formalized the group into a nonprofit called APOE4 Info. Gregory now runs the organization full time, moderating the sites online forum and consulting individually with people who have recently learned of their APOE4 status.

She, too, experiments with her diet, but in moderation. Im nowhere as zealous or strict about my diet as some of our members, she said. The idea of living life without a cucumber or tomato is depressing to me.

Im nowhere as zealous or strict about my diet as some of our members. The idea of living life without a cucumber or tomato is depressing to me.

Julia Gregory, founder of APOE4 Info

This years meetup drew a few dozen APOE4 carriers from around the world, who attended lectures suggesting a link between diabetes and Alzheimers and talked up their own experiments, often with technical proficiency that might rival a decorated neuroscientist.

I think Im a much healthier person after having gotten involved in this group, said Diana Ross, 83, a carrier who attended the meetup. Shes cut down on carbs and boosted her intake of vegetables and protein, and said her doctor has been pleased with the results.

Members also discussed the broader implications of carrying APOE4, including the possibility of genetic discrimination.Alvardo, the surgical nurse, worries about how her peers will respond if she slips up at work: Will her colleagues read a momentary lapse of memory at face value, or as a sign of something deeper?

As for Lacy, these days, she is expanding her psychiatric practice to serve a more geriatric population by counseling patients on the lifestyle and dietary tips shes trying out herself. Its still a long shot, but shes confident that these lifestyle changes will help.

I feel motivated, she said, to save every brain cell I can.

Biotech Correspondent

Meghana covers biotech and writes The Readout newsletter.

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Their genes put them at high risk of Alzheimer's. So they're experimenting on themselves - STAT

Washington Losing weight is tough. It would be easier if a benevolent someone concerned about your health controlled exactly how much you ate and how often you exercised, right?

Thats the situation for most dogs and cats and yet the majority are overweight or obese.

As with our own dieting woes, the unpleasant prospect of the simple solution feeding our furry friends less makes us reach for alternative, quick-fix strategies. Many pet parents have turned to radically new menus. These grain-free, all-meat and raw-food diets are inspired by the meals eaten by wild relatives of our fidos and felixes.

But are these diets really better for our pets? Veterinarians and pet nutrition researchers say probably not.

According to clinical veterinary nutritionists at Tufts University, grain-free foods were one of the fastest-growing sectors of the pet food market in 2016. All I ever hear is, oh, on a good diet, its grain free, said Dena Lock, a veterinarian in Texas. The majority of her pet patients are overweight.

Why have these pet diets become so popular?

Its a marketing trend, Lock said.

Grain-free is marketing. Its only marketing, said Cailin Heinze, a small-animal nutritionist at Tufts Universitys Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. A lot of foods market themselves by what theyre not including, and the implication is that the excluded ingredient must be bad.

Grain-free is definitely a marketing technique that has been very successful, said Jennifer Larsen, a clinical nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis.

People think that if they pay a lot for food and there are a lot of exclusions on the bag, that the food is healthier, but theyre buying an idea, she said, not necessarily a superior product.

There is absolutely no data to support the idea that grain-free diets are better for pets, Heinze and Larsen noted.

Some pet owners have a false impression that grains are more likely to cause an allergic reaction, but its much more common for dogs to have allergies to meat than to grain, Heinz said. Chicken, beef, eggs, dairy and wheat are the most common allergies in dogs. And its not that theres anything particularly allergenic about these foods, she said, theyre just the most frequently used ingredients.

Marketing campaigns such as Blue Buffalos Wilderness or Chewys Taste of Wild claim that their grain-free, meat-forward formulations better reflect the ancestral diets of our dogs and cats evolutionary predecessors, but the veterinarians I spoke with also questioned this logic.

For one, our pets wild cousins arent all that healthy. People believe that nature is best, Larsen said, but animals in the wild dont live that long and they dont lead very healthy lives.

For dogs, we know they have diverged from wolves genetically in their ability to digest starches. Dogs arent wolves, said Robert Wayne, a canine geneticist at UCLA. They have adapted to a human diet. Research in Waynes lab showed that most wolves carry two copies of a gene involved in starch digestion, while dogs have between three and 29 copies. According to Heinze, the average dog can easily handle 50% of its diet as carbs.

For cats, this argument makes a little more sense.

Cats are carnivores rather than omnivores, so they have higher protein requirements than dogs, but cats can digest and utilise carbohydrates quite well, said Andrea Fascetti, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of California Veterinary School in Davis.

Many grain-free pet foods are made with starch from potatoes or lentils and they may be higher in fat. If you cut grains but increase calories, your pet is going to gain weight, Heinze said.

Pets are almost always spayed and neutered which is risk factor for obesity. Theres no one magic diet for every animal. Experts recommend working with your vet to find a diet that works for your pet. When it comes to navigating marketing claims in the pet food aisle, find a company that employs a veterinary nutritionist and does feeding trials.

The Washington Post

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Work with a vet to find right diet for your pet - Gears Of Biz

Fuelling up during a game is vital.OLI SCARFF/Getty Images

Football is no longer won and lost on the pitch. If you ask a performance nutritionist, it's won or lost in the fridge, cupboards and anywhere food is served to players. That's because nutrition and supplementation today is barely recognisable from the days when oranges were served at half-time and a bottle of whiskey was kept in the changing room to warm players up before a match.

But can an army of nutritionists and culinary experts really make a difference? Will the latest pills and potions improve a team's performance? Or does none of this matter in the beautiful game if you're genetically predestined to be a legend with the ball at your feet? Take for example Dino Zoff's admiration of Paul Gascoigne: "He ate ice cream for breakfast, drank beer for lunch ... But as a player? Oh, beautiful, beautiful. I loved that boy," the former Lazio manager said, according to ESPN.co.uk.

In exploring the evolution of nutritional science in sport, we examined how food in football has progressed since the days of counting calories and force-feeding players giant bowls of pasta. We also identified teams with a dietary advantage thanks to their culinary preparation during training and on matchdays and tried to quantify how much of a difference it makes.

Calories

A player's energy reserves for 90 minutes are determined long before he laces up his boots and steps foot on the pitch. That assessment is based on a field of nutrition called bioenergetics, which is the study of the transformation of energy in living organismsbasically, how players take calories from the food they eat and convert them into energy. This is simply ensuring calories in equals calories out.

Research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that analysed the diets of young professional football players for one week found that despite eating 2,831 calories per day on average, "A mean daily energy deficit ... existed because daily energy expenditures exceeded that of intake." So, despite consuming that many calories, the players were still burning more than they were eating.

Why? Because unlike in many other sports, football consists of intermittent, repeated episodes of both low and high-intensity activity. Periods of walking and light jogging are coupled with sprints at maximal effort, training up to five days a week and a match at weekends. All this equates to a mountain of calories burned. This is whyagain, on a basic levelalthough Gascoigne's diet would never be considered healthy or optimal, at least he was meeting his calorie requirements for the day.

His breakfast of ice cream was calorie-dense, and considering alcohol comes a close second to dietary fat in terms of its calorie densityroughly seven calories per gramit's easy to see how he could have consumed more than the 2,831 calories mentioned in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Carbohydrates

Many traditional sports nutritionists claim carbohydrates are a footballer's primary fuel source. What this means is training and matches should be powered with a plentiful supply of high-carbohydrate foods like pasta, cereals and rice, since it's these food choices that ensure muscles' energy reservesknown as muscle glycogenare adequately full and able to continue to work at a fast pace.

For those who aren't aware of what happens to the body when it's completely depleted of carbohydrates and muscle glycogen, take a look at this video of the 1997 Ironman World Championship featuring Wendy Ingraham and Sian Welch. It's aptly titled "The Crawl," and you'll see why.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2007 that over 40 years prior, Dr. J. Robert Cade had invented the first carbohydrate-enriched sports drink to "help the University of Florida football team stay hydrated and in turn inspired the multimillion-dollar sports beverage industry." It was arguably the first sports supplement. Research conducted by the Graduate Department of Community Health at the University of Toronto in Ontario analysed the impact 0.5 litres of a 7 per cent glucose (sugar) polymer solution 10 minutes before the game and at half-time had on a player's performance. The results: Muscle biopsies indicated the supplementation slowed the muscle glycogen depletion.

What this means is if you slow muscle glycogen depletion, you also slow the time it takes to fatigue. According to research by the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University in New Zealand, this in turn enables players "with compromised glycogen stores to better maintain skill and sprint performance."

These findings were supported by a second studyagain conducted at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Healththat examined the effect of ingesting a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution during the 90-minute Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test on football skill performance. Results revealed there was "a 3 per cent reduction in skill performance from before to after exercise in the carbohydrate-electrolyte trial, whereas in the placebo trial the decrease was 14 per cent." This led scientists to conclude "skill performance during the simulated soccer activity appeared to deteriorate in the last 15-30 minutes of exercise. However, providing 52 grams of carbohydrate during exercise showed a tendency to better maintain soccer skill performance than a taste-matched placebo."

This is why when heading into extra timeor even penaltiesthe winning team might not necessarily be the most skilled but rather the most fuelled. The club's water-carrier becomes the most valuable member of the squad, and the contents of each sports bottle could be the difference between a 3 per cent reduction in performance and a 14 per cent one.

Fats

But how did the Norwegian football team Stromsgodset win the league cup in 2013 for the first time since 1970 on a diet that was void of any large amounts of carbohydrates? Where was the 14 per cent reduction in performance? In fact, how was it that Health and Living News reported they "'steamrolled' their opponents during an impressive final 45 minutes" of their winning game?

"Fat" is the short answer. It's something Timothy Noakesone of the most respected experts in the field of low-carbohydrate, high-fat dietshas been telling athletes from all sports for years.

This is because, according to research published by Nutrition Focus New Zealand Limited, "the number of grueling events that challenge the limits of human endurance is increasing. Such events are also challenging the limits of current dietary recommendations." Scientists concluded that although carbohydrate-loading has been a widely used performance-enhancing approach to nutrition for years, "there are some situations for which alternative dietary options are beneficial." One of those circumstances is perhaps best described in the journal Human Muscle Fatigue: Physiological Mechanisms. Scientists noted the energy needed to sustain exercise for longer periods of time comes from the oxidisation of two fuels: glucosecarbohydratesand long-chain fatty acids.

What they found was the latter is arguably a more sustainable and efficient fuel source since it provides the "largest energy reserve in the body" and can supply enough energy to last five days. Typically, this approach has been thought to be useful for marathons and ultra-marathons, so in theory, it would mean fuelling a footballer for 90 minutes should be easy.

Caffeine

In 2017, it seems most clubs are thinking beyond calories, carbohydrates and fats and turning their attention to anything that will give them a competitive edge. In 2012, that something was caffeine, according to the Independent, which reported "England right-back Glen Johnson told BBC 5 Live after Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Poland that some of the players had taken caffeine pills before the postponed World Cup qualifier."

Rio Ferdinand tweeted at the time it had been prevalent in football for some time.

Testing positive for excessive levels of caffeine was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list in 2004. The supplement has since become one of the most used in sport. For good reason too, since according to research conducted by the Division of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Luton, caffeine can reduce a footballer's perception to fatigue by stimulating the production of the neurotransmitter beta-endorphin.

Couple these findings with research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that showed taking caffeine with carbohydrates helped spare muscle glycogen stores by encouraging your body to burn stored fat as fuel, essentially saving your muscle glycogen for extra time or those maximal intensity sprints. This is why James Collins, who is Arsenal's nutrition expert and held the same title for England at the last World Cup, was quoted in the Telegraph in 2015 saying, "Players will only use carbohydrate or caffeine gels in a match if they have practiced using them in training. We know that getting this right at half-time can have a big impact on energy levels later in the second half."

Beetroot

Following Leicester City's historic league win in 2016, the BBC published an article titled "Leicester City: The science behind their Premier League title." Within it, Leicester was noted to have "suffered the fewest injuries" in the Premier League, according to Physioroom.com, despite limited resources and a fast counter-attacking game. The article also mentioned that, "according to scientists at the University of Exeter, drinking [beetroot juice] improves sprint performance and decision-making."

Research in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found "beetroot juice supplementation attenuated muscle soreness" in "recreationally active males." It also stated "further research on the anti-inflammatory effects of beetroot juice are required to elucidate the precise mechanisms."

Next, according to the American College of Cardiology, just "one week of daily dosing [with beetroot juice] significantly improves submaximal aerobic endurance." It's worth noting this study featured elderly test subjects, but it has since been supported by published work in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, which tested elite rowers.

So, those small shots of vegetable juice have the potential to reduce muscle soreness and increase stamina. Also, Leicester City's success shows maybe sports nutrition doesn't have to be quantified and proved. Instead, just a willingness to test and trial new methods could pay dividends.

The Future

As is obvious from the aforementioned researchand real-life case studiesnutrition in football is evolving. It's far from an exact science, though, which is why as the sport develops, so should each team's approach to nutrition. Arsene Wenger has notably pioneered advancements in his years with Arsenal, as he told FourFourTwo.com: "Food is like kerosene. If you put the wrong one in your car, it's not as quick as it should be."

In summary, it seems nutritional science can be a secret weapon if coaches and teams are prepared to explore the possibilities. From Stromsgodset to Leicester City, the winning team will often be the most reactive, adaptable and willing to try new dietary protocols.

All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.

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Beetroot and Coffee: Football's Nutritional Sports Science - Bleacher Report

Weight loss is always a result of energy balance, this is just science.

Energy in < Energy out = weight loss.

Energy in > Energy out = weight gain.

Energy in = Energy out = no change in weight.

This is thermodynamics and it applies to everyone. Every diet on the planet works in exactly the same way they change the energy balance equation to cause weight loss, they do this by creating a caloric deficit, as this is the ONLY way to lose body fat.

Take the low carb diet for example, it aims to reduce overall calorie intake by restricting the intake of carbs because removing carbs from your diet will slash your calories.

We also have the Paleo diet that demonises processed food a significant portion of a typical western diet is processed therefore eliminating this food group will result in a large calorie reduction.

Weight Watchers employs portion control in an effort to create the desired calorie deficit. It seems theres a trend here.

The take-home message is dont make dieting any harder for yourself than it already is.

When you look past the marketing and the hype, ALL diets work in exactly the same way. Some diets just place unnecessary restrictions in the hope that it will create that all-important calorie deficit.

But, theres an easier way; a way that doesnt involve restriction.

- 2-4 meals a day

- Use your palm as a portion measure.

- 1 portion of protein (meat/eggs/greek yoghurt/fish etc) each meal.

- 1 portion of carbs (bread/rice/pasta/breakfast cereal/beans/oats etc) each meal.

- 1 portion of veg (any veg at all) each meal.

- 0.5 x portions of fats (cheese/nut butters/oils/nuts) each meal.

- 2 snacks per day fruit and/or protein bars make great snacks.

I recommend most clients do this in conjunction with tracking their food and drink intake using a calorie tracking app such as My Fitness Pal or my own app Harry Smith Fitness.

This way, over time youll see the relationship between your caloric intake and your bodyweight/body fat levels and can make minor adjustments dependent on your goals.

If you fancy some naughty food just have it! Track it in the app and work around it.

Flexibility is key to sustainability and sustainability is key to success. Theres no need to overcomplicate it.

Harry Smith is a personal trainer. Follow him on Facebook.

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How to lose weight with no diet restrictions - The Independent

Look, were not new in town. We know about some of the weird diets people have undertaken in the past. The baby food diet. The beer diet. The potato diet. But a diet of ordering and consuming a large pizza from Dominos every single day for a leap year and a day is kind of a new one.

But TODAY reports that Brian Northrup of Scotch Plains, NJ just completed that diet by ordering and consuming an entire Domino's pizza every day for 367 consecutive days.

The kicker? He lost almost six pounds in the process. Heres the end result:

According to his Instagram, Northrups goal was to show that even if youre not eating the best diet in the world (like, say, a large pizza every day) its still possible to lose weight and get in shape if you work out enough. Northrup claims that in a years time he increased his strength, speed, and cardiovascular endurance, has not gotten sick, and has not suffered any sort of injuries. He also states that he visited a doctor, both before beginning the program ("program" is a generous word here) and throughout the year to keep tabs on his blood pressure, cholesterol, and other vital signs in case they spiked. Weirdly enough, they did not.

Along the way, Northrup pretty much ran the ingredient gamut, keeping his pies interesting by trying out all sorts of ingredient and sauce combinationsthough his hat game varied considerably less.

TODAY also reported that Dominos had nothing to do with this attempt, but that they did wish Northrup well and hoped he was a member of their loyalty program.

Wed say ordering 367 days of Domino's pizza is the ultimate definition of loyalty.

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Man Eats Entire Pizza Pie Every Day for 367 Days, Somehow Loses Weight - Bravo (blog)