Injuries suck and they ruin the careers of athletes. Luckily there is a lot athletes can do to lower risks and/or prevent these injuries. Bad health is actually one of the most common reason why athletes frequently get injured. We need to understand that a strong and muscular athlete also can have bad health. Health is how you look inside. You can easily say that health is what is flowing around in your blood stream.
Sports injuries can be divided into two categories, acute and chronic injuries. Acute injuries happen suddenly, such as when a person falls or twisting a joint. Chronic injuries usually result from overuse of one area of the body, which in most cases create inflammation.
Athletes can lower their risk of both categories of injuries. You can lower you risk of acute injuries with healthy and strong muscles, tendons & ligaments. Lowing the risk of chronic injuries is about having a healthy body and a strong immune system. Healthy lifestyle with focus on plant-based foods can lower the risk of both categories drastically.
Plant-based Foods are Anti-inflammation
Inflammation is the first biological response of the immune system to infection, injury or irritation. When you’re injured, inflammation actually works as a good thing. The area you injured will become red and swell, and lots of white blood cells will flow in to fight the infection and help you heal.
We want the inflammation away when it’s not needed. In many cases, if you do not have a healthy lifestyle, you can get stuck with this inflammation. This is because the body is having a hard time healing itself. In non-healthy athletes this immune response occurs when it shouldn’t. Which means that inflammation can be triggered, for instants with bad lifestyle choices, and when being out of shape. This will make your body overreact to small injuries, which shouldn’t have been a problem.
To combat this damaging inflammation, we need to choose the right foods. But also avoid those that trigger inflammation. Foods that trigger inflammation is mostly animal products, cake, cookies, candy bars & all fried foods.
Fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grain carbohydrates, starchy carbohydrates can fight and heal inflammation. All these natural plant foods contain high levels of phytochemical that has anti-inflammatory effects.
Plant Protein vs. Animal Protein when Healing
When we look at protein sources, then there is a clear healing difference. All plant proteins, like beans, legumes, tofu, greens and others, have shown that it has anti-inflammatory powers. Which means it heals, and takes away inflammation from the body.
Animal protein will raise your bad cholesterol (LDL) levels and lower good cholesterol (HDL) levels. This actions will increase your risk for developing to much inflammation in your body.
Meats, both processed and non-processed meats are high in saturated fat, which causes inflammation as well. Studies have shown that higher intakes of these meats can lead to cancer, heart disease and strokes, all of which go hand-in-hand with inflammation. If your body is fighting future lifestyle diseases, it will have a hard time to recover regular sports injuries.
You need a healthy balance of omega-6 & omega-3 in your body. Consuming omega-3s (walnuts, chia seeds and flaxseeds) helps you achieve that balance. If you have too much omega-6, you will create inflammation easily, which is of course not good. Omega-6 foods to avoid would be eggs, dairy, meat (especially bird-meat) and cooking oils.
Plants Boost Recovery
Plant and carbohydrates boosts recovery. Plants have all the protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidant to recover your body quick. When you eat plants you will have a quicker digestion, and therefore your body will quicker use all the important nutrients. When you work out hard you use up stored carbohydrates, and these you need back again quick efter finishing a training. Plant-based diets have shown to boost immune system – the same immune system which helps you recover.
Many plant foods are rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids have protective effects against the oxidative stress associated with physical activity and sports. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radical activity and antioxidant activity. Intense physical activity leads to an overproduction of reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species play important roles in the modulation of cell survival, cell death, cell signalling, and inflammation production.
Muscle injuries
Muscle glycogen serves mainly as the primary fuel for your muscles. Low levels of glycogen will put athletes in risk of muscle injuries. Glycogen is a form of sugar stored in the muscles and it is the main source of energy muscles uses. Your body needs carbohydrates from the plants you eat to fill up the glycogen storages.
The ability of athletes to train day after day depends in large part on adequate restoration of muscle glycogen. When glycogen levels are low, you will get muscle fatigue. This will cause lower strength, lower endurance and higher risk of muscle injuries.
Muscle strains are very common. Muscle strains happen when you tear the fibers of your muscle. Athletes on poor diets can also get muscles injuries from blood clots. Any blood clots that form in arteries can put you in serious health risk. Arterial clots in the brain are called strokes. Clots can form in the heart arteries, causing heart attacks. Athletes who eat a standard western diet are in risk of blood clots. Being apparently healthy and being an athlete does not prevent a person from developing blood clots.
Following a plant-based diet lowers risk of blood clots. Eating healthy plant-based meals will also free up space in your arteries and boost blood flow to muscles.
Lowering The Risk of Acute Injuries
Acute sports injuries are most likely to be fractures, knee injuries, dislocated shoulders, muscle sprains and sprained ankles. These acute injuries can be of just bad luck. You can not totally prevent them, but you can lower the risk drastically.
A healthy plant-based lifestyle and training creates health muscles, tendons and ligaments. Training balance and flexibility will make athletes have fewer injuries. Good recovered muscles without inflammation, and completely full glycogen storages will keep the body strong and make sure ligaments and joint stay in place. Nutrient-packed fruits and vegetables, along with exercise, can help build and maintain strong bones.
For instants. Nutrition can help to keep those ligaments nice and somewhat stretchy. Ligaments are made out of tissue, which needs to be kept healthy, and elastic fibers, which needs health to maintain that elastic feature. Eating certain nutrients can of course help. Manganese, omega-3, sulfur, vitamin-a and vitamin-c is especially good for keeping ligaments healthy. All these nutrients are especially found in plants.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28605204/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-is-inflammation-and-why-is-it-dangerous
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/no-need-to-avoid-healthy-omega-6-fats
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4769135/
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=85&contentid=P00935
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7843684/
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00971.2016
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29444266/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20622542/
https://nutritionstudies.org/reinforce-your-immune-system-with-plant-based-nutrition/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21604-ligament
https://www.pcrm.org/news/blog/plant-based-diet-can-build-strong-bones