For those nearing the age of 40—including yours truly—and anyone else feeling the tiniest effects of Father Time, making the proper food choices is the greatest factor—along with vigorous exercise—in boosting athletic performance, promoting energy and preventing weight gain and the health consequences that come along with it.
In this digital age, there no longer is an excuse not to eat healthy. The Internet is littered with sites featuring information on delicious, healthy recipes. Having said that, here are 10 must-buy foods
to add to your cart the next time you’re at the grocery store—recipes not included.
Just make sure to incorporate these foods into your diet on a semi-regular basis. Note: This is part one of a two-part story on eating right for healthy living.
Sweet Potatoes
Talk about a nutritional powerhouse. One large, baked sweet potato contains just 160 calories and 475 percent of the daily value for vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, which has powerful antioxidant properties that help strengthen the immune system.
A large sweet potato has 37 grams of carbohydrates, or three grams more than a pair of Twix bars. But which one do you think is going to keep you feeling full longer?
The large sweet potato is loaded with nearly six grams of belly-filling fiber, and they digest slowly, giving you sustained energy. Foods high in sugar and fat—like the run-of-the-mill candy bars—are nowhere near as satiating as a sweet potato.
Sweet potatoes are also a good source of vitamin C, potassium, iron and the two trace minerals manganese and copper. Many runners fail to meet their manganese and copper needs, which can have an impact on performance.
Sweet potatoes are also an anti-inflammatory, critical for people who exercise at a high intensity several times a week. I buy a 4-pound bag of sweet potatoes every week from a Korean grocery store—one taste and you’ll wonder how anything so delicious could be so healthy—and yet that’s exactly the case with the power of the sweet potato.
Oatmeal
One of the best sources of carbs—period. Oatmeal contains beta-glucan, a type of fiber that’s shown to lower cholesterol when eaten regularly. It also packs plenty of potassium, folate and certain antioxidants that are found only in, well, oatmeal.
Oatmeal is a slow-digesting food—meaning it helps you feel full for a long period of time while controlling blood-sugar levels. But stay away from the flavored varieties, which are loaded with sugar. Instead, buy plain oats and mix in a couple of squares of dark chocolate—just make sure it has a cocoa content of 70 percent or above—and a nice sized scoop of peanut butter (I love anything from the Peanut Butter Co.) for a mouth-watering delight.
Spinach
Popeye gorged on this super food for a good reason. Spinach has a host of health benefits—ounce for ounce, it contains more minerals and cancer-fighting properties than most greens—while also being a source of biceps-building iron.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a 180-gram serving of boiled spinach provides 6.43 milligrams of the muscle mineral—that’s more than a quarter pound of beef. A post from the Time Magazine Health Twitter feed stated that recent research suggest compounds in the leaf membranes called thylakoids may serve as a powerful appetite suppressant.
Salmon
The king of fish when it comes to nutrition. Salmon packs a huge dose of Omega-3 fatty acids, essential fats to help balance the body’s inflammation response. High levels of inflammation—stress, a minimal amount of sleep and poor food choices are three of the many ways the body sees a spike in inflammation—is linked with many diseases.
Intense exercise, of course, without proper recovery, also increases the body’s inflammatory response.
In addition to being high in Omega-3s, salmon also has lower levels of mercury than most fish, another important factor to consider when eating seafood.
Chicken
People who exercise at a high intensity need more protein than non-exercisers to help maintain muscle and boost recovery time. Chicken contains selenium, a mineral that helps protect muscles from free-radical damage.
Added bonus: swapping chicken for beef a couple of times a week will save you some major calories. A quarter pound of chicken breast packs just 120 calories and 24 grams of protein compared with 21 grams of protein and 250 calories for the typical quarter pound of beef that most fast food franchises use (73 percent meat, 27 percent fat).
Beef certainly has its benefits—the iron found in it is more absorbable in the human body than iron from plant foods—so keep red meat in your diet but opt for more lean protein like poultry for those looking for a simple way to slash calories.
In my next column, I’ll highlight the rest of the best foods list.
