Autism Soccer: What to Eat Before and After Exercise?

If they are well-nourished, they will enjoy more every activity they do.

We all know how important and impactful it is to do physical exercise, not only for releasing the so-called ‘happiness’ hormones but also to increase our overall health. Integral activities increase heart health, pulmonary capacity, muscular resistance, bone strength and improves the immunologic system, making us feel healthy and strong. But while it’s great to do exercise, most people forget that for physical activity to work it needs to be paired with balanced meals to give the body the nourishment it needs to take advantage of all the benefits. In fact, there’s a whole counter-culture of people that firmly believe that skipping meals is the way to go to take a turn in the slimmer direction but in order to be healthy you need to eat correctly. However, as I said before, there’s much more to exercise than just weight loss. Children with special needs are prone to suffer from cholesterol or muscular problems depending on their particular condition. That’s why it is important for parents and caretakers to know how essential it is to eat healthy food after doing any physical activity.

Why do you need to eat?

There’s a firm belief that if you drastically reduce the intake of food when you start to incorporate a physical activity into your routine, it will make you healthier. This is a lie that can lead to terrible consequences, like the rebound effect because you are putting your body under strain and it will take the necessary measures to avoid going into organic stress, saving up the extra food that you provide and creating more fat deposits on your body which are harder to shade away. It also impacts the hormone liberation process of the body, as it will take this as an emergency state and it will react differently. That’s why you need to make sure your child eats the right amount of food before and after exercise. Now I’m about to give you some subsections on what to eat before and after doing physical activities.

Eating BEFORE doing physical activity

Their bodies are going to need protein to increase energy levels. While it can take some from the liver, the idea is to eat a complex carbohydrate and protein snack before doing exercise to make sure they have the necessary nutritional elements for the body to enough power. That way they’ll enjoy the physical activity while not impacting negatively their health.

Best alternatives:

Yogurt
Broccoli
Oatmeal
Trail Mix
Smoothies
Bananas
Apples

Eating AFTER doing physical activity

After they practice a sport, they’ll need to replenish their fuel deposits and protein replacement is the first step that has to be done. It needs to be consumed in the first 30 minutes after they do physical activity. While you are doing it, your body is burning the reservoirs of glycogen, and if you don’t reincorporate them into your organism, your body will take it from the muscle reserves, causing damage in the long run. For this reason, you need to eat and drink liquid to incorporate these nutritional elements to your system right away.

Best alternatives:

Grilled chicken breasts.
Quinoa
Black bean salad
Peanut butter and whole grain toast
Protein smoothies
Tuna and spinach salad
Chocolate drinks

Now that you know the importance of eating before and after doing exercise, you can be sure that it will have a positive impact on your child’s health. Teach them they how crucial it is for their body to be full of energy when they practice any sport. That’s why Autism Soccer encourages parents and caretakers to incorporate healthy snack options in their kid’s menu for them to have the energy to enjoy themselves while playing soccer in a great environment!