Carbohydrates

 

Carbohydrate is one of the nutrients found in food and it is a major fuel or energy provider in everyday diets. It also plays an important role in exercise , it is the major fuel to allow the muscles to work hard. Carbohydrates are chains of glucose or sugar units. Some carbohydrate in food is made up of shorts chains of sugar units, and are recognised as sugary foods such as jams, sweets, chocolate and soft drinks, where other carbohydrates are made up of long complicated chains of sugars and are called starches e.g. bread, potatoes, cereals and pasta.

All carbohydrates are broken down by digestion into sugar and are then absorbed into the blood. Carbohydrate is then stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen. Muscle glycogen is a major fuel provider for that muscle to work during exercise, especially when training or playing hard. The body has a limited amount of space to store glycogen, and it can be used up quickly during long training sessions. Running out of glycogen during training can mean that you will feel tired, and that will affect your performance. So it is very important to refill your stores regularly, to make sure you have enough fuel to allow you to work hard in the next session. The way you do this is to include carbohydrate-rich foods at each meal, and to pay particular attention to recovery.

 

 

How to make sure you have a good carbohydrate intake

 

Focus your meals on starchy carbohydrate foods like potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, noodles and breakfast cereals

Take a high carbohydrate snack between meals

Use thick slices of bread

Include potatoes  boiled, mashed or baked  more regularly than chips

Add fruit to your breakfast cereal

Make up your own high carbohydrate smoothie - add fresh, tinned or frozen fruit to some yogurt, and add some honey

 

 

Get the timing right

 

One of the aims when you go to training or a match is to be well fuelled up. This means you should eat something about 1 to 3 hours before your session  and this should contain carbohydrate to top up your glycogen stores. How much you eat will depend on when you eat it 

Look below for some ideas.

 

 

Pre-exercise meals - 2 to 3 hours before training, taken with a drink

 

Pasta with tomato-based sauce with meat, fish or beans

Baked potato with cheese, tuna or baked beans

Sandwich or roll filled with chicken, egg, tuna or peanut butter

Rice or noodles with chicken or lentils

Meat, vegetables and potatoes

 

 

Pre-exercise snacks - 1 to 2 hours before training, taken with a drink

 

Yogurt and fresh fruit

Pancakes and syrup or jam

Jam sandwich

Cereal bar

Breakfast cereal with milk or yoghurt and banana

Fruit and a glass of milk

Soup and bread

 

 

Refuel to Recover

 

After hard training sessions or matches, your glycogen stores will be low. They need to be refilled to be ready for your next session...

which is probably not too long away.

Your muscles are like sponges in the first hour after hard exercise and they can soak up carbohydrate quicker at this time, which speeds up recovery.

The amount you need will depend on your weight and how long and hard the session was. Here are a few ideas to keep you going:

 

 

Recovery Snacks - taken with a drink

 

Fresh fruit  bananas, apples, grapes

Fruit yogurt or yogurt drink

Bread or roll with chicken or ham

Pancakes

Tub of custard or rice

" Fruit loaf

Biscuits - digestives, jaffa cakes, fig rolls

Cereal bars

 

Recovery meals - taken with a drink

 

Baked beans on toast

Baked potatoes with meat or cheese

Pizza

Pasta or rice with meat or cheese and tomato-based sauce

Meat or fish, vegetables and potatoes

Desserts such as fruit crumble, yogurts, ice cream and custards