Athletes

Athletes and Optimum Performance

How Can Wheatgrass and Sprouts Benefit your Training?swimmer

For those of us who work or train very long hours, eating fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis is difficult.  Well, just taking one 30ml / 1oz shot of Wheatgrass has the nutritional equivalent of about a kilo of leafy green vegetables. This makes it a very easy and fast way to get a lot of nutrition in one easy go.

Wheatgrass is a renowned energy food as it’s loaded with active enzymes and chlorophyll.   Chlorophyll aids in the transport of oxygen to our cells thus improving our aerobic function and the enzymes work to ensure all the nutrients are broken down and absorbed by the body.

Athletes who aren’t used to taking Wheatgrass will notice an improvement in their training and performance and in particular, in quicker recovery times.  Wheatgrass is powerful at detoxifying and removing blockages in the body – thus leading to a better functioning system.  It is also loaded with easily assimilated amino acids and minerals which help build and rebuild muscles and tissues.

What other benefits does Wheatgrass have?

Wheatgrass is:

  • one of nature’s finest medicines – containing all 8 essential amino acids, every vitamin science has found and 97 of the 102 minerals
  • It is the highest source of chlorophyll of any known plant on the planet making it a powerful detoxifying agent
  • It also builds red blood cells, aids digestion, stimulates and regenerates the liver and suppresses appetite
  • Wheatgrass cleanses, purifies and feeds the body by activating the body’s white blood cells, thus boosting the immune system

How can you take Wheatgrass?

You need to buy a manual (hand crank) juicer, €40, and I (Sprouticus) can supply you with powerful Wheatgrass every week.

stretchHow Can Sprouts Help to Improve your Training?

As sprouts have the Highest Concentration of Nutrition per Calorie of Any Food, they are a very quick way to take in dense amounts of nutrition that will help fuel and repair your body before and after training.

According to medical experts and nutritional researchers, sprouts come as close to being a “perfect food” as anything available.  This is mainly because the sprout’s cell walls are not properly formed and thus all the nutrition is very easily extracted from the fibre.  They are also packed full of enzymes which help us to digest them very easily.

They can rival meat and eggs in terms of protein.  Lentil and pea sprouts are 26% protein.  This is a far more absorbable protein, as the protein has already been converted to amino acids and the enzymes in these sprouts make it far easier and faster for the body to digest these amino acids.

Meat, on the other hand, has no enzymes unless you eat it raw, which very few of us do as there is such a high risk of parasites.  Meat, on average, takes about 5 days to pass through our digestive system and requires massive amounts of energy to convert this protein into usable forms for the body.

What Sprouts are Particularly Good for athletes?

Any Sprouted Beans (Mung, Aduki, Chickpea, Puy Lentil…):

  • These are an amazing source of energy to fuel the body
  • They are 90% complex carbohydrate, 5-6% protein and 4-5% fat; that is the same make-up of fats, proteins and carbs as mother’s milk – this makes them such an ideal food for any athlete.
  • The expression, “she has had her beans today” meaning she has lots of energy is very true (and we don’t mean Heinz baked beans!)

Sprouted Mung Beans contain phytonutrients that studies have shown are great in fighting cancer cells particularly the pancreas and breast.  They’re also known to help in regenerating hair growth and colour in grey hair.

Sprouted Aduki Beans are great for the kidneys, the bladder, all water works areas and are very high in protein.

Sprouted Lentils are very high in protein and are great at rebuilding muscle tissue and fibres.

Sprouted Chickpeas are an excellent energy food, ideal for fuelling the body.podium

Sunflower Sprouts are nutritional super foods with few rivals. A mere 3.5 ounces of sprouts contains a whopping 22.78 grams of protein! The same amount of chicken breast meat contains just slightly more protein at 26.25 grams. Sunflower sprouts are a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, D, and E and minerals including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc.

In addition to these vitamins and minerals, sunflower sprouts contain very high levels of the Omega 6 fatty acid and are a rich source of lecithin which helps break down fatty acids into an easily digestible water soluble form.

Their exceptionally high chlorophyll content benefits many functions within the body, including building red and white blood cells, revitalizing tissue, calming inflammation, activating enzymes, and deodorizing the body.

Pea Greens. These are the nutritious green leafy sprouts grown from the green pea plant.

They contain really high levels of Vitamin A and C as well as all 8 essential amino acids.  For instance, 100g of Pea Greens have 7 times more vitamin C than blueberries and 4 times more Vitamin A than tomatoes for 100g of each respectively.  They are also high in Potassium, Vit E and fibre.  Potassium is renowned for helping ease out muscles after intense training

How do you eat these Sprouts?

Sprouts are very versatile.  You can enjoy them in any way you can think of really, but here are the most common ways to eat them:

  • ALL Sprouts are great in ANY salad
  • The leafy green sprouts, like the Sunflowers, Pea Greens, Alfalfa and Broccoli are great in sandwiches and in juices
  • Sprouted Beans go great in rice and pasta dishes or in stir-frys