By Alex Baran,
Project Weight Loss Staff Writer
October 06, 2009 Jared Allen plays football for The Vikings. His team defeated The Packers with 30-23. He plays as defensive end and gives you some nutrition advice.
He agrees nutrition impacts performance. Without alcohol he says it’s easier to lose the extra calories, according to ESPN.com: “Think about just the sugars alone and the calories in beer and all that stuff. I noticed when I quit drinking [the calories] just melted off. I mean it really did.”
Researchers have shown that replacing dietary carbohydrates with alcohol helps losing weight, but a moderate amount of alcohol along with an adequate diet makes people gain weight. It gets worse – large amounts of alcohol can irritate the gut wall and lead to inflammation and ulceration.
“I went ahead and cleaned up my diet ... no sugars. I've never been a sweets person, but I tried to cut out sugar as much as possible,” also said the defensive end.
Sugar depresses the immune system. The more glucose you have in your body, the less vitamin C remains, which is bad because it is an important vitamin for building up your immune system. Sugar has other side-effects too: it can contribute to hyperactivity, depression, anxiety, crankiness in children, and concentration difficulties.
Here are a few healthy choices that you should take:
- Eat more than five servings of fruits and vegetables each day;
- Cut down the processed grains and sugars in favor of whole grains;
- Choose healthier fats instead of not-so-healthy fats;
- Watch your portion sizes.
Jared Allen noticed positive changes to his body after he started eating right; and so will you because a healthy nutrition suits everybody.
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Project Weight Loss. All rights reserved.
