READING COMPREHENSION:

Nutrition for injured athletes 

Poor nutrition can lead to conditions that increase the risk of injury. But injuries are often an unavoidable aspect when participating in any physical activity. An injury can be particularly distressing for the eating-disordered athlete. Psychological support is important. No change in diet is necessary when a quick recovery is expected.

There is a need in modification of food intake when an injury limits activity for less than a week. The need to reduce food intake is necessary to meet lower energy needs, if recovery is expected to take longer than a week. Long-term recovery may require an absolute reduced diet.

Surgical trauma, fever, or infection requires dietary changes. In these cases, protein intake should be increased during the early stages of recovery, because proteins repair damaged tissues.

Protein is important for immune function. If a slow recovery is expected, the injury might cause significant emotional stress. Fear, anxiety, and anger are all typical reactions to injury. These emotions can increase the secretion of epinephrine (adrenaline) from the adrenal gland. This in turn can cause a series of metabolic changes that result in increased loss of nitrogen (protein) through the urine.

In general, the importance of psychological support for injured athletes varies depending on length of recovery and injury severity. Anxiety about the injury might lead to increased food cravings, more free time and less structure in the daily routine can lead to boredom and increases opportunities to eat more and it may result in weight gain. Some injured athletes simply do not adjust their energy needs and continue to follow their typical training diet.

Nutritional need while travelling:

Maintaining good nutritional practices while travelling to and from events may affect an athlete's health and athletic success.
A slightly lower carbohydrate and higher protein intake for strength athletes (40-48% carbohydrate, 20-26% protein, and 34% fat),stress the importance of eating natural and whole foods.

Sports nutrition experts recommend that athletes should have multiple small meals per day (five or six feedings). Travelling with snacks helps to ensure that caloric needs are being met, despite unpredictable travel delays. Fresh vegetables and fruits, fruit smoothies, energy bars, nuts, bagels, and raisins are suggested to carry while travelling.