Help Improve Athletic Performance

The optimal diet for an athlete includes watercress. This healthy, flavorful, leafy green is loaded with essential nutrients and can protect athletes from damage from vigorous exercise.

Watercress is the most nutrient-dense food on the planet and is the only food to get a perfect score from ANDI and the CDC index rankings. Watercress contains antioxidants and amino acids. Antioxidants can help protect the body from free radical damage. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, break down food, grow and repair tissue, make hormone and brain chemicals, create an energy source, maintain healthy skin, hair, and nails, build muscle, boost your immune system, and sustain a regular digestive system.

Free radicals are decidedly unstable compounds that your body naturally produces during rest, exercise, predominantly strenuous activity, and when the body converts food into energy. Individuals can also be exposed to free radicals through sunlight, x-rays, car exhaust, cigarette smoke, air pollution, and industrial chemicals. Free radicals are necessary for life and muscle functioning and are thought to promote adaptations to exercise.

However, an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants can cause oxidative stress, contributing to cell damage. Oxidative stress delays muscle recovery, contributes to muscle damage, and is linked to numerous diseases. Eating an antioxidant-rich leafy green diet packed with watercress can promote recovery from exercise, decrease the likelihood of muscle damage, and lower the risk of several chronic diseases.

Watercress may be remarkably beneficial because it’s packed with nutrients. Studies have shown that athletes who consume watercress 2 hours before exhaustive exercise develop lower levels of DNA damage and lipid peroxidation, which can lead to cell damage, compared to those who did not eat watercress before a workout. Researchers also found that eating a serving of watercress daily for 2 months decreased DNA damage and lipid peroxidation. This means athletes benefit from strenuous exercise with less potential for tissue damage.

Get juiced up on that leafy green goodness daily by adding watercress to salads, smoothies, sandwiches, wraps, omelets, pizza, and more.

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Author: Ruth Bozeman has over 20 years in the marketing and health and fitness industries with a proven track record of trust and innovation.