InfinitNutrition

When it comes to what’s in our food, synthetic colours have long been a hot topic of discussion. Following the FDA’s ban on Red Dye #3 we thought we’d take a closer look at the research that’s out there on these common additives that are widely present in everything from sports drinks to candy and even foods that are marketed to our kids.  

Every athlete is unique. To really optimise a hydration and nutrition plan, athletes need to understand their sweat. Knowing your sweat can provide the pieces of the puzzle and eliminate the guesswork behind electrolyte and fluid replacement strategies.

Insider tips and tricks to help you perform your best, no matter what type of activity you are doing.

Leucine, isoleucine, and valine are amino acids better known as branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). These essential building blocks of protein are unique, and can play a role in fuelling, reduced fatigure and soreness, as well as muscle and bone health.

We explore the science behind high carbohydrate fuelling methods utilising fructose and their potential as a new gateway to enhanced athletic performance, power output, and recovery in endurance athletes. 

To hit the sweet spot of energy balance, an endurance athlete should have a proper fuelling plan to ingest enough calories. Athletes and elite athletes generally do not consume enough calories to meet the demands of their sport. However, as studies have shown, when energy intake and micronutrient intake were adjusted to the athletes’ training schedules, performance and race times improve. 

The word “diet,” by its definition, describes any food that a person consumes. A diet of Cheetos and soda is still, by definition, a “diet.” But over the years this word has come to represent the idea of losing weight, and often using some sort of restrictive eating plan. We dive into the ins and outs of these popular diets, and what might be the best for your individual needs.

While you may not be sweating as intensely when the cold weather rolls in, remaining hydrated is just as important. Drinking an adequate amount of fluid before, during and after a workout is crucial to achieving optimal performance.

The key to keeping yourself accountable is knowing what you’re trying to achieve and setting goals to help you get there. Goal setting has long been known to be an important part of achieving success or accomplishing your goal. When you “wing-it”, more often than not, you will lose focus at some point along the journey and fall short of achieving whatever it is that you set out to accomplish. By creating specific goals, you can revisit your goal(s) when the going gets tough or you fall off track to help you refocus and get back on track. 

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world and athletes have long been linked with consuming copious amounts of coffee. Before we talk about how coffee can benefit performance AND your overall health, let’s take a look at a few fun facts about coffee.

More than a passing trend…plant-based diets have gone mainstream. A recent study found that, over the last 15 years, the number of Americans who report following a plant-based diet has increased from 290,000 in 2004 to a whopping 9.7 million in 2020.

Osmolality is a measure of the number of dissolved particles in a solution. You can think of it as a fancy word for the concentration, or density, of a fluid. Scientifically speaking, the osmolality of a solution refers to the concentration of osmotically active particles in that solution. Osmolality is a function of the number of particles and is not related to particle weight, size, shape, or charge. Almost every fluid has an osmolality above zero — Except for distilled water, which has been processed to remove all other substances or “solutes” from the water molecules.