READ IT AND GROW

A guide to understanding nutrition labels that help you get the most out of what you eat.  I get a lot of requests from people who train regularly to give them a 'diet'. Now, unless they have a contest coming up in about 3-5 five months time I refuse to give them a 'diet'. That might sound a bit strange at first, but from my experience of having prepared numerous diets for people in the past, the only time most of us have the will power to stick to a rigid, structured diet is when cutting up for a competition (and even then it's not a walk in the park).

So if you're not planning on doing a competition, but you want to be sure what you eat will maximise your ability to grow or lean up, what do you do? The answer is simple; READ BEFORE YOU EAT!

KEEPING IT CLEAN: THE LOWDOWN ON LIVER CLEANSING

I tend to focus a lot on nutrition; putting the right type and amount of food into the body to get the right physical 'look' on stage and high level of performance in the gym.  I pay a lot of attention to which supplements will help improve recovery, burn fat, increase strength etc, but I've never really taken much notice of preventative medicine, herbs or ways of enhancing nutrition by improving the function of the liver or other major bodily organs, until now that is!   After talking to a few of the Pro's about their diets and nutrition ideas, there seemed to be a common theory that kept popping up: Liver Cleansing.

So what is Liver Cleansing and why is it important, particularly to a bodybuilder?  I'd heard of the liver cleansing diet but never really looked into it.  I also knew the liver has many important functions and it's 'health' is critical to our overall health, but I realized I really needed to do a little more research into the subject.  Hopefully what I've learned (and put into practice) about supplements to help cleanse your liver will help you get that extra 10% from all the good work you're already doing in the nutrition department, and lead to even greater and more noticeable results in your performance and appearance.

DON'T LEAVE ESSENTIAL FATS TO CHANCE: ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH?

With the increase in popularity of 'low carbohydrate' diets over the last few years you may have noticed the fat levels of some of the popular sports foods, in particular the bars and drink mixes, has crept up to levels which would have previously been considered 'unacceptable' by many fitness and nutrition enthusiasts.  Whether we like it or not, by taking out the carbohydrate, something has to be put back in it's place.  The ideal situation of course, is adding more protein, but this often leads to unpalatable and/or unaffordable products.

In our quest to increase the protein levels and reduce the carbohydrate levels in our diets often the fat component of our diet is left to chance, being made up from whatever happens to be included with the particular foods we choose to eat rather than selected based on it's nutritional merit or our physiological needs.

WHICH PROTEIN AND WHEN?

 A few months I wrote an article about the best ratio's of Protein, Fat, Carbs and Fibre to eat to grow muscle, lose fat and for general health.  As mentioned in that article, depending on what your goal, there are certain types of foods within each macro nutrient group that are better suited to achieving that goal.  This month I will cover the best types of PROTEIN to eat for muscle gain, fat loss and general health.