While eating healthier doesn’t automatically increase your level of fitness, the food you eat affects the components of physical fitness.The Department of Health and Human Services, a branch of the U.S. government, defines physical fitness as “a set of attributes that people have or achieve relating to their ability to perform physical activity.” Just as a high-performance vehicle often requires higher-octane gasoline, your body needs premium fuel to achieve or maintain a higher ability to perform physical activity.
Body Composition
Your ratio of fat to muscles, bones and other tissue indicates an aspect of your physical fitness. Sometimes called body-mass index, or BMI, your ratio of fat to lean muscle and other tissue affects your level of physical fitness. If you ignore healthy food choices, you may accumulate more fat than lean body mass, which raises your BMI. A higher BMI puts you at risk for a number of diseases and reduces your ability to perform physical activity.
Cardiovascular Fitness
People with a high level of physical fitness must keep their circulatory system working efficiently. While younger people and Olympic athletes, such as Michael Phelps, may be able to eat a plate of French fries without overt repercussions, consistently choosing foods high in starch, sugar, saturated fat and cholesterol increases your risk of developing diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, that prevent you from optimal fitness.
Flexibility
The range-of-motion of your joints is another indicator of physical fitness. Healthy joints allow you to bend, reach and stretch without pain. Choosing healthy foods, such as those high in antioxidants, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, helps keep your joints supple and can prevent inflammation, which can reduce your joints’ range-of-motion and prevent you from performing at your peak.
Muscular Endurance
Your ability to continue performing an exercise without fatigue indicates your level of muscular endurance. The more repetitions you can perform, the higher your level of endurance. In order to build muscle tissue, your body requires nutrients such as protein and amino acids. A healthy diet, consisting of lean meat, dairy and high-fiber fruits and vegetables, helps your body build new muscle tissue after each workout, which increases your muscular endurance.
References
- The President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports: Definition: Health, Fitness and Physical Activity
- American Diabetes Association; "Diabetes Care"; Prevalence and Predictors of Abnormal Cardiovascular Responses to Exercise Testing Among Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes; Jeffrey M. Curtis, et al; 2010
- "USAToday"; Effect of Meat, Dairy on Heart Health Unclear After Analysis of 200 Studies April 2009
- Today Health; Feeling Stiff? Foods Can Ease the Pain; Joy Bauer; April 2007
- NIH News in Health: Making and Maintaining Muscle: How Much Protein Do You Need?
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