Healthy Food Choices for Runners

Eating healthy carbohydrates, drinking water and getting enough protein are key factors towards maintaining a healthy runner's diet. Learn more about how to replenish yourself for your cardio work out in this video.

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Eat a high carbohydrate diet
Avoid sugary carbohydrates
Get plenty of protein

About this Author

Alice Merritt is currently the Campus Dietitian at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has a masters degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in public health with a concentration on nutrition. Alice has worked as a registered dietician for four years, and believes that helping people reach their nutritional goals will lead to a long and healthy life.

ALICE MERRITT: Now I'm going to talk to you about healthy nutrition for runners. Nutrition plays a very important role in optimal performance and increasing your training abilities. One thing to focus on for nutrition in running is to eat a high-carbohydrate diet. Now, it's important to make sure you get complex carbohydrates and carbohydrates that are higher in fiber, things like whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta. You want to try to avoid the sugary carbohydrates, like sodas, candies. These things give you a spike in blood sugar and then a crash later. It's also important, when you're running, to make sure that you get adequate amount of protein. So when you're eating things, you always want to eat a carbohydrate source and a moderate protein source together. Another thing that's very important for running is optimal hydration. When you're running less than 1 hour, then water should be fine to hydrate yourself properly. But if you're running for longer than 1 hour, your body stores of glycogen start to be depleted. And you need to replenish those carbohydrates with some kind of sports drink or fruit juices or citrusy things, depending on what your stomach tolerates best. So the important things to remember about running is optimal nutrition is very important. Eat a high carbohydrate diet, things that are higher in fiber. You also want to get an adequate source of protein, leaner sources are best, chicken, turkey, fish. Beans and nuts are also good sources of protein. Adequate hydration, and if you're running for longer than 1 hour, you want to make sure you replenish those carbohydrate stores with some kind of sports drink. These are all healthy recommendations for running.

Healthy Food Choices for Runners Video

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