Sports Injuries and Diet - Consider Foods With Anti-Inflammatory Properties

Featuring Nanci Guest, MSc, RD, CSCS, Registered Dietitian

Duration: 2 minutes, 54 seconds Sports Injuries and Diet - Consider Foods With Anti-Inflammatory Properties For those that have suffered a sport-related injury, there are many dietary strategies that can help with the healing process.

When we initially have an injury, there is a lot of inflammation. And the first response is a tendency to try and reduce that inflammation. However, inflammation is part of the healing process.

It brings nutrients as well as immune cells and blood flow to the injured area. However, too much inflammation can be damaging. So therefore we look to dietary strategies that can help with inflammation but are not as strong as pharmaceuticals and those drugs such as NSAIDs that have a high impact on reducing inflammation.

So some of the dietary strategies include increasing your omega-3 fats which are anti-inflammatory and reducing your omega-6 fats which are pro-inflammatory. Examples of omega-3 fats are fatty fish such as sardines and salmon as well as flax seed oil or ground flax seed, as well as walnuts.

And foods that are high in omega-6s that we want to reduce in the diet are safflower oils, sunflower oils and many fats that are found in processed foods. So anything that's coming frozen or in a box is likely to have a high level of omega-6 fats.

So during the healing process we want to stick to whole foods and increase our intake of omega-3 fats. In addition, we also want to increase our intake of protein. And this is due to the fact that a lack of exercise or training during the recovery process limits our exercise and muscle protein stimulation.

And in order to protect the muscle from catabolism or breaking down, we want to ensure that we're having approximately two grams per kilogram of body weight of protein. So this would be two palms for a man or one to two palms for a woman.

Some other nutrients that are thought to be anti-inflammatory and helpful include turmeric which is found in curry powder as well as garlic. And finally a supplement called HMB.

When you're reducing your carbohydrate intake you want to reduce sweets and sugars as well as many grains such as breads, cereals and rice. However, you do want to increase your nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, legumes and dairy products for healthy carbohydrates.

There are many nutritional strategies that can help with the healing process and help speed up your recovery. If you do have more questions, contact a sport dietitian or another sport science-related health care professional.

Presenter: Ms. Nanci Guest, Registered Dietitian, Toronto, ON

Local Practitioners: Registered Dietitian