Muscles Love These Foods!

Muscles like carbs — lots of them — especially if you’re doing intense or endurance exercise longer than 45 minutes. Carbs replenish glycogen reserves, the stored form of glucose that muscles crave. Healthy fats produce anti-inflammatory cytokines that help reduce pain and speed up healing, a boon for injured muscles. 

Try these foods so your muscles will love you!

Tart cherries
Cherries offer a variety of nutrients beyond carbohydrates such as vitamin C, beta carotene and fiber. They also provide the plant-compounds anthocyanins, which reduce muscle damage and soreness caused by intense strength workouts and also give cherries their wonderful red color. Look for red tart cherry juice and dried tart cherries to get your dose of glycogen-building carbs.

Salmon
What doesn’t salmon do?  It seems to be on every list for “must-have” foods. Sure, you can get omega-3 fats from fish oil supplements, but nothing tastes better than a juicy piece of salmon, hot off the grill. Salmon also ranks highest in omega-3 fats, compared to every other variety of fish. It’s also an excellent source of protein, niacin, B-12, phosphorus and selenium and a good source of potassium and pantothenic acid. Omega-3s from fish not only help muscles recover, they also fight high blood pressure, lower triglycerides and reduce the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke and diabetes.  If you want to get adventurous , try a piece of a salmon-trout hybrid, Steelhead Trout.  I declare this fish, absolutely delicious!

Low-fat chocolate milk
You probably know that protein contains amino acids, which help repair muscle fibers damaged during exercise. However, you may not know that the quality of the protein you choose matters. Milk is high in the amino acid leucine, which helps stop the breakdown of muscle protein that’s turned into energy. Chocolate milk in particular contains the ideal ratio of carbohydrate to protein for optimal post-workout recovery. And I bet it tastes better than a protein shake!

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