I'd be interested in nutrition for the ordinary person on an ordinary wage with wife
/husband and kids. Too many suggestions these days involve fancy new age foods like quinoa or exotic berries not to mention expensive ones like avocados and (tastless) chicken breasts.
Have you seen the price of gels or nutrition bars these days were not ALL on football star wages ya know!
Thanks for your post. There is some basic nutrition principles that you need to consider to perform well and stay healthy (not just for the short term but also long term health). A good diet will help support consistent intensive training (that marathon training usually requires!) while at the same time reducing risk of illness, & good recovery from training can also help promotes adaptations to training (i.e. changes that happen when you change than make you fitter or able to run for longer etc). My job is often to get the basics right in someone’s diet and often I manipulate energy intake to achieve certain goals such reducing body fat levels or improving recovery etc. To do any of these things you do not need to include expensive foods.
So consider the basics you need. The base of all meals should contain carbohydrates and in an ideal world should be mostly wholegrain versions so wholegrain pasta, rice, cereals or other carbs such as potatoes (all varieties are fine) and bread (homemade can be cheaper and easy if already have bread machine). Quinoa is not new age it is just more traditional in other countries and due to the word getting smaller in terms of trade we start to see these foods in the UK but these are a choice but not needed nor is a diet necessarily better for having these foods in it as that will depend on bigger picture of someone’s diet.
The next food you need to think about in a meal is protein: you have the obviously ones such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese but you do not need to eat meat or fish every day, so cheap options are lentils & other pluses such as beans. You only need to eat up to 2 portions of fish per week (up to 4 if heart problems) one of which should be oily (mackerel, salmon, sardines/pilchards, trout). You can buy these can quite cheaper or vacuum packed you are still getting the fish oils.
Then you must consider colour in your meals – your vegetables (or fruit but always try and get a decent about of veggies in meals) and try and use a variety the more varieties the bigger the range of vitamins & mineral your body will get. Frozen is cheaper and could actually be fresher than any supermarket varieties & buy what is in season.
The price of food has gone up but if you plan your meals and avoid buying to many extras such as chocolates, 2 for 1 offers you don’t need or you are just buying as they are 2 for 1 but not good for your health etc People can feel it is too much hassle to meal plan (and you may not be one of these people) BUT you can save a lot of money by planning meals and probably eat better and use the principle cook once eat twice (freeze the extra). A tin or carton of chopped tomatoes (can get for as little as 35p) with some herbs and garlic can make a sauce that can feed a family without the salt content etc. Fat is important in your diet but a little oil (olive sunflower, linseed, rapeseed etc ) is a great source as is your oily fish (oily fish also has vitamins D in it)
Recovery foods post run can be a bowl of cereal and milk - its perfect as a recovery food. It has the protein & carbs. Drink water for fluid replacement as salt from food will help with the fluid replacement
