40 Foods That Can Help Your Body Last a Lifetime

Summarized from Nicholas A. Dinubile's Framework

So been reading up on injury prevention and different things that I can do to minimize injury and maximize benefit and one of the things that came up was nutrition. Nutrition is a touchy subject, because I like to learn about it, but I am horrible at practicing it. My favorite post-meet snack was In N Out and I prefer white rice to brown. But I do like salmon and blueberries, so I guess its a mixed bag. But to help maybe increase the good stuff options, here's 40 foods that can help you out in the long run from your little brother or sister to your grandparents and to help you too!

1. Dark chocolate - antioxidants help prevent free radicals - students who took chemistry may recall that free radicals are unpaired electrons that can act as a nucleophile (?) - the one that attacks other molecules like DNA and collagen and cause problems in your body. Plain dark chocolate can help remove free radicals and it also tastes good!

2. Blueberries and strawberries - also antioxidants, plus they're colorful fruits! instead of skittles taste the rainbow, consider tasting the rainbow of nature!

3. Almonds and walnuts - vitamin E, unsaturated fats to prevent inflammation, omega 3 fatty acids - a good post-workout snack or mix it in your breakfast yogurt

4. sunflower seeds - vitamin E, just don't throw your seeds on the floor (pet peeve!!)

5. Pineapple - anti-inflammatory, reduce swelling, bruising, and pain - think another option instead of NSAIDs

6. Honey - antioxidant

7. Ginger - anti-inflamatory

8. green tea - helps with bone growth esp those at risk for osteoporosis, may also have a calming effect

9. mustard - anti-inflammatory, increases circulation

10. soy - beans, milk, tofu = help as antioxidants, reduce muscle soreness and antioxidants

11. Oatmeal - lowers cholesterol, complex carb that helps with digestion, plus a reminder to eat breakfast

12. Dark bread

13. quinoa - complete proteins and minerals

14. buckwheat

15. shrimp and crab - high protein and minerals

16. salmon - omega 3 fatty acid (means that the 3rd to last carbon bond is a trans double bond?)

17. sardines - omega 3

18. pizza - tomatoes with lycopene, olive oil, taste the natural rainbow with onions, mushrooms, olives, and various colors of peppers

19. tuna - omega 3, but beware mercury content

20. Bananas - regulate muscle metabolism, also thought to decrease muscle cramps

21. oranges - muscle soreness fighter

22. cantaloupe - vitamin A, C, and beta carotene - good for your eyes

23. beans - protein and iron - perfect if you want to donate blood

24. carrots - vit a and fiber

25. celery

26. broccoli - potassium and antioxidants, a good replacement for bananas

27. asparagus - vit a and c

28. dark lettuce - vit a and c

29. spinach - vit E, anti-inflammatory, vitamin B complex vitamin - used for red blood cells that carry oxygen

30. skim milk - calcium

31. lean roast beef - B vitamins, iron, zinc

32. chicken

33. natural peanut butter - fiber, folate, and vit E

34. cod liver oil - prevents cartilage damage

35. wine - not for you guys, but maybe your parents, older borhters and sisters - antioxidants that prevents inflamation of coronary arteries

36. pasta - another reason for spaghetti dinners - complex carbs for energy - don't forget the natural rainbow with peppers, brocoli, and peas

37. cherries - anti-inflammatory via nitric oxide and specific proteins

38. grape and pomegrante juice - antioxidants, cleanse your body and stay hydrated

39. apples - bone and joint health

40. smoothies - hydration and natural colors of the rainbow

Since there's so many, even choosing to choose one or two can be helpful in improving your life health. =D

Fun Facts/Information from Doctors

Promise that I would write about the musculoskeletal care conference and talk about how/what doctors are trying to do in order to help you help yourselves. Field Hockey is a team sport and it doesn't just involve the players on the field, but the coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, doctors, referees, and many other people including parents.

So - learning from UCSF doctors, here is what I learned and what I am going to incorporate into next season.

Prevent over-use injuries!
How do you fix that? You try new things and you don't run the same routes all the time. Just like you mix it up for who you're going to have hit the ball for a short corner, you got to mix up the workout and the strategy, but keep it similar and related to hockey at the same time. This means, bare foot runs on Friday practice, switching sides during scrimmages to keep you from always stepping on the same foot, means stuff like not running on cement 5 days a week, and it means giving your bodies days to rest or to do low impact work or strategy days where we walk through a short corner at 1/2 speed instead of full speed. It also means that as a coach, I don't work you to death with 500 reps, but instead of counting reps, taking 10 reps that count and teach you something new every time.

Rehab
Rehab always comes down to have core strength due to the concept of kinetic chain. Kinetic chain says that everything in your body is connected - your shin splints may be caused by weak quads causing your ankle to hit an angle causing your shins to compensate. So, what does that mean for us? It means that doing throw downs was injury prevention and super mans were helping you keep a strong back for when you're going to be telling your grandkids about how they used to play hockey back in the day. So, in future posts and documents, will be taking pictures and showing examples of how you can do core work during commercials while watching American Idol or Gossip Girl.

Rehab also means working with no pain. So, that means we're going to find different ways to get around shin splints such as running in pools or looking at the form of your run to try to prevent things at the cause and not just treat the pain. We're looking for full strength and range of motion for complete return to play.

History
The biggest way you can help your doctor is with history of what happened, how it happened, and what you've done to treat it. Your doctor, your coach, or your parents are not there 24/7 so its hard for us to guess what happened. It might be something from an acute (one time) accident ie. you were fighting with a friend and she pushed you and you rolled your ankle or chronic (occurs gradually over time) ie. your shin splints have slowly gotten worse and worse to the point where it makes you want scream. But here's the key, the only way for a doctor or athletic trainer or other health advisor can help you is you help them by telling them about your injury.

Here are some questions that you should think about before seeing a physician.
*What, how, did it happen?
*Where exactly does it hurt?
*Did you hear/feel a pop?
*Swelling?
*Locking or inability to go through full range of motion? (this is where you know yourself best - you know if its normal for your thumb to reach back and touch your arm, if you're double jointed, etc.)
*happened suddenly? (helps to pinpoint an acute cause, i was running cold and didn't warm up and i felt my leg collapse - a lot more detail than i can't run anymore)
symptoms - (describe more than non-functional or hurts - sharp, stabbing, dull, achy, hot, etc)
*what makes it better (esp range of motion - this is key with your back or your shoulder)
*what makes it worse
*instability
*what have you already tried (Save yourself time and money if you've already tried soft tissue massage, heat, ice - then your doctor won't tell you to do that and s/he can go onto the next step)

So, to fix this is practice - going to start keeping an injury log and this will help you guys when you need to talk to a doctor or if I need to tell a parent. It also reminds me to check in with the athletes and make sure that everyone is playing to their full potential.

Taping
Studies have shown that taping effects decrease 1/3 after 30 minutes!!

Especially something to think about after those long bus rides, it doesn't make sense to tape if the tape is just going to loosen up and you lack support. If you're a frequent ankle roller, consider investing in the kind that you can tie and are permanent, learn to tape your own ankles, or sit next to someone (ie. me) or another athlete that can. The thing that remains with taping is proprioception - awareness of balance and orientation in space which is something that we will work on and will incorporate into every daily practice.

Wrap-up
So, the lesson from doctors at UCSF is prevent overuse, have a strong core, keep a history, and don't rely on taping to provide the quick fix.