Powerful Phytonutrients

Anyone performing demanding, physical training on a regular basis needs to ensure they are consuming a diet rich in food sources of antioxidants to repair muscle damage, help prevent injury and promote enhanced immune response.  Intense exercise increases the production of free-radicals, by-products of normal biochemical reactions and energy production, sometimes believed to be partly responsible for post-exercise muscle pain; antioxidants have the ability to disarm free-radicals thus making them harmless.

Phytochemicals are a diverse range of naturally occurring plant compounds, many with antioxidant potential and a spectrum of health-promoting effects including modification of inflammation, thereby not only promoting repair & recovery but also helping reduce the risk of cancer & heart disease. 
 

Bursting with antioxidants!

Phytochemicals or phytonutrients as they are sometimes known include the carotenoids beta-carotene, found in red, orange & yellow coloured fruits & vegetables and lycopene found in tomatoes, tomato products, pink grapefruit & watermelon and the flavonoids including anthocyanins found in red & purple foods such as berries & black grapes and quercetin found in apples, sweet potatoes, kale, watercress, broccoli & onions. 

 

Hence a diet rich in fruits & vegetables is vital to the health of all individuals, but particularly pivotal to those who train on a regular basis and value the transformational effects that exercise has upon both their physical & psychological health. 



Tomatoes & tomato products - rich sources of lycopene