Name: Cadel Gourlay

Student Number: 1303866

Nutrition Reflection
The video you watched about Olympic athlete eating habits contained a number of different food terms
that you may or may not be familiar with. This is a good time to become familiar or re-familiarize
yourself with those terms and describe what each of them does to help fuel you to success in sports.
Define each of these terms in your own words and describe one benefit of each below. Look at the
example below if you are unsure.

Example: Calcium: Calcium is a mineral found in many foods that is used in the creation and
maintenance of bone health. Athletes can benefit from ensuring that they eat enough calcium by having
stronger bones that can stand up to the stresses of constant use in training sessions.

Calories: Calories are a unit of energy, found in every single type of food that provides energy to fuel
your body throughout the day. Athletes and especially triathletes benefit from eating small energy packs
throughout their workout to keep up their energy and performance level.

Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are made up of sugars and starches. Your body breaks down these
carbs into glucose, and uses this glucose as the main energy source for your cells, organs and tissues.
Carbohydrates are great for the end of your workout to give you a last little boost of energy to finish
your competition.

Protein: Protein is made up of amino acids that when being digested play a major role in your body's
growth, muscle building and cell growth/repair. Protein is great to take after a workout to repair and
strengthen your muscles.

Casine: Casein is a type of protein found solely in milk and milk based products that digests slower
than other protein and is great for weight loss, as well as muscle growth. Casein works very well for
weight training because its slow digestion provides a steady flow of amino acids over several hours.

Amino Acids: Amino acids are molecules that when combined form proteins. There are 9 essential
amino acids that all work together in your body. Amino acids are important for athletes to build/recover
muscles and boost your endurance.

Omega-3 Fats: Omega-3 Fats are a family of polyunsaturated fats, considered to be “healthy fats”
because they can help your body with many functions like, starting the hormone making process and
lowering your blood pressure. Omega-3 Fats have anti-inflammatory attributes that help with injury
prevention and muscle recovery.
 Personal Reflection

1. Which do you pay most attention to when considering the food in your diet? Bold your answer
and describe why you think this is very important below.

Calories Carbohydrates Proteins Fats

Protein is the most important for me in my diet because I am still growing and overall eating more and
more so including lots of protein into my diet will help me get bigger and stronger, as well as put on
weight faster.

2. Do you think that your athletic performance could benefit from better knowledge of nutrition? Why or
why not?
I believe that my athletic performance could benefit from better nutritional knowledge, because If I
knew the best time to eat certain foods that will help me the most in a game I could have more energy
and overall play better.

3. What is one barrier that stops you from improving your nutrition? Is there anything you could do to
remove that barrier?
One barrier that stops me from improving my nutrition is drinking too much liquid before I eat and filling
up on that instead of the food. To improve this I can force myself to eat before I drink anything to
ensure I am getting all the nutrients I need to grow bigger and stronger.