Understand how physical exercise and food prescribed by physical education and nutrition support a healthy life from pregnancy to old age
Our body depends on oxygen to survive. This is why, unlike fungi and some bacteria, we are considered aerobic beings. However, the same oxygen taken from the air we breathe (which allows us to oxidize nutrients and create energy) also creates what we call oxidative stress, which is nothing more than bodily “rust.”
Physical exercise and food are able to reduce the stress to which our cells are vulnerable
That is why a healthy lifestyle, especially a balanced diet and exercise, ensured by physical activity and managed by a good mental state, enables us to live longer. Faced with this situation, we need to provide our body with an ideal and balanced dose of physical activity and food, which is neither insufficient nor excessive.
This means that we need to find optimal values of nutrients and movement that bring us as close as possible to the ideal in order to maintain our vital functions and adaptations that positively optimize our metabolism.
Also so that we do not exceed or fail to support the energy, nutritional and metabolic demands of the body throughout our growth and especially aging.
You must be thinking: But that is almost impossible! How do I know exactly how much nutrients or exercise I need? And which one best suits my lifestyle and daily behavior?
This is exactly what a nutritionist and a fitness expert can do. Mapping, identifying, evaluating and prescribing something that is least prone to error. The prescription will never be 100% accurate, because our body will never “stop”, that is, it will always be on, but in a dynamic way.
This allows us to be more active at times and less active at other times, such as sleep, but it never shuts us down or stops us. Therefore, it is necessary for these professionals to have knowledge that will allow them to take into account the numerous factors that are associated with the individual prescription of diet and physical training. And professional experience, scientific study and postgraduate degrees in Nutrition in Physical Education will be ways to acquire this knowledge.
Physical exercise and nutrition in life stages
For each stage of life, the exercise and food prescription must take into account new factors or additional components. For example, during pregnancy, the increased nutritional requirements of the fetus increase the values of some nutrients and limit the range of motion in some exercises. Already in childhood, the supply of certain mineral substances must be adapted to the stage of growth and development.
- The learning of the movement itself must also be prioritized over the perfection of the performed movement, always with the aim of increasing the development of the movement repertoire.
- [physical exercise and diet] During puberty, eating habits should be better developed so that the adolescent incorporates healthy eating habits and increases the chances of maintaining them in adulthood.
Mainly because it is a period when the metabolism tends to decrease the level of activity and subsequently increase energy reserves in the form of fat tissue. At the same time, the practice of physical exercises becomes an ally in hormonal contexts and in the use of nutrients from food, which leads to the best use for building muscle mass and reducing fat reserves.