Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD

Yes, creatine can be beneficial even if you do not want to gain muscle mass. Taking creatine supplements can help maintain phosphocreatine levels in your muscles, which helps create energy, helps with brain health and blood glucose levels.
 
Transcript: "Is it beneficial to use creatine even though I don't want muscle mass? Absolutely, and you do have muscle, so you do want muscle mass. You just are probably saying you don't want to become big and bulky and you're not trying to necessarily gain muscle. But as we age, we tend to lose muscle mass, so creatine is becoming much more popular for people even who are non-athletes just to help maintain some of those phosphocreatine levels in your muscle, which helps also to create energy. It helps to create ATP, which is energy, and there are some interesting studies on brain health and specifically things like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's disease, epilepsy, where phosphocreatine levels, especially in the brain, can be reduced and taking creatine supplement can help with that as well. So yeah, I definitely don't think of creatine as just something for people who want to increase their muscle mass, but people who want to maintain their muscle mass, potentially good for brain health. There's some research around blood glucose levels as well, so lots of benefits of creatine."

Hydrate, eat carbs such as rice, pasta or pizza, and get some protein such as chicken, beef, fish or cheese. Try to eat within 30 minutes after exercise to replenish energy and nutrients. Fruits and vegetables can also help reduce free radical damage.
 
Transcript: "What's the ideal postgame meal for basketball player? While I was with the Orlando Magic for about 12 years and there's three things you really want to focus on one is hydration, of course you're going to be very dehydrated if you're playing a lot of minutes so get that water sports drinks smoothies anything to get some fluid in after then. Of course we want to replenish the energy that you just use so that's going to be carbohydrates. So rice, pasta, pizza isn't bad. You know, the crust of the pizza is going to have some Carbohydrates in it, you can do anything that potatoes, any of those kinds of things. And then of course, we want some protein and the protein again can vary from, you know, chicken or beef to fish to again, cheese on that pizza, if you want to do that. So, you know, lasagna would be great. A chicken stir-fry or beef? Stir-fry would be wonderful. Pasta is always a good one for pregame or for postgame depending on how much time that you have. But ideally Lee what we really want is something within that 30 minute window after exercise. So trying to get, you know, the carbohydrates the protein and of course that fluid in within that 30 minute window. And if you can get some fruits or veggies in there that helps with reducing some of that damage from those free radicals from the intense play, hope that helps"

Before exercising, athletes should be sure to drink water or a sports drink and include carbohydrates in their pre-workout meal, such as fruit. Additionally, adding electrolytes and beet juice can help improve cardiovascular fitness during the exercise.
 
Transcript: "Any specific nutrients or supplements that athletes should aim to include in their pre-workout meals or snacks? Well, if you are part of the supplement industry, the pre-workout category is ridiculous and it's made with a lot of caffeine and B vitamins, but we don't necessarily want to load up on either of those. So my nutrients would be fluid, so water, water, water, and or a sports drink before you're going to exercise and then of course during, and carbs. You want carbohydrates to fuel. That is your body's preferred source of energy. It's the quickest source of energy, so depending on what time you are working out and whether you've had a meal or not, you know, and how close you're comfortable to eating before exercise, just those carbohydrates can come in. So fruit is always a good one. Of course, we also want some electrolytes. So again, that sports drink might be good, but fruit can offer some potassium and another one that you could think about is beet, beet juice. So there are some specific products that have beet juice or you can even, you know, juice some beets. Those can maybe help open your vessels up. There's some research that shows that it improves cardiovascular fitness during that exercise."

The healthiest oils to cook with are olive oil, avocado oil, sesame oil and safflower oil. Each of these oils is full of monounsaturated fats and have varying smoke points that make them suitable for different types of cooking.
 
Transcript: "What is the healthiest oil to cook with? Well, it depends of course. So olive oil is one of the most popular and it's popular because of the taste, and it also has a lot of monounsaturated fat, which is good for the heart and some vitamin E which is a good antioxidant. However, it has a very low smoke point. So, a smoke point is, when the oil starts to kind of degrade releases free radicals, releases sort of some bad chemicals oxidized. Izes. So the smoke point for olive oil is 350. So if you're baking at higher than 350, definitely don't want to be using olive oil, but it's good for sauteing and salad dressing and all that good stuff. Another one that's good as avocado oil avocado. Oil has a lot of the same benefits as the olive oil does. But it has a much higher smoke point of over 500, so much more tolerant to heat. I love sesame oil. It has kind of that. Nice nutty flavor. Also good in those Those monounsaturated fats also has a very high smoke point. And then the last one is, I would say, safflower oil also has a high smoke point of over 400. And of course also has a lot of those monounsaturated fats. So, those are the ones that I use in my kitchen. All of them would be great for salad dressings also for sauteing, but if you're baking, you definitely want to use one of those that has a little bit higher of the smoke point. Hope that helps"

Eating foods high in sugar can cause a crash due to the quick release of insulin and sugar into your bloodstream. To avoid feeling tired and sluggish, try to combine these foods with protein or fat to slow down the release of sugar into your system.
 
Transcript: "What kind of carbs can make you feel tired and sluggish? So we have what's called high glycemic, low glycemic, moderate glycemic index foods, but just sort of take away the whole glycemic index and just call them like slow release, fast release. So there are some foods that release sugar very quickly, get into our bloodstream very quickly and what goes up must come down. So if it gets into your system very quickly, sometimes it can leave your system very quickly and cause a crash. So most common ones are going to be things that are very high in sugar, especially liquid sugar that gets into our system right away. So fruit juices, sports drinks, those kinds of things, you know, and of course added sugars from, you know, cakes, cookies, pies, chocolate, that kind of stuff is going to get into our system fairly quickly and then maybe cause a little bit of a crash when it's leaving. So what I recommend is to try to combine. If you're going to have those things and you don't want to experience that crash, or if you're not running a marathon and doing sports drinks and then we do that regularly so that when we start to come down, we have more Gatorade again. But you know, for the average person that might just be sitting at your desk, try to combine it with a protein, try to combine it with a fat. So instead of eating pretzels, white flour is very high release as well. So have maybe a little bit of cheese with that, you know, have some nuts and some dried fruit, having some fat or protein helps to delay how quickly that sugar is going to get into the system."

Fruits like Cherries, Berries, Mango and Kiwi, vegetables such as Kale, Spinach, Asparagus and Brussels sprouts, herbs and spices like Tumeric and Cumin, omega-3s from Salmon and Flax, fiber from Black beans, Garbanzo beans and Kidney beans, probiotics from Kefir, Yogurt and fermented foods like Sauerkraut are all great for anti-inflammatory benefits that taste good.
 
Transcript: "The highest anti-inflammatory foods that taste good. Well, let's start with those fruits and veggies of course, so fruits any of those really high antioxidant fruits, so Cherries Berries, even things like, mangoes, kiwi, all of those things are going to be great, also the vegetables. So of course your dark green, leafies the kale, and spinach spinach since I've been about three years old has been my favorite food. Believe it or not, but you can also do things like Asparagus and Brussels sprouts carrots. So there's lots of options there, but besides just the fruits and vegetables, let's think about even things, like, herbs and spices. So we've got tumeric or cumin that you can use as a spice or take as a supplement drink is in is a great way to get some of that curcumin in that tastes really good. A mega threes are going to be another one that can be good for anti-inflammatory so that can be with fish salmon. You can also get that in flax and walnuts and chia seeds and all all that fun stuff and let's talk about fiber. So again back to those those fruits and vegetables but also things like Black beans, and garbanzo beans, kidney beans. Those are going to be really good in fiber and probiotics. So some of that kefir and yogurt and maybe some fermented foods like, sauerkraut love sauerkraut as well. So hopefully that helps and you can find something delicious in that list."