A proper diet requires a healthy, balanced intake of macro-nutrients, but what are the best sources of carbohydrate for an athlete’s diet?

There are so many clichés about nutrition, and one of the most common ones is that carbohydrates make you fat. The hasty conclusion from this is that you need to drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake in order to lose weight. And yet, almost all foods, when eaten in the right proportions, can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Even those that contain complex carbohydrates – most notably bread, potatoes, pasta and rice – should always be included (in the right quantities) in a balanced diet. This is particularly true for athletes, for whom carbohydrates are even more essential. In fact, the muscles involved during intense, prolonged effort, being the main parts responsible for consuming this source of energy, require an adequate and constant intake of these nutrients (Source: Humanitas). But what are the best sources of carbohydrate for an athlete’s diet? Potatoes are particularly recommended as part of a balanced diet for anyone who plays sports because, alongside being a rich, natural source of these macro-nutrients, they can be digested quickly: this means that they are immediately turned into energy that can be used during exercise. Furthermore, they help increase muscle glycogen stores, which is the main fuel used by our muscle tissue for training sessions. This means that eating a simply prepared potato before exercise could make you feel like you have more energy during training. (Source: Journal of applied physiology). That is not all, from a nutritional point of view, these tubers also have a lower calorie intake per portion compared with pasta or rice. More specifically, 100 g of raw potatoes contain about 80 calories, while 100 g of (raw) semolina pasta have about 353 calories and 100 g of basmati rice contain about 360 (Source: Humanitas). So if you are on a low-calorie diet or simply want to eat healthily, potatoes are a nutritious and very filling food with few calories. Furthermore, as they do not contain any gluten, they are an excellent replacement for bread and pasta in the diet of people suffering from celiac disease.

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