Too often you’ve heard the phrase “You are what you eat”. But have you considered the effect of what you eat on your performance, mentally and physically?

We all know caffeine can give you a pre workout boost, carbohydrate drinks are sometimes necessary for energy during a long session and a good recovery meal helps you prepare for the next one. We also know that some people suffer from significant allergies and intolerances that have a huge impact on their lives.

But what if what you were consuming was having a negative effect on you? Not catastrophically but in little ways. That the bread roll with your soup at dinner had triggered a little bit of gut irritation which reduced your capacity to perform through mediated inflammation? That a spot of reflux and indigestion from eating too late and too much had stiffened up your thoracic spine, leading to an inability to squat as efficiently?That the beer to celebrate a good result had set off a minor chain reaction leading to a niggling injury due to reduced healing capacity? That the fructose in your sports drink started a series of cravings for other sugary treats later in the day?

All of these are not uncommon cases of tiny adverse reactions to food and drink, but we too often ignore them. Thats not to say that we need to be utterly soulless and controlling about our diets, simply aware that what we put in has a dynamic and often medium term effect on our ability to perform optimally.

Pay a little more attention to the effect of what you consume and reap the rewards long term.