Not only waistline or in better shape, nutrition can also be decisive for recovering from an injury.

The interview with Valentina Guttadauro

The length of time to recover from a muscular or joint problem may also depend on what we eat: an adequate diet is in fact capable of reducing injury and body recovery times. Extra attention can make the difference, as is explained by Valentina Guttadauro, Nutritionist Biologist and Doctor of Human Nutrition Sciences / Hospital Pharmacy: ""In post-injury recovery the type of nutrition we follow is also important: foods can have beneficial affects but also harmful ones, especially when the body is in a particular condition such as after an injury – she explains: just as there are foods that have an anti-inflammatory action, there are foods that can slow down recovery times"". My advice therefore is to ""prefer foods with anti-oxidants and anti-free radicals and to pay attention to body hydration. In addition to physical and mental preparation, nutritional preparation is also necessary as what we eat influences our performance in terms of energy and vitality. This is why I always say that training should not only be carried out in the gym but also at our table!"", she continues. A novelty in the field of post-injury recovery: ""Until now, we used to aim at training the muscles of the body, leaving out what provides the input to the body: the brain. Which, if well nourished, not only produces a positive state of mind but helps the body to get into optimal condition for a race or to recover more quickly from an injury"". There are many examples of foods useful to speed up recovery times: ""An anti-inflammatory food is for example fish rich in Omega 3. It is, we might say, a recently discovered substance which has shown that not only fats have a pro-inflammatory action (which can also be found in meat, fatty cheeses and industrial foods) but there are also those which have a protective and anti-inflammatory action towards the cardiovascular system. The consumption of Omega 3, through certain types of fish or with high quality supplements, lowers the risk of injuries for athletes"", says Dr Guttadauro. Not only, the ""consumption of extra virgin olive oil is very important as it represents an ""elixir of life” because of its antioxidant action thanks to being rich in Vitamin E. And the same action is linked to lycopene, which can be assimilated from tomato puree. In short, a careful diet is undoubtedly an ally in recovering from an injury"", she adds. Should the diet alone not be enough, you can also resort to supplements, a field where Sixtus Italy puts into place a range of products which can shorten recovery times and get the body back into shape: ""Certainly MultiSix is a great product: it is complete with everything you need in case of post-injury recovery - explains Dr Guattadauro -. Equally important and recommended are all supplements with magnesium and potassium and Vitamin C which boosts the immune system and helps recovery. Then there are the Omega 3 which are a very useful aid for post-injury recovery and here we need to specify. Omega 3 is extracted from the liver of large fish where residues of heavy metals may remain. For this reason, the selection of quality raw ingredients and the purification process must be guaranteed. We must always pay attention to what is available on the market of supplements, focus on quality and not trust low prices"". A reasoning that mainly concerns those who carry out physical activity in an irregular way: ""The professional sportsman allows his body to adapt to physical activity: this means that he also gets used to experiencing pain and inflammation. In the case of the do-it-yourself sportsman, there are fewer controls and taking on a stressful activity for the organism is likely to cause damage and injuries which means a careful diet becomes even more important"", advises Dr Guttadauro. In this sense ""we should emphasise that not much attention is paid yet: we continue to take supplements by hearsay without reason, we think that integration only concerns proteins. My invitation is to pay the utmost attention to what we eat and to the use and choice of supplements which are in no way all the same: the quality of the raw material makes the difference and determines the true effectiveness of what we take"", she concludes.