Essay Sample on Over-Eating: Effects on Sports Performance & Malnutrition

Introduction

According to Bharadwaj et al., (2016), malnutrition is an umbrella term for imbalances or over intake of nutrients and deficiencies. Moreover, it captures two broad categories of nutrition conditions i.e., Undernutrition, which entails underweight, wasting, stunting, and micronutrient deficiencies. The other condition is known as overweight; it includes obesity and other diet-related diseases such as stroke, cancer, stroke, and heart diseases.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Effects of Over-Eating On Sports Performance and Participation

Over-eating generally leads to fitness deterioration in an athlete like reduced flexibility, decreased stamina, and low agility. Furthermore, it leads to a loss of confidence as the athlete becomes anxious concerning participation in a sport (Ward et al., 2019). Nonetheless, the athlete can develop several health issues like high blood pressure hence deterring him/her from participating in some sporting activities. Also, taking a considerably large amount of food just before engaging in a sports activity might trigger the feeling of sickling during the event.

Effects of Under-Eating On Sports Performance and Participation

Under-eating possess several adverse impacts on an athlete. It often dramatically tempers with critical components of athleticism, such as concentration and collective psychological wellbeing (Valliant et al., 2016). Furthermore, under-eating significantly raises the probability of an athlete being vulnerable to injuries and illness. , under-eating often translates to an athlete experiencing a detrimental day with elevated levels of fatigue, consequently resulting in an inability to achieve full training or sporting potentials.

Effects of Dehydration on Sports Performance and Participation

Dehydration often results in strong adverse negative side effects on the performance of an athlete. For instance, a 2% loss in sweat translates to an equal amount of body weight loss. Thus, it results in a significant decrease in the level of mental and physical performance of an athlete (Magee et al., 2017). Nonetheless, dehydration might lead to a substantial reduction in the volume of blood, decreased rate of sweat, suppressed the flow of blood within the skin, diminished heat dissipation, elevated rates of glycogen, and high core temperature. All these complications collectively hinder an athlete from performing efficiently (Irwin et al., 2018).

Conclusion

In conclusion, nutrition is a crucial concept for any athlete looking to be efficient in any field of sporting. Thus, athletes should plan their meals in a manner that the body can acquire all the necessary minerals, nutrients, and vitamins. Moreover, the snacks should be nutrient-dense and low in calories, to produce the needed energy during sports performance.

References

Bharadwaj, S., Ginoya, S., Tandon, P., Gohel, T. D., Guirguis, J., Vallabh, H., ... & Hanouneh, I. (2016). Malnutrition: laboratory markers vs. nutritional assessment. Gastroenterology report, 4(4), 272-280.

Irwin, C., Campagnolo, N., Iudakhina, E., Cox, G. R., & Desbrow, B. (2018). Effects of acute exercise, dehydration, and rehydration on cognitive function in well-trained athletes. Journal of sports sciences, 36(3), 247-255.

Magee, P. J., Gallagher, A. M., & McCormack, J. M. (2017). High prevalence of dehydration and inadequate nutritional knowledge among university and club level athletes. International journal of sports nutrition and exercise metabolism, 27(2), 158-168.

Valliant, M., Blair, L. L., Knight, K. B., Valliant, M. W., & Garner, J. C. (2016). Comparison of Exercise and Eating Between College and Former High School Athletes. International Journal of School Health, 3(2).

Ward, A. L., Galland, B. C., Haszard, J. J., Meredith-Jones, K., Morrison, S., McIntosh, D. R., ... & Te Morenga, L. (2019). The effect of mild sleep deprivation on a diet and eating behavior in children: protocol for the Daily Rest, Eating, and Activity Monitoring (DREAM) randomized cross-over trial. BMC public health, 19(1), 1347.