Want to recover fast from injury? Quit fizzy drinks and alcohol
When sporting heroes and celebrities do something, they inspire common folk to do the same. That's how 10-year-old Arjun Mehta gave up junk food two years ago after meeting his hero Sunil Chhetri, Indian football's highest goal scorer, at a football camp.
'I want to play football like Chhetri. When he told us at the camp that he doesn't eat junk food, I told my parents that I too wouldn't eat junk food anymore. It's been two years since I ate chips, Maggi, biscuits or other similar food," says Mehta, who plays football for his school team in Mumbai. Such behavioural changes inspired by a role model are backed up by plenty of research. Findings of a 2023 study, Celebrity Endorsements in Public Health Campaigns, revealed that exposure to celebrity-endorsed messages led to increased awareness and intention to engage in healthy behaviours.
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Now, as the football season winds down and the English cricket season begins, many sports stars have publicly adopted healthier habits. The English Test cricket captain Ben Stokes recently said he had given up drinking in order to recover faster and more robustly from his hamstring injury. Elsewhere in the sporting world, Manchester United's Moroccan defender Noussair Mazraoui revealed that he has stopped consuming fizzy drinks and that it has made a huge difference to his energy levels and the way he feels. If one is to follow Stokes and Mazraoui, it's time to say goodbye to all the rum-colas, gin-tonics and vodka-lemonades... and it certainly means no more Batangas (tequila-cola-lime) at Soka in Bengaluru.
This entire week, I have stayed inspired and abstained from both alcohol and fizzy drinks as I try to recover from a gluteus muscle pull that I sustained while performing kindergarten-level high knees. It is a good thing to follow Stokes and go off alcohol when trying to recover from an injury, medical and fitness experts assure me. One needn't even get into the widely known health risks of alcohol to know that it hampers athletic performance and recovery.
Fiona Sampat, clinical dietitian at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai, says, 'Alcohol interferes with protein synthesis, a process by which the body builds and repairs muscle tissues. This may lead to reduced muscle growth and slower recovery after workouts or injuries. Also, alcohol hinders the absorption of various nutrients and may lead to malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies." For those recovering from an injury, alcohol intake suppresses the body's antioxidant defences which could increase inflammation and swelling at the site of injury by opening the blood vessels. It also interferes with the immune system, which leads to slower recovery and increases risk of infections.
EMPTY CALORIES
For Mazraoui, a small dietary change did wonders for his fitness and helped him make 55 appearances in top flight football. 'I'm not drinking sodas anymore. Fizzy drinks. It changes a lot, I think, because of the sugar, you don't get it in your body anymore. So just water makes a huge difference eventually," Mazraoui told news outlets recently, 'I know sugar is really bad for your body."
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Fizzy drinks come packed with empty calories thanks to the large amounts of sugar they contain. So, cutting them out can help you avoid weight gain , explains Sampat. Additionally, she adds, 'excluding fizzy drinks from your diet helps improve overall fitness and athletic performance as it reduces the prevalence of fat accumulation leading to improved muscle mass." Reduced calorie intake also boosts the fat mass to lean mass ratio providing sustained and improved strength to weight performance. 'No fizzy drinks also means no sugar crashes which lead to fatigue, thereby, leading to better and sustained energy levels. Replacing fizzy drinks with water enhances thermoregulation, circulation, and athletic recovery," says Sampat.
While the sales of fizzy drinks have consistently dropped over the last decade, sales of their diet and zero sugar versions have increased manifold. This is due to a widely held misconception that diet drinks have no sugar and are, therefore not harmful, observes Dr Sreenivasa D, consultant for gastroenterology at Manipal Hospital, Hebbal and Old Airport Road in Bengaluru. The zero sugar and diet alternatives of fizzy drinks use artificial sugar substitutes such as aspartame, which has been linked to various metabolic disorders. It also impacts the gut microbiome causing an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria leading to gastric discomfort such as bloating, nausea and diarrhoea.
Artificial sweeteners trick your body into thinking sugar has been consumed. This causes insulin levels to rise, says Sreenivasa elaborating on how they harm the body. 'When insulin goes up, the liver responds by releasing more glucose and glycogen, which then gets stored as fat. This process contributes to increased obesity and leaky gut, a condition where the intestinal lining becomes more permeable allowing toxins to pass from the intestine into the bloodstream leading to disorders such as fatty liver disease and other liver-related problems." He follows this with a stern warning: 'Please do not believe that diet drinks are safe just because they are labelled 'zero calorie.' They are actually bad for your health."
Stokes is a World Cup-winning all-rounder while Mazraoui is a football World Cup semi-finalist — both established and successful athletes. Now, you might not care for either Stokes or Mazraoui but there is no way anyone can deny their superior fitness levels and athleticism. So, if a 10-year-old Mehta can get the message when delivered by a sporting hero, what's stopping you, who is undoubtedly much older and more experienced, from following their lead?
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and the co-author of The Shivfit Way, a book on functional fitness.
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