Sleep is the main energy supplement

Sedentary lifestyle is a disease and it is necessary to vary one's diet according to the physical activity that is practiced, by amateurs or by professionals. This was underlined by Fabrizio Angelini, Juventus FC Nutrition Program Manager, speaking in the panel “Made in Italy food grown on Mars” at the Turin Food Journalism Festival. "Taking care of nutrition for athletes - explained Angelini - does not simply mean identifying the diet necessary to give the individual an expendable energy, but involves a necessary, precise and subjective anthropometric analysis to understand how the individual's organism is composed . On the basis of the data collected, it will be possible to identify which foods are the most effective for giving energy - not always carbohydrates - also in relation to the alternation between the days of training and rest of the athlete ”. And, surprisingly but not too much, the most important supplement turns out to be sleep. In the life of an athlete as well as of any individual, the quality of sleep has a direct impact on the metabolism: in addition to having a direct relationship with the development of diseases such as obesity and diabetes, poor sleep quality certainly affects the effectiveness of a balanced diet for the body. “Professional athletes are under strict medical supervision - explained Angelini - and, for example, the cortisol measurements by means of a salivary swab are an important indicator on how the individual sleeps. But for those who do not practice sports and are not subject to constant medical analysis, a method to estimate the quality of sleep, with a certain margin of approximation, are the apps commonly available for free on the main platforms ".