Nutrition and the Female Athlete

Book excerpt: Whether you exercise for fun, or in competitive situations, you should understand the important role nutrition plays in fitness. This useful new text focuses on nutrition as it specifically relates to female athletes. It addresses topics of major importance to women in sports, coaches, trainers, sports nutritionists, and physicians. Each chapter is a "mini-course" on a particular aspect of nutrition. Subjects include the nutritional practices of female athletes; the requirements for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats; details on vitamins and minerals, with special emphasis on the nutrients of importance to female athletes; the role of water and electrolytes, including prevention of dehydration and guidelines for optimal fluid replacement; body weight and composition; factors affecting energy balance; how to achieve a healthy competitive weight, and an overview of eating disorders in athletes, including definitions and diagnostic criteria, prevalence, risk factors, and effects on health and performance.