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Quinoa in Body Building

Quinoa is the perfect boost you need for your body-building goals. It is a power house when it comes to providing vitamins and minerals.

Have you ever heard the terms body-building and carbs in the same breath? The only nutrition word you hear around body-building is protein! We don’t know how but the body builders have completely forgotten carbs.

Importance of glycogen in body-building

Before delving into how quinoa can help in body-building lets glance at the basic principles of body-building. The human body stores carbohydrates in the body as glycogen –i.e. glycogen is broken to get glucose as and when required. When a person exercises, it’s the glycogen stored that is first depleted, so be it flight or a fight, its glycogen that the body uses.

Most of body-building enthusiasts go head over heels for the protein content of post workout meals but a precise and detailed calculation of carbs is proportionately needed to not let energy levels of a person drop.

Ingestion of 100 grams of carbohydrates after resistance exercise has shown to increase net muscle protein balance, a measurement of muscle growth vs. muscle breakdown. 1 cup of cooked quinoa contains 39.4 grams of carbohydrates and 8 gm of protein, which is not available in other cereals, it’s the perfect balance and is much better than sugary protein shakes available.

Alternatives to quinoa and protein powders are non-vegetarian sources, which have large portions of fat, which you may not like to include whilst body-building.

Vitamins and minerals are also necessary to work out and build muscle effectively, and quinoa is the power house when it comes to vitamins and minerals. Not only is it important to feed your muscle the carbohydrates they need to promote glycogen synthesis, but it’s also crucial to feed some protein to stimulate protein synthesis and inhibit what’s known as proteolysis (protein breakdown). So in short, protein and carbs are both needed for effective post exercise meals, and quinoa is perfect for this.

– Monica Magoo, Nutritionist & Diet Consultant

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