Tendons and ligaments are essential for movement and movement is a key component to a healthy lifestyle.
What you eat and drink impacts how you feel and how well you perform in activity and in life. When you are working to achieve your health and fitness goals, it is important to have a solid fueling program.
Tendons and ligaments make up essential parts of your musculoskeletal system. Both tendons and ligaments are made of denser, more fibrous tissues than muscles, called collagen and elastin. However, unlike muscles, they aren’t very elastic and don’t have a lot of room to stretch.
Tendons provide an anchor for your muscles to attach to your bones so that your muscle contractions can move the bones of your skeleton, while ligaments attach neighboring bones (bones to bones) to keep your skeleton intact. You could consider ligaments and tendons like the support cables that connect bone to bone and muscle to bone, allowing your body to move where you want, when you want, while keeping everything aligned in the right way. Every muscle has a tendon; every joint has at least one ligament.
Your fueling plan affects your tendons and ligament health, and getting enough of several key nutrients helps keep these tissues healthy and functional.
Nutrients for Healthy Tendons and Ligaments
1. Protein: Protein makes up the bulk of your tendons and ligaments. Collagen makes your tissues strong, while the protein elastin in ligaments provides some elasticity. Protein from your diet allows your body to produce new collagen and elastin to help keep your tendons and ligaments strong. As an active person, you may need 0.5 to 0.75 gram of protein per pound of body weight – between 100 and 150 grams daily if you weigh 200 pounds – and for more serious athletes or professional athletes with a higher training load sometimes the needs will even go up to 200 grams (1 gram per pound).
Good Sources of Protein: lean poultry, meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, and high protein dairy products like Greek yogurt. It’s best for you to spread protein throughout the day at each of your meals and snack, to optimize your body’s absorption of the amino acids.
2. Vitamin C: Tendons and ligaments also need vitamin C, a nutrient found in many vegetables and fruits, because both tissues contain large amounts of collagen. Vitamin C plays an essential role in new collagen production, and a Vitamin C deficiency can weaken your tendons and ligaments by preventing collagen synthesis. Try to consume at least 90 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, which is pretty easy to achieve with a diet rich in vegetables and fruit (i.e., 1 bell pepper has 341 mg, 10 strawberries has 100 mg, 1/2 cup of chili peppers has 107 mg).
Good Sources of Vitamin C: strawberries, red bell peppers, oranges, grapefruits, broccoli, and tomatoes provide particularly rich sources of the nutrient.
3. Vitamin E: Vitamin E reduces inflammation and may help to reduce tendonitis.
Good Sources of Vitamin E: wheat germ, fatty fish (e.g.salmon and tuna), nuts, olive oil, and eggs.
4. Vitamin A: Vitamin A is important for cell division, collagen renewal, tissue repair, and vision. This vitamin increases the elasticity of collagen, maintaining strength of tendons and ligaments.
Good Sources of Vitamin A: eggs, fatty fish, leafy greens, yellow and orange vegetables.
5. Minerals: Eating foods rich in essential minerals also helps maintain healthy tendons and ligaments. Tendons contain small amounts of calcium and manganese, as well as the trace mineral, copper. Calcium also maintains healthy bones, helping to prevent bone disorders that could interfere with tendon and ligament function. Aim for 1,000 milligrams of calcium and remember Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium. A well-rounded diet provides several essential minerals.
Good Sources of Calcium: dairy products, dark leafy greens, fermented tofu, and fortified products.
Good Sources of Manganese: lentils, chickpeas and pineapple.
Good Sources of Copper: seeds and nuts.
Meal Ideas
Maximize the benefits for your tendons and ligaments by making meals with foods rich in protein, Vitamin C and essential minerals. Try drizzling grapefruit juice vinaigrette over lentils mixed with chopped red pepper and tomatoes for a nutrient-packed salad – the vinaigrette and vegetables provide Vitamin C, while the lentils boost your intake of protein, manganese and copper. Consider adding strawberries to your Greek yogurt as a simple snack rich in calcium, protein and Vitamin C.
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