Athletes and physically active individuals need many nutrients in order to recover from intense exercise--refueling muscles for the next workout. Grabbing a pizza, burger, chips and/or fries after a workout or competition is not enough. Even people who normally pay attention to what they eat before and during exercise often neglect their post-exercise eating habits.

The body has a great deal of work to do after exercise. It must replace depleted stores of energy, often when there is very little time to recover between workouts or events. Your post-exercise nutrition is critical to enhancing performance and preventing injury.

Metabolic changes occurring during exercise are similar to what happens to the body during trauma and stress. Heat, free radical production and cellular breakdown cause muscle damage. However, unlike stress, exercise causes an anabolic (growth) stimulus which results in muscles becoming stronger when they repair the damage.

The body needs time to recover along with the right nutrients. Post-exercise nutrition can help you train more aggressively by supplying the nutrients necessary to curtail exercise-induced damage and promote repair.

The most important nutrient to replace after a workout or competition is water; but you can't rely on thirst to guide your fluid intake. You must make a conscious effort to replace fluid losses. The best, most accurate way to determine fluid needs is to weigh-in before and after exercise. For every pound of weight lost, drink a pint of fluid and up to 1 1/2 pints if exercise must be performed in short intervals, or when engaging in two workouts a day such as in football.

A pound of sweat contains 400-700 mg of sodium and 80-100 mg of potassium. Therefore, a post-exercise re-hydration regimen should include sources of sodium and potassium. Fortunately these electrolytes are readily found in foods like spaghetti sauce, pretzels, crackers, soup, and cheese. Potassium is concentrated in fresh fruits and vegetables. Sodium and potassium-rich foods can be combined with plain water or juices to replenish electrolyte and fluid losses.

Carbohydrate intake is very important after exercise. This applies to any athlete engaging in:

Protein intake during post-exercise has come to the forefront recently and has proven to be important in order to get a more dramatic insulin response which in turn stimulates glycogen synthesis.

Athletes do not need to increase protein intake, but rather they should target protein consumption during post-exercise recovery. This is exactly why we recommend Juice Plus+ Complete. It is perfectly balanced nutrition and has the highest Nutripoint* rating of all meal replacements. It also does not pose a threat to disqualification of an athlete at any level of competition.

In addition, Juice Plus+ Complete contains Juice Plus+ whole food-based fruit and vegetable concentrates, thus meeting vitamin/mineral needs in a natural balance which is best for absorbtion and utilization in the body.

The hours immediately following intense exercise are critical for bodily recovery, and nutrition is critical! Some athletes experience gastrointestinal distress if they eat too soon after exercise. Thus, a superior liquid meal (like Juice Plus+ Complete) may facilitate carbohydrate and protein intake during the critical recovery period immediately after exercise.

In our book, "The Winning Edge: Fueling & Training the Body for Peak Performance", we have listed the highest Nutripoint-rated carbohydrates, proteins, sports drinks, sports bars, and meal replacement drinks available.

*Nutripoints rates every food for 26 positive and negative factors and gives one number, the overall Nutripoint score, which tells you how good or bad the food is for you. The higher the number, the better the food.