picture courtesy of http://www.pachd.com/

One of the ironies of strenuous exercise is that many of us exercise to improve our health, yet excessive exercise without a break will over time will lower your immunity, making you susceptible to colds.

Hence, it is important that as an athlete, you need understand what is happening to your body and what you can do to keep yourself in tip top shape. You are breaking down your body’s weaknesses so that you can build them up and make them stronger. You can aid your body’s efforts by 1) getting enough sleep (see yesterday’s post) and 2) providing the body with the nutrients it needs to build itself up.

Folic acid, or folate, is one of those nutrients we’ve all heard of, know that we need it, yet do we really know what it does. The folks at World’s Healthiest Foods are pointing out that folate is critical in the repair of your body.

“Did you know that your body requires folic acid (or folate) in order to replace all the cells lining your digestive tract every few days and all of your oxygen-carrying red blood cells every few months? Folate also helps repair all wounded, aging or damaged cells, helps to keep the cells of your heart and nervous system in top form, and maintains the normal metabolism of homocysteine into harmless compounds (high levels of homocysteine are a marker for increased risk of heart disease). Plus, folate is essential for reproductive health since it forms the protective cells covering the cervix and is necessary for the formation of sperm as well as every cell of a growing fetus inside a pregnant woman. Asparagus provides 66% of the daily value for folate,”

If you would like to learn more about the health benefits of folic acid and asparagus, please go here for more details.

Looking for some new ideas on how cook asparagus? Take a look below.
A recipe for roasted asparagus can be found here.
A recipe for a simple asparagus soup can be found here.