What foods should not be eaten immediately after exercise?

Introduction: Many people often experience muscle soreness, joint aches, and mental fatigue after physical exercise. To quickly relieve fatigue, they tend to have a large meal of chicken, fish, meat, eggs, etc., believing this can replenish nutrients and meet the body's needs. In fact, consuming these foods at this time not only fails to alleviate fatigue but can also have adverse effects on the body.

Human food can be classified into acidic and alkaline foods. The classification of a food as acidic or alkaline is not based on its taste or its chemical properties when dissolved in water, but rather on the acidity or alkalinity of the final metabolic products it produces after entering the human body. Acidic foods are typically rich in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates and contain elements like potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium. When metabolized in the body, they produce alkaline substances that prevent the blood from becoming more acidic.

Purple Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Pancake

Therefore, sour-tasting fruits are generally alkaline foods, not acidic foods. Conversely, foods like chicken, fish, meat, eggs, and sugar, which are not sour, are actually acidic foods.

A pathologist in the United States, after long-term research, pointed out that the human body can only maintain health when its body fluids are slightly alkaline. The body fluids of a healthy person are slightly alkaline. After physical exercise, the feeling of muscle and joint soreness and mental fatigue is mainly caused by the extensive breakdown of sugars, fats, and proteins in the body. During this breakdown process, acidic substances such as lactic acid and phosphoric acid are produced. These acidic substances stimulate the body's tissues and organs, leading to the sensation of muscle and joint soreness and mental fatigue. If one consumes only foods rich in acidic substances like meat, eggs, and fish at this time, it will make the body fluids even more acidic, which is not conducive to relieving fatigue.

Candied Kumquats

On the other hand, consuming vegetables, sweet potatoes, citrus fruits, apples, and the like, due to their alkalizing effect, can eliminate excess acid in the body, reduce the acidity of urine, and increase the solubility of uric acid. This can reduce the possibility of acid forming stones in the bladder.

Therefore, after physical exercise, one should eat more alkaline-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and soy products, to help maintain the basic acid-base balance in the body, preserve health, and quickly eliminate fatigue caused by exercise. 

Stir-fried Tofu with Chives