Ideal diet for tennis players

Published: 07/11/2009 - Updated: 08/14/2019

When you practice a sport seriously, you seek a maximum performance and physical behavior. If tennis is concerned, we must bear in mind that it is a sport of strength and endurance, which makes use of a high level of concentration. So to be a good tennis player is required to seek perfection both physically and nutrition to avoid a lack of energy.

And once again, food and sports supplements play an important role for any sportsman, and in this case we will concentrate on exploring the best diet for tennis players.

If we want to engage in this practice of high performance, you must pay attention to physical and psychological, which causes oxidation and consumption of essential substances produced in higher than normal.

Balanced diet

Food is the mainstay of any training. Today, we suffer a poverty of nutrients in food due to modern farming procedures and methods of industrial processing. It goes that we are exposed to harmful environmental factors and the direct reflected in foods that fail to meet the demand for micronutrients, needed by our body to maintain health.

Thus to achieve a "balanced diet", we need a proper supplementation of vitamins, minerals and others.

This package will help to: 

  • Achieve optimal athletic performance,
  • The prevention of unnecessary injuries,
  • Support in the recovery of existing lesions,
  • Prevent health problems in general.

The market today offers a wide range of dietary supplements that help you achieve your goals, there is a surcharge for every need, examples:

  • For sports nutrition: the case of products for sport and the daily high competition, which favor the performance and recovery effort in a healthy and natural way.
  • To increase volume
  • To gain weight
  • Good nutrition for muscle
  • Fat Burners
  • Vitamins

Sports Supplement recommended

SPORT VITAMIN

Optimal mix of vitamins and minerals for the intense physical effort.
It is a formula of vitamins and minerals for the development, recovery and continuing support for all physical activity. Ideal for correcting fatigue and physical exhaustion, before and after sports.

Ideally, the supplement is given in this case by the coach of tennis.

The key is the quality of food

As indicated for the good performance of the tennis player is to take a diet that provides optimal levels of nutrients for the maintenance and regeneration of body. Furthermore, the diet should limit those components harmful to health. One should keep in mind that everything you eat throughout the day has positive and negative effects to our bodies.

A balanced diet must have then:

  • A broad base of carbs / complex carbohydrates such as whole grain cereals, bread, pasta, brown rice, potatoes, vegetables, etc.. ,
  • Fruits and vegetables containing fiber, vitamins and minerals
  • Non-Refined vegetable oils,
  • Fish
  • Dairy, meat and eggs should be consumed in any form.

Sugar or industrially processed foods and saturated fats should be avoided.

Sample of Daily Menu

  • Fruit juices and natural citrus: 4 servings daily.
  • Vegetables raw, steamed, baked (green leaf, all types of cabbages, roots, etc): 1 serving raw (salad) and 1 cooked a day at least.
  • Grains: at least 70% of the total intake (rice, wheat, oats, rye, millet, cous-cous, pasta, bread, etc.) Vegetables (soybeans, lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas, etc): 2 Servings per day.
  • Sprouts (soybeans, alfalfa, wheat, etc): 2 / 3 times a week.
  • Seeds and nuts (sparingly): 2 Times a week or more.
  • Virgin olive oil cold pressed: Daily.
  • Blue cold-water fish (salmon, herring, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, trout river) can be replaced with a tablespoon of flax oil daily: 2 / 3 times a week.
  • Mineral water and juice (3:1): 8 large glasses a day (between the two).

Restraint:

  • Milk: It is better to forget the milk of cows, goat milk is more digestive.
  • It is better to have fermented products like organic yogurt and fresh cheeses, better than sheep or goats: 1 serving per day, maximum.
  • Biological meat: Avoid pork. 1 every 10 days.
  • Organic eggs: 2 per week.

The ideal is that all foods are from organic farming, to the extent possible, due to the absence of pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics, hormones and other toxic substances in it.

Limit their consumption as much as possible:

  • Refined sugar, sweets
  • Saturated fats in animal fats and "trans" or hydrogenated as margarine, pastries, refined oils, etc..
  • Salt in excess.
  • Sausage (excluding the Iberian Ham in small portions).
  • Refined white flour (white bread, white pasta, etc).
  • Industrially processed products (prepared products, precooked, canned) with chemical preservatives or colorings.
  • Red meat and poultry in excess (more than once per week). Ensure that the meat is of biological origin or hunting. In particular, avoid pork and animal fat.
  • Snuff and alcohol (only recommended to drink a glass of red wine daily).

About the author
  • Dra. Loredana Lunadei

    Dr. Loredana Lunadei is a specialist in food, dietetics and nutrition. She studied at the University of Milan where she obtained a Master in Food Science and Technology. Subsequently, she continued her studies, completing her PhD also at the University of Milan. Linkedin.

2 Replies to “Ideal diet for tennis players”
  • Leslie says:

    My brother is very good tennis player but lately he has been a little bit sick and I have thought I may be anemia, because even though he performs a lot of work, he doesn?t have the enough amount of food per day and he even has some junk food, which lowers his level, I want to change his mind so I?m going to show him this

  • Stacy says:

    I think it’s super important to have a healthy diet and to definitely take care of yourself whenever you play any sport (and even when you don’t) but I’m not sure how sport specific diets can really be. Food is food is food, and if it’s good, it’s good, and if ti’s not, it’s not. I am a cyclist and a runner, and I see no different in dietary effect on one or the other.