Guest blogger Yishane Lee is the author of “The Athlete’s Palate: Renowned Chefs, Delicious Dishes, and the Art of Fueling Up While Eating Well” (Rodale), a cookbook for the gourmet endurance athlete.

Most athletes know that carbohydrates and protein are critical to fuel a workout and aid recovery after exercise. But beyond those nutrients, there are five essential nutrients to incorporate into your diet in order to make sure your body operates at its peak.

1. Anthocyanins

This antioxidant gives red, blue, and purple fruits and vegetables their color. It reduces inflammation and counteracts muscle damage that can be caused by working out and also improves cardiovascular function. Blueberries, strawberries, cherries, blood oranges, eggplant, and red grapes are all good sources of anthocyanins. Even the cocoa in dark chocolate contains this antioxidant.

Want to keep your teeth and bones strong? Then you want to pay extra attention to vitamin D and ensure to have it in your daily diet. Vitamin D has also been shown to lower our risk for cancer, upwards of 150,000 cases according to Cedric Garland, a doctor of public health. One of the best ways to get vitamin D is directly from sunlight; this is due to how our bodies produce the vitamin from the exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

With the increase in concern for skin cancers and wanting to protect our skin from sun damage and burning, the amount of sunscreen we utilize has caused our vitamin D levels to plummet. I myself am very fair skinned, but I still make sure to allow my skin time outdoors to soak up the sun’s beautiful rays in limited quantities, ensuring not to burn or over expose myself.

As a holistic health counselor and a relatively healthy eater (yes, I eat ice cream and can be seen eating french fries), I take supplements every day. The reason for this is because despite eating a healthy American diet, it is virtually impossible to get all the vitamins and nutrients our bodies need.

In a new weekly series that will launch on Saturday, November 28th, I’m going to feature specific vitamins and provide an overview as to why you need it, what it does for your body and where you can get it.

More and more people are deficient and with busy schedules you can start to feel even more run down especially heading into the holiday season.

Everywhere we go, we are assaulted by claims of “Enriched with Vitamin C!”, “Added B vitamins!”, “More Vitamin A than the leading brand!”, and so on. We all know that vitamins and minerals are essential to the proper balance and function of our bodies, but which supplements are vital and necessary to our health and well being, and which might we avoid, lest we end up with an expensive bathroom trip? Here are my top five choices for essential supplements:

1. Calcium – According to the National Institute of Health, the recommended total calcium intake is 1,000 mg a day for women between 25 and 50 years of age, 1,200 – 1,500 for pregnant or lactating women, and 1,500 mg per day for postmenopausal women. The average calcium consumption among North American women is currently only 600 mg per day. I take a calcium magnesium supplement and find that it really helps me with nighttime leg cramps.
   

Experts are warning that current recommendations for daily vitamin D intake are “grossly inadequate.”

“National recommendations from the Food and Nutrition Board are 400 to 600 International Units (IU) a day,” says Neil Binkley, MD, an Associate Professor in Geriatrics and Endocrinology at the University of Wisconsin.

The Food and Drug Administration currently recommends between 400 and 600 International Units (IU) a day. Experts are recommending between 1500 to 2600 IU daily. And there’s no concern for overdoing it since it’s safe to take 40,000 IU a day or even a little more.