Feeling your best, and fulfilling your performance potential, depends not just on how you train your body, but what you put into it. In fact, working out religiously is going to get you nowhere unless you’re also putting the right mix of macro (protein, carbs, fats) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and other essential molecules) into your system.
Chances are, you know all about the big three macronutrients, but on the micro level things can seem a little more complicated. To put it simply, vitamins are organic substances that act in tandem to keep your body’s cells working normally. Minerals, meanwhile, are inorganic, chemical elements – including calcium, zinc and sodium – that aid everything from bone health to metabolic function (turning the food you eat into energy).