The Importance of a Healthy Diet as a Dancer

So far I have been looking at self image and eating disorders amongst dancers. Which has got me wondering about the long term effects that poor diet can have on dancers. While researching this I came across a youtube video of a nutritional consultant, Charlotte Skiles founder of 'Eat in Peace' Wellness Consulting in Austin, Texas. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVDZ9_VcvDs

Skiles makes the point that we (dancers) are athletes and therefore require a lot of calories per day in order for us to perform to our fullest. She explains that we should eat very regularly and lists protein, fats and carbohydrates as the most important food groups we need to be eating and then goes on to explain why, 

"the concern there is making sure they eat enough to maintain their muscle mass....you need to make sure you have really good nutrition coming in to repair the body"

She then goes on to explain how our nutrition can keep joints healthy

"another thought there for dancers, in particular, is joint health...keeping the muscles limber which are less likely to injure, ... means stying hydrated and having really good quality fats in the diet...fats yeild the highest water content in terms of motabolism"

So, in order to keep our bodies working well we should be eating a varied and well rounded diet during a period of heavy training. Eating healthily for a dancer means eating a lot of the right foods not only to give us the energy we need while training but also to help our bodies deal with the strain they are under and prevent injuries.