FRUITS & VEGETABLESEnjoying plenty of fruit and vegetables is essential to provide vitaminsand minerals as well as valuable antioxidants. Including fruit as partof breakfast, as snacks and around training is important for lifters. It is also important to include vegetables at both lunch and dinner. This can be particularly important with high training loads or when losing weight.Some lifters may strongly limit their choices of foods and follow inflexible meal plans, but these practices are unlikely to be sustainable in the long- term. Meal and protein supplements may frequently be used as a portable snack or for recovery, but often these are not cost-effective. As many lifters may not be sponsored, but haveto work full-time throughout their training, cost-effective nutrition may become an important consideration.Well chosen foods can have thesame effect as many supplements. Moderation and balance is the key with supplements, as with all foods.