Sleep with help your body recover, but without proper nutrition, you cannot recover fully. Dancers are not really included in the general athlete nutrition standards because the craft has different goals than a football player, for example. Leanness and agility as opposed to bulk and power. The media and the Standard American Diet tell you that carbs are a healthy source of energy, and market synthetic franken-foods like protein bars, in conjunction with the focus on body image embedded in the art of dance is leaving dancers (and the general public) confused on what is really healthy. Additionally, the fast paced world we live in does not give adequate options of food to people who are on the go: majority of the foods you can buy, both packaged and from restaurants contain cheap additives that are slowly deteriorating your health through modes of systemic inflammation and insulin resistance. It is an epidemic plaguing our country, and dancers are not excluded from that. We need to make people aware of the better choices we can make as a society.
For more information on systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and what you can do to maximize your health and improve your life visit these websites: draxe.com , whole30.com , paleoleap.com