Imagine watching the NBA playoffs and seeing the camera pan on
Tim Duncan and you see him eating a soup bowl full of pure sugar.
Especially if you were a Spurs fan, would you not question the wisdom of
his food choice? Or what if you were watching the Tour de France and
you see the American team get on bikes that were rusted from being left
outside for the past month.
Would you not think they too were wasting
their hard training and preparation due to their lack of care for their
equipment? These may seem like extreme examples but in reality they are
an analogy for what many athletes do to their bodies leading up to
competition.
I am sure cyclists take great care of their bikes and
Nascar racers spend enormous time and money on their cars, but if you
stop and think, do we take as good of care of our body's as we do our
other equipment? For this reason, I want to share some important
nutrition principles for athletes so they can perform at their best and
start to understand how nutrition affects their body.
3 Key Nutrition Principles for Athletic Success
1. High blood sugar levels from processed carbohydrates and highly sweetened foods will sabotage energy and muscle rebuilding.
High
sugar levels are kryptonite to athletes. When your blood sugar goes
high, your body responds by releasing insulin to move the sugar from
your blood to the cells of your body. However, when your body has to
make a whole lot of insulin to do this it causes a number of bad effects
to your body.
We all know and have experienced the sugar crash after
eating a lot of Halloween candy as a kid or enjoying a big plate of
pancakes and syrup only to feel sleepy and tired an hour later. And
don't think that just candy and pancakes can do this! Did you know that
one bottle of a sports drink or vitamin water can have 8 spoonfuls of
sugar and one bottle of soda may have 15-20 spoonfuls of sugar? Or that a
bagel or cereal may raise your blood sugar as much as a donut? There
are also a number of other hormonal ramifications we need to also
understand in order to appreciate how detrimental sugar can be to an
athlete.
First insulin is pro inflammatory, meaning that it will
make your muscles and joints even more sore and achy. Second, high
levels of insulin affect a hormone called leptin that tells your brain
whether it should use the food you are eating for energy or store it as
fat. Whether you are an athlete or not, who does not want their food to
give them energy?
No one wants it to be stored as fat and, for an
athlete, this hormonal switch has a huge affect on performance. And last
but not least, high insulin levels inhibit the release of human growth
hormone at night. Human growth hormone not only helps growing teenagers,
but it also repairs the damage our muscles, tendons and joints suffered
during our training that day. Without this necessary repair how are we
going to rebuild our muscles through training to be bigger, stronger,
and more efficient?
So how do you avoid these high sugar levels?
Avoid processed carbohydrates, i.e. anything with flour in it. Almost
all the cereals, breakfast bars, crackers, and breads will cause sugar
levels to sky rocket in most people.
Think of each particle of flour as
little tiny sugar bomb waiting to explode once digested. Instead, start
incorporating whole grains into your diet like brown rice, quinoa, steel
cut oatmeal, and farro just to name a few options. For bread, I
recommend spouted grain brain (common example Ezekiel bread) which is
not made with flour and is much less likely to cause sugar spikes.
I do
recommend toasting it when you first try it as the texture is different.
Whole grains are like extended release carbohydrates which will slowly
be broken down in your body leading to a steady rise in blood sugar.
This will very effectively restore your muscle energy stores and allow
your body to hormonally function as it should using your food for
energy.
2. Athletes need over 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day to prevent oxidative damage to muscles.
I
know this may seem like a lot but athletes in particular need to make a
change in how they think about their meals from being focused on meat
and potatoes to being focused on anti-oxidant consumption. Any time
energy is created there is a waste by product. Think of smoke from a
coal factory or oil refinery, or smoke from a fire in our fireplace.
In
our bodies when we use oxygen for energy the by product is an oxygen
free radical (basically a little terrorist that likes to damage our
muscles and soft tissues unless it is neutralized). To visualize this,
think of an apple that had a bite taken out of it and then is left on
the counter.
In a little while the exposed apple will turn brown and
become very unappetizing. If instead, someone where to put lemon juice
on the exposed apple flesh, you will find it will take a long time
before the apple turns brown. This is due to the antioxidant in lemon
juice, vitamin C, which neutralizes the oxidation process that turns the
apple brown.
So in a sense you can visualize that if you don't eat your
vegetables and fruit your muscles will also rot, just like the bitten
apple without the lemon juice. Remember athletes need more antioxidant's
than non-athletes because you are using more oxygen for energy as you
are more active.
This means every meal should include at least 50%
of your plate with fruits and vegetables and by then end of the day you
should eat more vegetables than fruit. Eat the rainbow, meaning eat all
main colors (blue/purple, green, red and yellow/orange) daily to make
sure you consume antioxidants from each of these main groups.
Each color
represents a different antioxidant mechanism, like our military which
has a navy, air force, army and marines. Eating only one color group
will leave your body's defenses weak just like if our military only had a
navy with no air force or army. I realize this can be a challenge,
particularly at breakfast, so take some time to plan out your meals and
don't be afraid to think outside the box when coming up with delicious
ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet.
3. The timing of when you eat in relation to your training/competition changes how you combine different food groups.
Finally
the timing of food can have a big impact on athletes. One of the main
purposes of training is break down muscles so they can rebuild stronger.
Your muscles store quick energy in the form of glycogen that gets used
up during physical exertion and needs to be replenished immediately
after exercise.
It is estimated that you have about 30 minutes after
your glycogen is depleted to try to fully replace it. If you wait too
long then your energy stores will not be optimal and you may experience
the "dead legs" or training fatigue many athletes are all too familiar
with.
To avoid this, eat or drink something with approximately a 2:1
ratio of carbohydrates to protein after work out. One simple way to do
this is drink a glass of high quality chocolate milk and perhaps
accompany this with an apple or banana for the electrolytes. Then when
you get home have a balanced meal with vegetables, whole grains and
protein.
I think it is also important to discuss how to
incorporate healthy fats into an athlete's diet. Foods high in omega 3
fats like fish, nuts, avocados, and olive oil are great for athletes,
reducing inflammation, stabilizing blood sugar levels, and delivering
needed calories and long term energy. However, it does take the body
longer to digest fat so I would minimize these prior to competition to
avoid a heavy feeling in your stomach. Also, since this process uses
your body's energy to digest the fats, it is better to divert all the
energy to your physical and mental performance instead of the digestion
of food.
Remember, there is no piece of equipment more valuable
for an athlete than his or her body! So for all those parents of budding
superstars and for you athletes of all ages, start becoming aware of
your nutrition and your food training table. It will be an investment
that will pay off not only in your competition, but also for your health
the rest of your life.
Check out
http://www.drlanemd.com
to see some of his other posts on nutrition, emotional wellness,
athletics and women's health in addition to some great free recipes!
Dr.
Lane is a board certified family physician and has been in practice for
over 15 years integrating traditional medicine with holistic practice
and is the current co-chair of medicine at Avecinia Wellness center.
He
graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University where he majored in
biochemistry and molecular biology and then attended Duke Medical School
where he was elected into the AOA honor society, became an Albert
Schweitzer fellow, and was voted "ideal physician" by his classmates.
After completing his family practice residency at Bayfront Medical
Center as Chief Resident, he proceeded to practice primary care in many
settings that included the ICU, hospital, ER, office and even made house
calls.
As his interests grew in the field of preventative health he
then completed the country's only fellowship in Integrative Medicine,
developed by Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. This program
truly aligned Dr. Lane's scientific background with his passion for
wellness.
Having seen in practice the transformational power of
lifestyle change in a patient's health, his new professional mission is
helping others discover the potential of learning how to cook at home to
improve their health and even one's athletic success.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Will_Lane_MD/1709980
