Efficient nutrition – way to improve health and performance

When formula one or rally team chooses fuel for their car, they do not consider 56 octane gasoline. Surely they prefer better quality. I do not see any difference with the situation in sports. Athletes need 1st class fuel to perform optimally. In my opinion 56 octane gas is equal to bad nutrition, in many cases considered normal nutrition even for athletes. We should do better than that. For example red blood cells live about 120 days and almost all cells in human body are renewed within one year! Replacement of them requires quality nutrition.

What to eat?

Eating healthy is about choices. When we go shopping or to a restaurant we choose what we buy. If athlete lives at home, maybe we can choose to influence to one who actually makes the shopping and prepares meals. Knowledge helps us to make right choices. With good nutrition we can stay healthier on short and long term as well as recover better from training. I try to point out simple guidelines for you to be able to make the right choices.

Antioxidants / free radicals

Antioxidants enhance recovery, and fight against free radicals. Best sources for antioxidants are fruit, vegetables and berries. I should point out the fact that quality of the fruit, vegetables & berries is very important. Everything should be ripened by sun, not some gas during transportation. In recent study it was found that organically cultivated carrot has 40% more antioxidants, vitamins and enzymes in comparison to “normal” cultivation. Free radicals are produced as result of combustion processes of our bodies. They cause oxidative stress that weakens our immune system. Antioxidants neutralize the situation and help body to recover. Free radical sources are various; tobacco, too much alcohol, preservatives, artificial colors and sweeteners of our nutrition, medicine, too much sunshine, hard training, radioactive radiation, pollution, infections, big amounts of coffee, animal fat and so on. If we burden our bodies with lot of causes for free radicals and train hard, situation becomes unbearable for our bodies and we became ill. I believe that we have a good reason for trying to minimize the other sources and keep training hard to meet our goals.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide us big part of the energy that we consume in training. It is common belief that athletes can eat lot of white sugar and it would not harm them. This belief is not correct. White sugar does not have much nutritional value, it does give us energy, but not in a correct way. The Glycemic index of white sugar is very high and causes big variation in blood sugar level, variation that hurts our performance on training and competition. Large quantities of white sugar weaken also our immune system. It is better to consume carbohydrates that help to sustain blood sugar level somewhat stable, and that release energy over longer period of time. This we can reach by selecting full grain products, rice, pasta, bread and so on. Full grain products have many advantages; they contain more vitamins and minerals and more dietary fiber that is important for our well being as well. Fruit sugar is generally better than white sugar, and fruit can be consumed by large quantities with no problem. Many times we can replace the sugar with honey, excellent source of variety of different sugars as well as beneficial phytochemicals.

Protein

Need of protein is individual, but here is some guideline of daily need for athletes. In case athlete eats too little carbohydrates need for protein becomes bigger as well. In this case body uses protein instead of carbohydrates for source of energy. In rowing the need for protein would be around 1,5g/kg/day for men, little less for women. The amount we need depends also on the intensity of our training. For recovery from hard training both, carbohydrates and proteins, are important, as soon as possible after the workout. Best sources for proteins are beans, nuts, eggs, sesame seeds, fish and bird meat. Some red meat is not off limits, but we easily eat too much of it.

Fat

Fat is necessary for us. Many cases lightweight rowers cut all fat from their nutrition in order to reduce their weight. This is absolutely wrong. Body needs fat to function. Small amount of animal fat is also necessary. Vegetable oils are the most important for us, and we need to get them daily. Oils contain lot of energy and it is important that the quantity of daily intake of oils and is correct.


Nutritional choices

YES/ NO
+ Full Grain rice, whey …/ - Sugar
+ Fish & white meat / - Lemonades
+ Sesame seeds, (rich on calcium, zinc, magnesium)/ - White wheat
+ Vegetables / - Milk
+ Rice, Soy and Oat milk / - Animal fat in big quantities
+ Organic have higher nutritional values / - Artificial colors and sweeteners
+ Nuts / - Sweet lunch
+ Fruits & berries / - french fries
+ Cold pressed vegetable oils / - fatty stakes with creamy sauces
+ Eggs, especially egg white / - sweet rolls
+ Sauerkraut / - potato chips
+ Sour milk products / - almost all fastfood


Best way to use fruits for snacks is to eat them to empty stomach, this way nutrients are absorbed well to our bodies to use, and you prevent some non-welcome symptoms that you get if you eat fruit right after meal.


Supplements

Market is full of products that are said to be good for enhancing the performance. Many times these products are money for nothing. It is individual what people want to have, but I would choose my supplements according to following:

Protein

Sometimes we need additional protein after hard training and competition. My choice would be some protein powder with no sweeteners or color. I do not know what Czech suppliers offer, but surely there is some good products available.

Carbohydrates

Sports drink should also be without artificial sweeteners or colors. One possibility is to use honey and sea salt mixed to water.

Antioxidants

I recommend as natural products as possible. I do not accept synthetic vitamins because they are not absorbing well at the body. Fruits, vegetables and berries provide us big variety of vitamins and minerals. We get the benefit of these substances working together. This benefit you can get for example from these products:

- Juice Plus+ capsules that are made from fruit and vegetables
- Vitamin D that is produced to linseed oil that enhances absorbing to body

Minerals

- Calcium, Zinc and Magnesium are important and very necessary at least when training in hot environment when sweating is increased. Sesame seeds are excellent source for calcium and magnesium. There is a product called Tahin or Tahini that is sesame pasta and can be used with bread instead of butter. Try it! It is also rich on protein and other minerals and vitamins.

Timing

Timing of nutrition is important for training and competition.
- 1-4 hours before training 1-5g/kg of carbohydrates. (Carbohydrates 30-60 min before race or training seem to effect negatively to performance.)
- During training 45-75g/ch if training lasts over 1h
- After performance 1,5gch/kg first 20min, 2h and 4h after performance

Joy

When our general nutrition is good, we can also enjoy the taste of delicacies occasionally, without making harm to our training. In general it is important to enjoy the challenge of winning. At the end, it is the motivation of the athlete that makes the winner. The motivation requires athletes to enjoy what they are doing, maybe not every day, but in general.

Time

At the beginning of this blog I wrote about the time it takes before cells are renewed. It takes a long time before one can really feel the input of better quality nutrition. It is important to try to make the right choices permanent way of living. This way we will, at some point, really feel the difference and enjoy improved health and performance.

In the next blogs I will write about training, and the reasons behind my views. In case You have questions, no not hesitate to ask. There is no stupid questions, maybe stupid answers, though.