Studies Suggest Adding Protein To Your Endurance Drink May Improve Performance

For as long as I can remember (myself included) athletes have been drinking some type of "sports drink". In not-so-medical terms, a colored sugar water solution with electrolytes; to help enhance performance. Depending on your level of activity and the conditions you're exercising in, these solutions can add to your performance by delaying dehydration, maintaining blood glucose levels and potentially attenuate muscle glycogen depletion and fatigue. If you're an ultra athlete, competing in longer triathlons, marathons and other endurance races, employing this as part of your race strategy is a necessity. You simply need more fuel than your body has the capacity to carry. If you tried doing an Ironman or even an Olympic triathlon without it, not only couldn't you compete with the top athletes, you'd simply never finish. You'd likely be carried away by the paramedics at some point with an IV in your arm en route to the local E.R.

Since my times and distances are starting to get longer as I train, I just incorporated a fuel belt into my run training and am re-fueling during my runs.

Interestingly enough, there is a 2007 report published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition And Exercise Metabolism that suggests adding protein to your carbohydrate-electrolyte (CHO+) drink may improve your overall performance.

In an article titled: Coingestion of carbohydrate-protein during endurance exercise: influence on performance and recovery. Saunders MJ.

In this article, endurance athletes commonly consume carbohydrate-electrolyte sports beverages during prolonged events. Benefts of this strategy include delaying dehydration, maintain blood sugar levels, and potentially reducing the rate of muscle glycogen depletion and time to fatigue. As such, there is wide spread agreement that CHO+ beverages can improve endurance performance.

However there has been some controversy about the role of protein for endurance athletes and there have been some studies that report carbohydrate-protein ingestion improves endurance performance to a greater extent than carbohydrate alone.

The studies suggest that consuming CHO+Protein may reduce muscle damage and improve post exercise recovery. While most of the studies looked at post exercise nutrition intake, they seem to infer that these benefits may be elicited with CHO+Protein during exercise; suggesting the importance of protein along with CHOs to benefit endurance.

The author also points out that there are a couple of studies that compare CHO and CHO+Protein report no major differences, but further notes there are a number of methodological difference with those studies which may have influenced the outcome including amounts and times ingested. Further, he points out that "although there are plausible mechanisms that could explain the ergogenic effects of carbohydrate-protein beverages, they remain relatively untested"

Relatively untested. But what is out there suggests this may be a favorable strategy. I believe the tendency is going in the right direction and since CHO+Protein is what you re-fuel with post exercise anyway, employing the same strategy during your endurance exercise or event will replenish what your body is expending and therefore improve your ability to continue. I'm typically not the type of person to wait until scientists give me the okay. If something makes sense, I'd rather the scientists be there to tell me later on that I was right - again.

But that's just me.

Reference: Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2007 Aug;17 Suppl:S87-103. Dept of Kinesiology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA.

'Nuff said

Dr. T

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness &; Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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When It Comes To Peak Performance, Go With An Endurance Drink WITH Protein

So you're out there exercising your buns off, sweating like crazy and training really hard.  You reach for your water bottle but what exactly do you put in your water bottle and why?; Most people drink just water. Some drink a carbohydrate electrolyte replacement drink but according to some studies, if you really want to get the best hydration, performance and recovery, you need to have some protein in there as well. The following is a synopsis of a study comparing water to a carbohydrate sports drink to a carbohydrate-protein sports endurance drink.

Protein Added to a Sports Drink Improves Fluid Retention,
Seifert JG, Harmon J, DeClercq P. International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 16: 420-429, 2006.

This study concluded that "contrary to popular misconception, adding protein to a carbohydrate-based sports drink ... led to improved water retention by 15 % over [a carbohydrate-only sports drink] and 40 % over plain water." Cyclists exercised until they lost 2 % of their body weight (through sweating) and then drank either a carbohydrate-protein sports drink (Accelerade®), a carbohydrate-only sports drink (Gatorade®), or water. Over the next three hours, measurements were taken to determine how much of each beverage was retained in the body (versus the amount lost through urination). The carbohydrate-protein sports drink was found to rehydrate the athletes 15% better than the carbohydrate-only sports drink and 40 % better than water. All three drinks emptied from the stomach and were absorbed through the intestine at the same rate. In addition, there was no difference between the carbohydrate-protein drink and the carbohydrate-only drink in terms of effects on blood plasma volume. This suggests that the carbohydrate-protein drink resulted in increased water retention within and between cells. Therefore a carbohydrate-protein sports drink may be a preferable choice, over plain water and a carbohydrate-electrolyte sports drink, when rehydration and fluid retention are a concern.

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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What If You Were Being Lied To About Nutrition? The Vegetarian Myth

In the August 26, 2011 edition of the journal Nutrition a surprising conclusion was made in a recent study by Ingenbleek & McCully from the Laboratory of Nutrition, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.

This study of 24 rural male subjects 18 to 30 y old and 15 urban male controls was conducted. Overall health status was assessed by:

1. body weight
2. body mass index
3. serum albumin
4. plasma transthyretin
5. urinary nitrogen
6. creatinine.

Plasma lipids, vitamins B6, B9 and B12, homocysteine, and related sulfur amino acids were measured as selected cardiovascular disease risk factors

The conclusions of the study would surprise most physicians, most dieticians and of course those at PETA.

CONCLUSIONS: The low dietary intake of protein and sulfur amino acids by a plant-eating population leads to subclinical protein malnutrition, explaining the origin of hyperhomocysteinemia and the increased vulnerability of these vegetarian subjects to cardiovascular diseases

In more simplistic terms, a vegetarian diet may put you at risk of cardiovascular disease. I think former President Clinton may want to re-evaluate his new diet.

Homocysteine is normally changed into other amino acids for use by the body. If your homocysteine level is too high, you may not be getting enough B vitamins to help your body use the homocysteine.

Most people who have a high homocysteine level don't get enough folate (also called folic acid), vitamin B6 or vitamin B12 in their diet. Replacing these vitamins often helps return the homocysteine level to normal. Other possible causes of a high homocysteine level include low levels of thyroid hormone, kidney disease, psoriasis, some medicines or when the condition runs in your family.

It goes to show that the natural Hunter-Gatherer evolutionary diet of humans as noted in so many studies and books gains more credibility the more it's studied. More proof that we aren't vegetarians, vegans or carnivores, but Omnivores.

If you think it's difficult to show an old dog new tricks, try showing an old genome new biochemistry.

Combining this with the research of people like Walter L. Voegtlin, S. Boyd Eaton, Melvin Konner and Loren Cordain along with the most recent findings of this study on vegetarianism, it seems clear how we supposed to be feeding our bodies.

A balanced diet takes on an entirely new meaning now. The balance should be between healthy forms of animal protein such as wild game, grass fed beef/buffalo or bison, free range/pastured poultry and wild fish along with vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and water.

It is specifically because of our omnivore diet that we were able to "stick and move" through evolution and survive different environments.  What was good for us then is good for us now. 

Click here to read the abstract of the research on Pub Med

'nuff said

Dr. T


____________________________________________
Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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The Whole Grain Scam Re-Visited

By Miami Beach Chiropractor Todd M. Narson, DC, DACBSP

On September 2007 I wrote a blog article entitled “The Whole Grain Scam”. In the very first paragraph I wrote:

“Don't get me wrong, eating whole grains is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y healthy for you. This isn't the scam. What is a scam is all of the packaging out there tricking you into believing you're actually eating whole grains. Therein "lies" the true scam”. http://naturalsportsmedicine.blogspot.com/2007/09/whole-grain-scam.htmlhttp://naturalsportsmedicine.blogspot.com/2007/09/whole-grain-scam.html

Now 4 years, a lot of nutrition books, webinars and seminars later I realized that this was a mis-statement of monumental proportions.  As I learn more and more about nutrition, I write and post what I learn in order to help others. As one learns you often find yourself tossing out old ideas and theories due to new advances in science and discovery. You make your changes and adjustments the forge ahead. Education is ever evolving.  As it turns out, the more I read about grains, the more I realize it really doesn’t matter how the grains are served up, whole, refined or wrapped up with a pretty pink bow, grains are treated by your body like sugar and that’s a bad thing.

And we weren’t meant to eat sugar as we do today.

The real whole grain scam is that grains are good for you in the first place. They’re not. Do they have some healthy nutrients in them? Yes they do, but they are bound so tightly to the grain, that they pass right through your body. Grains contain an anti-nutrient called Phytates that block our absorption of B vitamins and chemically bind iron, copper, zinc and calcium to prevent their absorption and digestion. So while grains contain calcium, zinc, copper, iron and B vitamins, you don’t get their benefit. You can’t, phytates prevent it. So grains are doing exactly what they were designed to do – survive the digestive tract, get dropped out the other end and still have enough “stuff” in it to re-plant and perpetuate the species. Survival of the fittest applies to plants too.

Grains are really the seeds from tall grasses. Now think to yourself…if you were living 100,000 years ago, or 2 million years ago how would you have picked enough of these grains to make them any kind of important part of your diet? The technology simply didn’t exist. You would have had to pick enough grains, then mash them or boil them in order to eat them. The technology didn’t exist and in order to eat enough of the grains, you’d expend too much energy picking and preparing them, they contained chemical components that prevented their valuable nutrients from being absorbed – what’s the point? To early humans, it wasn’t worth the effort except. According to Loren Cordain, PhD, they only ate grains in times of extreme starvation.

Research by teams of researchers continuously show that Paleolithic man (caveman is you will) had a diet that consisted of wild game and fish, vegetables, fruits (mostly low glycemic fruits like berries) and nuts. We drank water.

Since the agricultural age began approximately 10,000 years ago, we started to see a shrinking in the height of humans, on average preagricultural man was 5’9” tall and by 3,000 BCE, the average male was 5’3” tall. Cerial grains were providing fuel however lacked many of the nutrients wild meats, vegetables and fruits did. The result was more that just our general shrinking, but an explosion in the rate of ill health, disease and a reduction in the average life span. Dental cavities and tooth decay as well as heart disease, strokes, type II diabetes and cancer started to rear their ugly heads.

Coincidence?

No, it’s called Adaptive Physiology.

Adaptive physiology can work for us or against us. Our gene pool spent millions of years being shaped and shifted from the environment which we evolved from. Food of course was one of the biggest sources of influence from that environment. Our physiology was created by the foods we ate. Since no where in our gene pool over the past 4.5 million years (sans the past 10,000) did our food include grains, needless to say, grains should not be part of our diets today.

Nowhere in our evolutionary history did we eat grains or sugar and both should be stricken from our diets. But be careful when you go to the grocery store and buy some meat. You see, our meats are now grain fed too. Beef use to eat the flowering tops of grasses (what we now call “grass fed”) and poultry use to eat bugs, worms, larvae, seeds and were basically “omnivores”. Cows, buffalo and bison were monolithic vegans eating only the flower tops of various varieties of grass. Fish, well, ate other fish. Bu go ahead and go shopping and see what you find….grain fed beef, grain fed poultry and farm raised-mostly grain fed fish.

When you feed any species a diet it wasn’t physiologically adapted for, it gets sick. Our food gets its nutrient content from their food, and so on. So when we eat grain fed beef rather than grass fed beef, it doesn’t contain the nutrients that we need and adapted to. The same for grain fed chicken and fish.

Oh, and I don’t care if they’re fed organic grains. Organic or not, if you’re not meant to eat grains it doesn’t matter. They’ll just be “organically sick”, just like you’ll be if you eat them.  Would you eat cardboard? What about organic cardboard? Ridiculous right? Exactly my point. It's not good for you either way.

So, based on my current knowledge and studying, If it contains grains, don’t eat it. Grains being healthy is the scam. Now just throw in sugar, salt and un-natural fats and you have the health epidemic we have today.


However if you choose to eat them, make sure they’re spouted. Although sprouting grains does not reduce gluten (reference: The Gluten Doctors) it does reduces the phytates. But grains are neolithic nutrition, not meant for our paleolithic genes.

If you’re wondering about getting enough fiber, don’t worry. Fruit contains twice the amount of fiber as grains and vegetables contain 8 times the amount of fiber as grains. So eat the food we were made for:

1. animal protein from animals that ate their natural evolutionary diet
a. Wild game meats
b. Grass fed beef, buffalo, bison
c. Free range – pastured poultry
d. Wild caught fish
2. Vegetables (non-starchy; locally grown or organic)
3. Fruits (mostly berries; non-starchy)
4. Nuts
5. Drink water

Do this until you reach your health goals, then, do the 80-20 rule. Eat great 80% of the time, eat for taste bud enjoyment the other 20% and you should do just fine. This comes out to eating good 6 days per week and 1 day eat what you want. And, if you want, then eat great that day too.

The physiology of paleolithic man was more like that of our super athletes today.  Eat the way they ate and you'll be on your way to a much better, stronger, healthier and longer future. 

The whole grain scam is that grains, whole or refined are a health food. Simply put, They're Not.

‘nuff said.

Dr. T

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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More Teens Die of Heat Stroke – When Will We Demand Better Education OF Our Kids Coaches?

Well, it’s extremely sad to day it happened again. This past week two more teenagers died of heat stroke during summer football practice. In Columbia County, FL a 16 year old boy was found dead at a high school football camp this past Tuesday. Hours later, another 16-year old. Georgia high school football player died in an Atlanta hospital, a week after being admitted suffering what doctors believe was heat exhaustion. Since the young athlete died, it’s pretty safe to say it was heat stroke, not heat exhaustion. In either case, this is a tragedy that is happening all too often and a clear trend is emerging and it seems our children do not appear to be safe in the hands of high school coaches.

After I decided that sports medicine was the direction I wanted my career to take, I started volunteering at local beach volleyball tournaments and triathlons. I had been putting in my time with more experienced sports medicine physicians for a couple of years when in the summer of 1994 I saw my first case of heat exhaustion. It was late in the day during the 1994 Bud Light Florida Beach Volleyball tournament on Ft. Lauderdale beach that we began to see them. This was an armature tournament and the players presented with very hot and red skin, not sweating after playing for hours and the muscles in their extremities (arms and legs) were fibrillating. We immediately administered fluids, cool towels and called 911 to transport to the local E.R. for I.V. fluids an evaluation. Luckily, no one died.

This brings up a good point, this was an amateur tournament and they didn’t have the knowledge or experience to know much about heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Luckily we were there in the medical tents and were able to handle it. But what about your teenage son or daughter and their high school coach? How well trained is the high school coach and assistant coaches in the prevention of heat exhaustion? Does the coach know what to do to help prevent heat exhaustion of heat stroke? Do they know what the signs and symptoms are and could they recognize it before it becomes too late? Just remember, they’re coaching your child.

Former coach David Jason Stinson, 37, was charged after 15-year-old Max Gilpin collapsed at an August 2008 practice as the team ran a series of sprints known as "gassers." He died three days later at a Louisville hospital of heat stroke, sepsis and multiple organ failure. His temperature reached at least 107 degrees. Players said Stinson ordered the gassers as punishment for the lack of effort they showed at practice on a day where th temperature and heat index were both 94 degrees. Prosecutors relied on a series of Gilpin's teammates who testified that several teens became ill during the gassers, vomiting or bowing out of the running with ailments.Several medical and athletic training experts also testified for the prosecution, saying Gilpin suffered from exertional heat stroke, which led to his death. One witness, University of Connecticut associate professor Douglas Casa, said Gilpin could have been saved if he'd been immersed in ice water almost immediately after collapsing on the field. Click here to read more on this story

 All too often I’ve seen coaches use water as the bait to get their kids to push themselves to the max. They use water as a punishment and a reward and this is utterly stupid and puts your child at risk. Athletes should drink enough water to prevent thirst, not wait until their thirsty to start drinking.
Parents and coaches should also know that dehydration reduces athletic performance. So if a coach is trying to get more out of the athlete, then drinking water and keeping hydrated is critical to top athletic performance. Studies show that athletes who lose as little as 2% of their body weight through sweating have a drop in blood volume which causes the heart to work hard in order to circulate the blood. A drop in blood volume can also lead to muscle cramping, dizziness, fatigue as well as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

If there isn’t a sports medicine professional such as an athletic trainer, certified sports chiropractor or medical physician at the practices or games, then you need to make sure that your children’s coach knows the signs or heat exhaustion and stroke and knows how to properly coach your kids to prevent dehydration. Water is essential for life and no longer should coaches use water as a reward or punishment to get their athletes to push themselves longer and harder.

If you are as concerned about this as I am, then take a few moments and read the 10 Ways To Prevent Heat Stroke In Student Athletes. 

Exercising during the hot summer can be very dangerous. Make sure your child's coaches have the proper training and take the proper precautions.  Make sure the coach and your child knows how important it is hydrate themselves. Make sure they know you get better performance when properly hydrated and make sure they know the consequences for not hydrating. 

This isn't one of those issues to take lightly. This is life and death.  It's easier to have a hard talk with the coach and threaten to pull your child from their program than to give a eulogy about your child.

Sorry to be so harsh, but this isn't a time to mince words.

'nuff said

Dr. T

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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My Birthday Present To You

Posted By Miami Beach Chiropractor & Sports Medicine Physcian, Dr. Todd Narson

Dear Friends,

So, today is my birthday, but today, I want to give you a present. The present is the opportunity for you to learn some valuable information that could improve your health and the health of your family. As you know, I'm a big supporter of the Paleo Diet and "caveman" eating principles. I use these principles when helping my patients find relief from pain, lose weight, increase athletic performance and generally improve their state of health.  I feel the most precious things we have in life are our health, our time and our loved ones...I ask you to take an hour and watch this video presentation by Loren Cordain, PhD, author of The Paleo Diet & The Paleo Diet for Athletes as he presents a body of evidence supporting the validity of our original human diet.

Here's to your health!

Enjoy

Dr. Narson

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

#chiropractormiamibeach #MiamiBeachChiropractor #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #DrNarson #ToddNarson #Narson #TriDoc #TriathlonDoc #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #SportsMedicine #SportsChiropractor #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #SportsMedicineMiami #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiChiropractor #Triathlon #Running #Ironman #IFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #MiamiBeachChiropractor #GrastonTechnique #FAKTR #IASTM #Chiropractor #FootPain #Narson #NarsonBodyMechanic #NarsonTool #DACBSP #CCSP #ACBSP #BackPain #NeckPain #ShoulderPain #RotatorCuff #ITBandSyndrome #runnersKnee #PlantarFasciitis #Plantarfascitis #AchillesTendonitis #AchillesTendonosis #GettingAthletesBackInTheGame  #MiamiBeachChiropractor #MiamiSportsMedicine #MiamiBeachSportsMedicine #WeFixPeopleInPain #TrainWithoutPain #ChiropracticSportsMedicine #ACASC #ProSportChiropractic #FunctionalMedicineMiami #DrNarson #BackPainRelief #NeckPainRelief #SportsInjuriesFixedHere #LaserTherapy #RockTape #KinesioTape #KTTape #Nutrition #21DayPurificationProgram #DetoxProgram #PaleoDiet #PaleoDoc #FunctionalNutrition #Chirooractor #Chiropractic #ChiropracticPhysician #DoctorOfChiropractic #USATriathlon #USAT #TeamUSA

It's Time To Re-Think That Big Bowl of Pasta The Night Before Your Race...

It's tradition for marathoners, triathletes and the like to have that big bowl of pasta the night before the big race. I've personally never been a big fan of this, but it seemed to be tradition, I love pasta but know it's not good for me (so any excuse to eat it worked fine for me) and hey.. I was gonna race it off the next day anyway. But it seems it might not be the best fuel for your optimal performance after all.

This is a repost, originally published on Bicycling Magazine at www.Bicycling.com 

Cycling Nutrition: Big Fat Lies

Big Fat Lies
A surprising new approach to losing weight and keeping it off—and riding longer and stronger than ever.

One of the long-enduring traditions at bike events of all stripes is the pasta dinner the evening before the big ride. After all, who doesn't believe in the hearty, turbo-fueling quality of a whopping plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce?

As it turns out, the nonbelievers include a number of highly informed people, including Allen Lim, PhD, the brains behind much of Garmin-Slipstream's training and race preparation. "There's nothing nutritious about that," Lim says. In fact, he has eliminated all processed wheat from the team's diet, and at races has replaced traditional starchy foods with balanced, whole-food fuel such as rice cakes made with eggs, olive oil, prosciutto and liquid amino acids. If this creates the impression that Lim knows something you don't, well, that's probably true. His job is to make sure that, unlike the rest of us, his team doesn't blithely adhere to old, counterproductive eating habits—habits that can lead to unnecessary weight fluctuation and diminished performance.

Here's the good news. We've tapped into this new school of food science led by the likes of Lim to correct popular misconceptions about food, particularly about carbs and fat. Proponents of this new approach believe, for example, that a diet heavy in starch causes your body to burn sugar instead of fat, so you bonk more easily, often eat too much and end up overweight rather than properly fueled.

Even Joe Friel, who relentlessly advocated carbohydrates in his training bible series of books, has done a 180, turning his back on starches and relying instead on vegetables, fruits and lean meats as fuel. Consider this our effort to correct myths and misconceptions you've been exposed to over the years. Follow this advice, and you won't just live lean. You'll also be able to ride longer on less food and never bonk.


FALLACY #1  - A calorie is a calorie
This might be the biggest weight-loss misunderstanding in existence. For years we've been told that weight loss is a simple calories-in, calories-out equation, and 3,500 excess calories will put on a pound whether they come from soybeans or banana cream pie. That's simply not true.

"There are three key types of calories: carbohydrate, protein and fat," says sports nutritionist Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, CSSD, creator and coauthor of the Flat Belly Diet (published by Rodale, Bicycling's parent company). "They're as different as gasoline, motor oil and brake fluid in terms of the roles they play in keeping your body operating optimally." Sass says that many of her clients might eat the perfect number of calories, but they have cut their fat intake too much. So the jobs that fat does, such as repairing cell membranes and optimizing hormones, go undone, and the surplus carbs are stored as fat. By correcting her clients' balance of carbs, protein and fat without changing their calorie intake, she says, she has helped them lose weight, improve their immune systems, gain muscle and boost energy.

The Get-Lean Fix
Eat a representative of each macronutrient group at every meal. Sass recommends getting 50 to 55 percent of your calories from carbs (fill half your plate with vegetables, fruits and some whole grains), 25 to 30 percent from fats (olive oil, avocado and so on), and 15 to 20 percent from protein (lean meats, fish, eggs and poultry). "Just be sure to skew your preworkout meals or snacks to be heavier in carbs and lower in fat and protein to fuel up properly and avoid cramps," says Sass.


Fallacy #2 - Starches are sensible fuel
At some point, starch became synonymous with carbohydrate. While pasta and bagels are carbohydrates, and you do need carbs for fuel, they're often not the best sources, especially if you're trying to keep weight off. Starchy carbs are easy to overeat, and any surplus goes to your fat stores. "Your brain operates on sugar, and when you eat bagels or potatoes, your body turns them into sugar and delivers them to your cells quickly, which makes your brain happy and leaves you wanting more," says Friel. So in this case, you shouldn't listen to your body.

Fruits and vegetables, by contrast, are rich in carbs but often lower in calories and also digest more slowly. You're less likely to plow through so many berries and carrots that you end up with more fuel than you need. As a bonus, plant foods are loaded with vitamins, minerals and immunity-boosting phytonutrients that make you healthier and stronger, so you can ride better and burn more calories.

The Get-Lean Fix
Choose carbs wisely. Eat starchy, quick-digesting carbs only during and right before and after training rides or races, when it's important to get food that can be quickly digested and converted to fuel. Otherwise, get your carbs from fruits and vegetables.

How much is enough? If you're eating considerably more than Sass's recommended 50 to 55 percent, especially from starchy sources, then you risk changing your metabolism, says Friel. "When I see someone who has started eating lots of starch," he says, "they not only have gained fat, they've also changed their metabolism from fat-burning to sugar-burning." It doesn't happen over one plate of pasta, but the body is adaptable. "Over the course of a few of months," Friel says, "it will switch over to burn whatever you're feeding it most."

When possible, pair your carbs with some protein. Lean meats, nut butters, fish and eggs slow digestion, so you feel full sooner, get more even energy from your meals and stay full longer. The amino acids in protein also help repair, build and maintain muscle tissue.

It's no coincidence that Americans got heavier as fat consumption went down. For years, the government preached low-fat, carb-heavy diets. "This wasn't only misguided; it was flat-out wrong," Friel says.


Fallacy #3 - All fat makes you fat
As your body becomes more conditioned, you become a better fat burner. You need ample amounts of healthy fat, which, contrary to widely held belief, won't make you fat. In fact, starchy foods turn to stored fat far more quickly. What's more, evidence is stacking up that healthy unsaturated fats are essential for firing up your fat-burning metabolism. In a study of 101 men and women, Harvard researchers put half the group on a low-fat diet and half on a diet that included about 20 percent of calories from monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). After 18 months, the MUFA-eating group had dropped 11 pounds; its low-fat-eating peers had shed only six. Fat is also slower to digest than carbs, so it helps you stay hunger-free longer.

Fat will help you ride longer so you can burn more calories, says Friel. Research shows that athletes who get about 50-plus percent of their diet from fat produce better average times to exhaustion in exercise tests than those eating typical low-fat, high-carb diets.

The Get-Lean Fix
Add healthy fats to every meal. Sass recommends getting about 20 percent of your calories from MUFAs, or about 55 grams per day at 2,500 calories, which is what most cyclists eat as training ramps up. "Because most athletes don't have time to count fat grams, the simpler message is: Include small portions of good fats, like almonds, avocado and olive oil, with all meals and snacks," she says. Try nuts and seeds, olive-based tapenades and even the occasional chunk of dark chocolate. Some healthy portions to shoot for:

Nuts and seeds Everything from pecans to pine nuts, almond butter to tahini. A serving size is 2 tablespoons.
Olives Black, green, mixed or blended in a spreadable tapenade. A serving is 10 large olives or 2 tablespoons of spread.
Oils Canola, flaxseed, peanut, safflower, walnut, sunflower, sesame or olive. Cook with them; drizzle them; eat them in pesto. One serving is 1 tablespoon.
Avocado As guacamole or just slice and serve. One-quarter cup equals one serving.
Dark chocolate Go for one-quarter cup of dark or semisweet, or about 2 ounces.


Fallacy #4 - Food comes from a box
Many cyclists who think they're eating healthfully often consume far more sugar and sodium than they realize because they eat so much pasta, cereals, energy bars and other processed foods. "The vast majority of grocery-store foods are packaged junk," says sports nutritionist and exercise physiologist Tavis Piattoly, RD, LD, of Elmwood Fitness Center, in New Orleans. Some items also contain trans fats—the kinds of fats you want to avoid. The sugar is also troublesome for weight loss because it causes the body to step up its production of insulin, which in turn blocks hormones that control appetite. As a result, the food you eat is quickly stored as fat—and still, you're always hungry.

The Get-Lean Fix
Eat mostly whole foods that are part of an animal or plant, Piattoly says. Fill most of your cart with foods from the grocery store's perimeter first; that's where the fresh produce, meats, fish and other whole foods are found. Then go down the center aisles to fill in the rest. That should reflect the proportion of processed foods you include in your diet.



Fallacy #5 - Skipping breakfast is fine if you need to drop a few pounds
Eat breakfast. That bit of essential advice is food gospel. Still, according to a survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation, fewer than half of us eat a morning meal. Breakfast is the key that starts your fat-burning metabolism. Without it, you go into an energy deficit that not only leaves you ravenous (and more likely to overeat) later, but also suppresses your calorie-burning furnace, so what you do eat is more likely to go into storage. Research shows that people who skip breakfast are 4 1/2 times more likely to be overweight than those who don't. "It's one of the biggest fueling mistakes almost everyone makes," says Piattoly.

The Get-Lean Fix
Because you have a whole day of activity—usually including a ride—ahead of you, try to eat about 25 percent of your daily calories at your morning meal. That meal should include protein, healthy fat and fiber-rich carbs like fruit. A British study found that exercisers who ate a breakfast high in fiber burned twice as much fat during workouts later in the day than those who ate less fibrous foods.

For a power breakfast that'll sustain you well into the day, try two eggs any style; cup whole oats, cooked; 1 cup yogurt; a cup of mixed berries; coffee; and orange juice.


Fallacy #6 - You can eat the same at age 40 as age 20
Muscle is the engine that powers your pedals, but it also drives your calorie-burning metabolism. The more lean tissue you have, the more calories you burn and the leaner you stay. As we age, we naturally lose muscle and thus gain fat. Cycling and strength training help stem that loss, but the right foods are more important for muscle maintenance than most people realize. Because of age-related kidney changes, our blood becomes more acidic and we excrete nitrogen, an essential component of muscle protein, faster than we take it in, Friel says. "Essentially we end up peeing away our muscles," he says. And with a net loss of nitrogen, you can't form new muscle.

The Get-Lean Fix
Turn the tide on nitrogen loss and preserve muscle mass by increasing the alkalinity of your blood to neutralize the acidity, says Friel. One way is with supplements like Acid Zapper, but you can also eat foods that enhance alkaline. Fruits and veggies are the only foods that offer a net increase, says Friel. Fats and oils are neutral. All other foods, including grains, legumes and meats, have an acid-producing effect. If you don't get most of your carbs from fruits and vegetables, Friel says, you're losing muscle mass as well as calcium from your bones, which also gets leached away in an acidic environment as you age.


Fallacy #7 - You're never hungry... or you're always hungry
Most diets treat hunger as the enemy. But it's actually your closest ally, says Piattoly. "Once you start the fat-reduction process, you'll be a little hungry, but not starving," he says. "The trick is balancing the two, so you're losing weight, but not setting yourself up for a binge."

The Get-Lean Fix
Try to eat every three to four hours, says Piattoly. "Eat breakfast, then wait until you feel hungry and eat just until you're no longer hungry," he says. "That's where people usually go wrong. They eat past the point of satisfaction until they're 'full.' Eat only until you're no longer hungry. If you don't feel hungry again in three to four hours, you ate too much earlier." Once you get the hang of it, weight loss and maintenance is much easier.

Where the Carbs Are
Fruits and vegetables are a more substantial source of carbohydrate than most people realize.

RAISINS, seedless (1/4 cup) 32g
BRUSSELS SPROUTS, cooked (1/2 cup) 7g
PEAS, cooked (1 cup) 25g
STRAWBERRIES (1 cup) 11g
SPINACH, cooked (1 cup) 7g
SUCCOTASH, cooked (1 cup) 47g
CARROTS, cooked (1/2 cup) 8g
ORANGE (1 medium) 14g
COLLARD GREENS, cooked (1 cup) 12g
CORN, sweet, cooked (1 ounce) 7g
CANTALOUPE (1 cup) 15g
SQUASH, winter, acorn, cooked (1 cup) 30g
SWEET POTATO, baked w/ skin (large) 44g
ARTICHOKE, cooked (1 medium) 13g
WATERMELON (1 cup) 11g
GREEN PEPPER (1 cup) 10g
BROCCOLI, raw (1 cup) 4g PEACH (1 large) 17g BANANA (medium) 30 g

Pasta & Grains
SPAGHETTI (1 cup) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40g
SPAGHETTI, whole wheat (1 cup) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37g
TAGLIATELLE (1 cup) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44g
WHEAT BREAD (1 slice) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12g
RYE BREAD (1 slice) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15g
MIXED-GRAIN BREAD (1 large slice) . . . . . . . . . .5g
FRENCH BREAD (5 inches) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18g
PITA BREAD, WHITE (6-inch diameter) .. . . . . . . .33g
LONG-GRAIN WHITE RICE (1 cup) . . . . . . . . . . . 45g
SHORT-GRAIN WHITE RICE (1 cup) . . . . . . . . . . 37g

Source URL: http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/nutrition-weight-loss/big-fat-lies

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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