Viewers like you

The Superbowl broke a viewing record of 111 million viewers according to Nielsen. That is more than a third of the American population. It also the number of households in the US so I suspect it could be a tad optimistic. However, combined with record temperatures that shot up in the high seventies (close to 25C)  I had a gas riding my bike on Sunday. It was awesome weather and nobody was on the street. As an additional benefit, I also missed those million dollar commercials that everybody is ranting and raving about.

The one that started it all

During the Superbowl most Americans practiced overeating and overdrinking and so much of the country is now overweight that the USDA (and HHS) started recommending that people eat less. USDA and HHS (Health and Human Services) form an odd couple but that is another story.

All that is good for you 

The agencies recommended that people eat fish, not exactly a product the USDA constituents in the agribusiness benefit from. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Don't worry too much about the future of agriculture though. The first reason is that fish will soon be history; and two, USDA may well say the right things but behind everyone's back they put real money to work to do just the opposite.

In any case, the latest recommendations capture all there is to know about nutrition, or nutrition science as it is often referred to. The latter, like all disciplines that add the word science to their name is not very scientific. The correct wording is nutritionism, which like other -isms is really an ideology.

Eating less is something most masters athletes should take to heart. A substantial number of them are overweight and instead of investing serious money in lighter carbon fiber frames, they should consider eating (and drinking) less. A whole lot less. Even some juniors with competitive aspirations would do well to eat less. Cycling is above all a sport of very skinny, large chested, not-too-tall individuals sporting oversized leg muscle. All other accumulations of fat or muscle are to be avoided at all costs.

When it comes to food, the more you try to eat normal food the better. That means stay away from processed or prepared stuff and avoid all supplements, minerals, anti-oxidants, vitamins and other chemistries. At best these will just cost you a lot of money. At worst, you may test positive for one of the many forbidden fruits that WADA has on its lists. And when that happens good luck to you!

Remember you are responsible for what goes into your body. Although at first glance this may appear sensible, however in this day and age it is anything but. Nearly everyone has to buy their food in the store and nearly all foods in the store are manipulated to some degree or other. Most manipulations are fairly minor, such as spraying water (and pesticides?) over vegetables to make them look fresh, but some are not. And when it comes to packaged foods, all bets are of. The worst are of course the health food stores. Here people actively add substances they think are missing from real food. No wonder food labeling is becoming such a difficult matter.

Ricco, off to a good start

And in more shocking news, Riccardo Ricco was taken to the hospital yesterday with what appeared to be an infection. Today however, we learn that the Italian Judiciary has opened an investigation because they suspect Ricco landed in the hospital as a result of a botched blood transfusion. Another Italian Lorenzo Bernucci just received a five year suspension effectively terminating his cycling career. Yes it is that time of year again so brace yourselves for more good news. As long as this bone-headed doping policy is in effect, the news will keep coming.

Things I learned: food and drink

Here are some of the things I learned about marathons. I have now completed 5 races (3 marathons and 2 ironman marathons) and these prescriptions hold up very well. I do better than before and the difference is significant. For a regular marathon my gain is 15 minutes or more, and for the ironman 20 or more. These are well-tested observations.

1. The more normal your diet is the better. I eat normal food, I use no supplements of any kind, no vitamins, no minerals, no protein powders, nothing, nada. 

1b. You don't need a high carb diet to run, and a high carb diet will only make you feel hungry or cause you to over-eat. Fat is great, you heard it here!

1c. The most important thing about diet is quantity. Don't overeat!

2. Carbo-loading (the traditional way) works very well for ironman but less so for marathons. This time I did not stick to my carbo-load and it made no difference.

2b. You cannot carbo-load the night before. These so-called carbo-loading pasta dinners are to be avoided at all costs.

3. Avoid fruit and vegetables and anything with added fiber (you should not eat that stuff in any case) for about 2 days before the race. It will greatly reduce your need to find porta-potties beforehand, to stop during the race, or to suffer from abdominal cramps or stomach upsets.

4. Eat a small breakfast and drink little before the race. It will avoid stomach upsets and potty breaks. You can even skip breakfast if the race is early. Always eat less than you are used to.

5. Don't drink too much. I don't drink before mile 8 and very little afterwards. Yes you will dehydrate, but so will everyone else; even those that drink. The cure for dehydration is to stay clothed in hot weather and to train in race conditions. Your body will adapt. You will lose less fluid, less salt, and you will tolerate the losses better. The cure and prevention is to RUN MORE.

6. A gel (or two) at mile 17-18 is a great placebo. Pick one with caffeine because it will help. The other ingredients are useless, although the taste matters. The sugar can be helpful but, if trained well you should be able to complete a marathon on your stored sugars (glycogen).

6b. Don't drink too much coffee beforehand. Not because it is a diuretic -that effect is minimal- but because you will feel wired and you will be tempted to run too hard in the beginning. If you are easily excitable, be especially careful, because the setting can be very conducive to running too fast.

7. The key to marathons is pacing. Run an even pace. An even pace will always trump the alternatives. Avoid stopping or walking, keep going at all times (this is especially true in ironman). If you feel exceptionally good at mile 23, then you can run a bit harder and shoot for a better time.

8. All gadgets are useless. They weigh extra, they distract you, and they prevent you from listening to your body. Unless you learn to listen to your body, you will never run well. If you run well, the data you collect will contain no information (i.e. it won't be any different from any other run so the information content is zero), although they make for great facebook postings.

9. Wear light shoes and light clothing. Don't lug stuff around. Lighter is better. Remove all excess weight. Certainly don't carry water in a race. You are just making it harder on yourself.

More to come..

Nutrition and science

There is very little science in nutrition science. Unfortunately, this is one area where we know very little but make very big claims. Nearly all rules and prescriptions regarding food are based on culture, custom, religion, hearsay, prejudice, or other unsubstantiated data. Things like the famous food pyramid are driven by commercial interests only. The food pyramid urges you to eat what farmers want to sell. It is as simple as that.

Fortunately, we are largely independent of what we eat. Humans are true omnivores and nearly any diet that is unforced will do. Especially for adults. Adult humans are remarkably insensitive to food types as long as the quality is good. Quality in this case means free of toxins, infectious agents, or contaminants. By and large, food in the Western world is of very high quality and unintentional food poisoning is quite rare.

Unforced is another key term. In this context it means the person can pick and choose from a variety of items. The more freedom people have the better. The more a specific diet is forced on them, the more likely they are to get sick. Nearly all vitamins and essential elements have been discovered by forcing people to eat "scientifically" designed diets.

Contrary to what most parents seem to think, kids naturally know what is good for them. If left to their own devices and kept away from artificially sweetened items, they will eat a healthy diet, even though their day to day intake will be far more erratic than that of an adult. It is true that kids will binge on certain foods, but after a short while they will have enough of it and develop a taste for something they lack.

Humans have one great weakness and that is sugar. Pure sugar is rare in nature and it is difficult to find. But sugar is an essential food item and so people are very attuned to finding it and liking it. Craving it is the better word. Marketers of all stripes discovered this rather quickly and in rich cultures without a solid tradition and footing in cuisine -such as America- sweets quickly took over. Coupled with a sedentary life-style, sugar is wreaking havoc and causing illness everywhere.

The result is an epidemic of obesity. Due to advertising and global trade, other cultures that did have a solid tradition -such as France, the mediterranean, and others- are quickly falling prey to the sugar menace. Armed with a small amount of technology, it is easy and cheap to make highly refined sugar products. Furthermore, these items sell so well that the temptation to sell them is equally hard to resist.

Although many texts recommend a carbohydrate rich diet for athletes, I think it is a mistake. Carbohydrates are important before, during, and after hard workouts, but to switch to a year-round high carb diet is asking for trouble. Many athletes have trouble with their diet and weight as is, and suggesting more sugar is making things worse. It has gone so far that many avoid fats, a key ingredient, and the best substance to induce satiety and remove the constant hunger many carb-rich athletes feel.

Whatever you do, please try to eat a normal diet. It doesn't really matter what diet you choose as long as you pick one that has been tried and tested for a few decades at the minimum. No diet has any advantage over another and all the claims to the contrary, whether made in the popular press or in "scientific papers," are downright wrong.

The worst thing you can do is try an artificial diet, or one concocted by a "scientist" or "nutritionist" a short time ago. These diets are nearly always trouble and should be avoided at all costs.

Remember to always eat normal food, and avoid sugary drinks.

Calories and energy (once again)

The other day I was offered an energy drink sample "without calories." It happened at the expo for a major race. I was in a good mood, the drink tasted fine and the sales person was upbeat. So I decided to ask a stupid question: how can the drink have energy without calories? The friendly sales person did not get the joke. He seriously tried to help me by talking about carbohydrates, fats, and the like. It fell short.

Desperate, and suspecting he missed something important, he referred me to his expert colleague who pondered the same question. We had a bit of a back and forth and the "expert" finally agreed there was a minor problem "in my way of looking at things."

Well, he said, look at it this way, the drink does not contain energy, it releases your energy. There you go. My energy was trapped in my body. It could even make me fat if I was not careful. My body was good at storing energy, yet when it came to using it, it underperformed. No wonder we have so many obese people?

My energy was screaming to be released, apparently in vain. And that is why his company had developed this miraculous drink. So I could use the energy stored in my body. It is amazing what one can hear at health expos. Athletes must be very gullible indeed.

Energy and no calories. The trick? Caffeine.

At the risk of spoiling the fun, I want to just clarify a few issues.  A calorie is a unit of energy, much like a inch (or a meter) is a unit of length and a pound (or a kilogram) is a unit of weight. When you say a food contains energy but no calories you make no sense. It is like saying my arm is long but has no inches, or my backpack is heavy but has no pounds. If a drink has zero calories it has no energy. Ergo, it is not an energy drink.

Nobody requires special stuff to burn energy. We do it continuously. It is essential to life. If you cut off my energy supply I die. Right away. Every cell in a body needs a continuous energy supply. You cut it off and it's game over. Not all cells are equally demanding however, and some can use energy anaerobically (i.e. without oxygen). Ironically enough, the cells that transport oxygen (the red blood cells) are anaerobic cells. No fair stealing the cargo!

Here is another trick question that is often asked in physiology exams: how long does it take for your brain to die when there is no glucose? Hint: Brains are very energy intensive and they can only use glucose under normal conditions.

Most people think it takes a while. A few hours maybe? So, let's ask the question a different way, how long does it take for your brain to die without oxygen? That is better you say, everyone knows it takes only a few minutes (three minutes is often used). 

Have you ever wondered what your brain does with the oxygen? It oxidizes sugar (glucose). No sugar is equivalent to no oxygen. 

What throws people off is that everyone knows you have to breathe all the time to stay alive, but you don't have to eat nearly as frequently -although some seem to have missed the latter rule. The reason you don't need to eat all the time is because you can store substrate (fuel) but not oxygen.

There is glucose floating around in your blood all the time. The level of glucose is constant and your liver keeps it that way. It is a tightly regulated system and only your brain can use glucose at any time. The rest of your body has to do with fatty acids.

To keep glucose levels constant, your liver has access to plenty of stored glucose in the form of glycogen. If the glycogen runs out, the liver can regenerate sugar from protein. It can keep going like that for a day or two. Fortunately, that is rarely called for and most people eat 3-4 meals a day to replenish the stores.

Should trouble arise, there is another fallback mechanism. The liver can produce ketones from fat. Although you can and do make fat from sugar there is no way back.

During times of starvation, your brain can switch to ketones and stay alive. At the same time, your metabolism is throttled back too. All these combined give you several weeks to months worth of survival if needed. 

However, as any diabetic can tell you, if your blood sugar (glucose) level drops by even a small amount, you can go in coma and die rather quickly. The reason diabetics know this is because they have access to a rather powerful drug called insulin. And they have to measure their insulin carefully because insulin can play havoc with your glucose levels in a heartbeat. All diabetics experience hypoglycemia at least once in their lives. It is a rather unpleasant and potentially deadly experience that requires quick intervention lest it be fatal.

The latter also explains why so-called "hypoglycemic" attacks in otherwise normal individuals who do not inject insulin, are nonsense. Nonsense too are the prescriptions not to eat sugars before exercise lest you suffer from a bout hypoglycemia minutes later. Some extend this to simple sugars (versus the "healthier" complex carbohydrates) or to sugars and coffee. All of it is nonsense.

It is often explained in the following way: you eat too much sugar so you get an insulin response with an overshoot and then you start shaking and feel weak because of hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for it whatsoever. Although it may sound plausible, it is not. Blood glucose levels are not to be messed with. Remember, no glucose is equivalent to no oxygen. No room for sloppy behavior here. No room for "a bit of an overshoot."

Not convinced? Ever seen evidence of people going in coma with convulsions after eating too much candy?  It does not happen. If it did, the US population would decrease rather quickly.

As for the complex carbs, it is another popular myth. Complex carbs are absorbed as simple sugars. It takes marginally longer to do, but the difference is irrelevant.  Carbohydrate breakdown in the gut is incredibly fast. Furthermore, as far as the blood is concerned, the only "visible" sugar here is glucose.

No evidence for fiber either. Absorption with or without fiber appears equally quick. Some have shown evidence that the presence of fiber may accelerate uptake instead of slowing it down.

In short, all the talk about glycemic index is pseudoscience. It is not even clear that the stated glycemic index of a particular food item is accurate.

There is only one thing to remember about carbohydrate. Too much makes you fat. And it does so because it is easy to eat carbs and to keep eating them. If you only eat carbs you are very likely to over-eat. And that is not good. Put some cream cheese on your bagel !