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We are about to end the year and these days many are preparing to close 2014 by running, skiing, walking, shopping or simply resting.
Sport is generally health, but as it should not be otherwise, its connection with food is of the utmost importance.
Some eating habits, far from helping physical performance, worsen it and can even cause health problems.
Do you know what these maxims are that demystify his suitability for exercise?
In short, the false nutritional habits that hinder the performance of the hardened athlete that he must avoid at all costs are those related to the sugar paradigm, the need for food supplements, and the intake of liquids prior to the instinct of thirst.
1- Exercise performance is not directly proportional to the amount of sugar that we contribute to the body.
We have always related performance with glucose, and we are not misguided, but providing the body with excess of it, not only does not give us that extra performance that we think we need, but also provides a sglycemic obredosis that can cause obesity or diabetes.
The carbohydrates that we have in foods such as fruit are being replaced by many athletes by isotonic drinks, reaching in many cases to consume them outside the sports field.
These would only be prescribed for athletes who perform continuous exercise for more than 1 hour a day, and only as a supplement, not as a regular drink.
Be careful with sugars that in this 25st century we are getting to consume an amount between 35% and XNUMX% of our diet, and for more than a decade the WHO (World Health Organization) prescribed a maximum body need of around 10%.
2- In order to improve our sports brands, it is not necessary to go to dietary supplements.
Professional athletes, persecuted for “control”, have generally turned to natural supplements to balance and help improve their performance.
The rise of the Internet, globalization and the human condition of consumption itself has come to see in the vitamines, antioxidants or acids such as Omega3, a regular travel companion to improve on a day-to-day basis.
Not by providing the body with a high dose of vitamin C are we going to improve the race time, nor by having red fruits for breakfast, as true allies of the delay in cellular aging, will we be able to beat Bolt’s record in the 100m.
These supplements give the body balance so that with habit and training goals are achieved, not achievements by themselves.
Accessories like caffeine, present in many drinks, they have given positive performance improvement results of around 1%, but we must not forget that this simple improvement can bring many very negative cardiovascular side effects to the body.
We already know, fast is not good, everything cooked slowly, tastes better.
Our diet and our habits can be greatly improved, since the vast majority of the population, now “pseudo elite athletes“By clothing, not by food, it feeds on:
- Little fruit and vegetables.
- Few cereals, and almost always refined and not whole grains.
- Much meat and little fish.
- Many products made with lots of added salt, sugars and fats.
- Many “unnecessary” foods even “drinks”.
In conclusion, without training there is no performance.
3- You should not drink to drink to delay the urge to thirst.
And less before doing sports …
We have the false belief that the effect of thirst is going to be delayed by ingesting liquids prior to exercise.
Each organism is one and different and therefore thirst must appear physiologically when the organism’s regulatory mechanism indicates it.
As in cars, some consume more than others and their need for refueling will depend on the kilometers traveled and the consumption of their engine, for this reason, except on very hot days that dehydration will be faster, we must drink when the body asks us to do so. , that is, when our red thirst bulb indicates it.
Drinking before you are thirsty can not only impair performance but could also lead to hyponatremia (Lower the concentration of sodium in the blood which, if it is very dilute, could cause brain edema).
The National Athletic Trainers Association in its magazine of the month of January 2012, set the standard of having an individual hydration plan for each one, and if this is not marked, leave it to thirst for it to be the one who demands fluids from us.
To conclude we leave an appointment with the prestigious doctor Louise Burkethat describes us in his work “Nutrition in sport. A practical approach ”:
“Overconsumption is the most important nutritional problem in Western societies, where the commonly available portions of liquids and food are so large that they overwhelm any sense of hunger, thirst or need.”