Who says endurance runners have to be vegetarian? Nutritionists analyze...

Carl Lewis, an American track and field legend, is a vegetarian track and field athlete. His outstanding performance has set a new milestone for vegetarian sports.

Endurance Sports - Carl Lewis

Murray Rose, a famous vegetarian swimmer, won three gold medals in the same Olympic Games at the age of 17. He is also the youngest athlete in the history of the Olympic Games to win three gold medals in a row. He is also known as one of the greatest swimmers in history.

With the vegetarian community fueling the trend, it seems that "athletes eating vegetarian food" has become an iron rule of diet that must be followed. Although the author is also a vegetarian, he also hopes to eat vegetarian food to save the earth and love animals. However, based on a neutral stance on nutrition, I would like to stand up for meat-eating athletes. “Is it okay for runners to eat meat?”

Before discussing the dichotomy between meat and vegetables, we should first think about, "Why do people say that being a vegetarian is better?" So, let's return to the most basic starting point, "What kind of nutrition do runners need?"

No matter what diet endurance athletes adopt, they have one ultimate goal: to avoid glycogen depletion. So how do you keep your body's glycogen sufficient? Simply put, it means "increase revenue, increase revenue and then reduce expenditure."

What does "increase revenue, increase revenue and then reduce expenditure" mean? First, increase the amount of glycogen in the body. One of the well-known methods is "glycogen super-replenishment", which not only replenishes the amount of glycogen in the body, but also fills it up to meet the needs of the competition. Second, preserve the glycogen in the body and avoid depletion. In addition to replenishing sugar during exercise, it is also necessary to keep insulin stable and avoid excessive insulin in the body that will digest all the sugar. Third, let fat assist in energy production as early as possible, because fat releases more energy and is more lasting, so as to avoid depletion of glycogen and inability to complete the schedule.

Endurance Exercise Guidelines

Also because "glycogen retention" is the key to winning the game. Therefore, in any diet, "high calories, high sugar, and high protein" is the ultimate goal of all diet plans.

Taking carbohydrates as an example, in order to cope with the body's consumption, the amount of carbohydrate food needed is nearly twice that of ordinary people (3 to 5 grams/kg for ordinary people; 8 to 10 grams/kg for endurance athletes).

The largest sources of sugar foods are starch and fruits. As for sources of starch, whole grains and root vegetables are the best, such as red beans, buckwheat, sweet potatoes, whole-grain rice and other ingredients. In addition to providing sufficient calories, they are also rich in fiber, which can keep blood sugar stable, thus killing two birds with one stone. Sufficient sugar intake can also prevent athletes from catching colds, which has many benefits!

For a high-protein diet, it is about 1.2~1.6 grams/kg (normal people have 1.0~1.2 grams/kg). I believe that meat eaters will be delighted to hear this, thinking that "high protein = eat more meat", so does that mean eating meat in big bites? However, this is also the disadvantage of meat-based diets, that is, the fat content cannot be too high. So, for an excellent meat-eating runner, wanting to chow down on grilled steak or fried chicken is not a good choice. It would be more appropriate to eat some low-fat foods, such as steamed fish, braised beef tenderloin, or medicinal braised chicken legs.

Psychotherapists have previously suggested that endurance athletes, such as runners, need a high-fat diet to avoid "blood sugar shocks." She must have only read half of the information. The literature pointed out that a high-fat diet (50% fat) is only suitable for consumption on the day of the competition and must be eaten four hours before the competition, combined with a balanced diet and supplements to improve performance. If consumed continuously for more than a week, it will reduce the body's glycogen storage, which will not be worth the cost.

Whether they are meat or vegetable athletes, they need to pay attention to calcium intake, and women should pay special attention to iron supplementation, otherwise they are likely to have anemia problems. Calcium sources include milk, frozen tofu, basil, etc.; iron-rich foods include liver and gallbladder, duck blood, emperor beans, etc., which are all good food sources. Therefore, whether it is meat or vegetables, the key is to eat in the right proportions, rather than the meat-vegetarian dichotomy!

Finally, I would like to remind you of the fallacy about high-protein diet. There is a saying circulating on the Internet that "people aged 50 to 65 who have a higher protein intake in their food have a shorter life expectancy." As for nutrition in old age, because the digestion and absorption ability becomes worse, a high-protein diet is better to reduce muscle loss in the body. Moreover, the elderly often have poor dental function, so in order to choose soft foods, they often consume too much fat. Therefore, readers who have elderly people at home, in addition to taking care of their own health, should also pay more attention to their elderly’s diet!

This article comes from: Nutrition and Medical Network

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