Thursday, March 15, 2007

Painful food...

I have recently done a few pod casts for www.Yourmtb.com. Walker, the gracious host, coined the phrase 'painful food' during one of our discussions, and we are to cover this topic in more detail tomorrow as we record our third podcast on gastrointestinal intolerance in the athlete.

What a great way to describe food and beverages that irritate your gut during training and racing, especially in the heat. My sport medicine practice is full of patients who struggle with stomach and intestinal upset, and I am grateful to these patients for giving me real life stories to shape my thinking on this topic. Combine that with some of the science currently out there, and the golden rules of 'PainLESS food' are thus:

1. No fructose-fructose is natural fruit sugar, a common cheap sweetener used in most sport nutrition products. Some manufacturers are even happily putting this sugar in many of it's products, with the back up of one study that suggests that using fructose with one other sugar in the product enhances absorption and utilization of the carbs. Great, as long as your not on the verge of vomiting due to fructose ingestion, if it's true at all...

2. No resistant starch-which most gels contain due to the fact that their maltodextrin components are derived from dent corn, a variety of corn that contains indigestible carbs called resistant starch, which merrily pass into your colon, contributing to gas, bloating, pain and dehydration due to their osmotic effects. In effect, this starch behaves like fibre...which you definitely don't want in your competition diet.

3. As neutral pH as possible-pH measures acidity. Water has a pH of 7-lower is more acidic, and higher is more alkaline (or, basic). The stomach is a pretty acidic place to begin with, but the stress of endurance activity, especially in the heat, turns on the acid pumps in your stomach even more, increasing your stomach sensitivity to ingested acid. Therefore, the products that are closest to pH of 7, or, even slightly alkaline to help buffer stomach acid, are usually best tolerated. Who cares about pH and acid? Not many manufacturers do.

4. Simple is better-your body needs three things for most endurance events-water, electrolytes and carbs. That's it-nothing else...no protein, no vitamins, no fat, no artificial sweeteners...give your body only what it needs, as your gastrointestinal tract has enough troubles processing even these things, let alone complicating it with non-necessary stuff.

That's a good start. Check out the podcast for more...

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