T
HREE or four decades ago,
an athlete’s nutritional
preparation most likely
amounted to little more
than eating copious amount of
carbs in the form of pasta, bread
and potatoes, swigging flat cola
and recovering with a glass of milk.
Dozens of athletes I’ve interviewed
from the 1970s and 1980s admit
their diets lacked any scientific
input with pre-competition meals
consisting of anything from toast
and jam to digestive biscuits.
Fast forward to today and sports
nutrition is a science in itself,
athletes armed as they are with
cutting-edge pea protein products
and nitrate shots, practicing bizarre
sounding rituals such as carb-
rinsing and tactical dehydration.
So what’s in and what’s out in
terms of nutrition – and which
products, if any, do you really need
to invest in to fuel your training?OUT
Carb loading
In the 1960s, researchers began
to show how muscle glycogen
levels could be influenced
and, as a result,
endurance could
be enhanced
work time
improved.
Cue a
craze in the
early 1970s
for ‘carbohydrate
loading’ among
marathon runners who trained
to exhaustion to deplete glycogen
stores, then ingested a low-carb
diet for two to five days before a
race.
This carb depletion phase was
followed by a loading of pasta,
bread, rice – any carbs they could,
70–85% carbohydrate, up to 600gor more of carbohydrate for one or
two days before they raced. It soon
became apparent that any gains
were matched with downsides –
athletes typically gained 2-3kg
(mostly fluid as glycogen is stored
in the body with water), felt poorly,
and were anxious about their
performance.
By the 1980s, a modified
approach, dubbed “loaf-loading”
by some, saw athletes ease down
completely on training and just eat
more carbs before a race.IN
Carb manipulation
For a while it seemed that
carbs were in danger of drifting
completely out of fashion in favour
of high fat and high protein diets –
something that triggered warning
lights among sports nutritionists.
According to the IAAF consensus
statement: “The usefulness of
high fat, low carb diets is limited
to selected individuals, events or
scenarios in distance events.”
A 2017 study on elite racewalkers conducted by Louise
Burke, nutritionist for the
Australian Institute
of Sport, concluded
that a low carb, high
fat diet significantly
“impairs performance in elite
endurance athletes
despite a significant
improvement
in peak aerobic
capacity”.
Strategic carb
manipulation is key for today’s
athletes – that means consuming
more carbs on training days that
require them for fuel and fewer
when the energy and training
demands are lower.OUT
Excessive use of
sports drinks
Hydration for athletes in the 1970s
and early 1980s typically meant
water or homemade concoctions
such as flat cola, a popular
beverage among top marathon
runners of the era. Ron Hill drank
nothing when he won the 1970
Commonwealth Games marathon.
Neither did Mike Gratton when he
won the 1983 London Marathon.
But when isotonic sports drinks
became popular in the late 1980s
and 1990s, the claims that their
unique concentration of easily
digestible carbohydrate particles
could enhance endurance
performance resulted in an
obsession with over-hydration.
Athletes were encouraged to drink
before thirsty to avoid dehydration
and it was recommended that
at least 500ml per hour of fluid
was consumed during endurance
training and events.PETA BEE ON WHAT’S IN AND WHAT’S OUT WHEN IT COMES
TO SOME CURRENT THEORIES ON NUTRITION FOR ATHLETES
Food for thought
Back in the
day: tea and
toast won’t
cut it for elite
performanceMike Gratton:
reportedly took
on no fluids on
route to his London
Marathon victoryMARK SHEARMANPERFORMANCE NUTRITION