August of every year is the beginning of intense training for high school athletes. Often these kids are getting very bad advice about diet from their well-meaning coaches. And, the health clubs are filled with trainers who give out advice that is just as bad, if not worse.
The most common deadly dietary recommendation for athletes is that in order to build muscle and enhance performance, they need to eat more protein. Actually, athletes need to eat more of all macronutrients, but the ratios of those macronutrients in the diet stay the same.
As for the statement that eating more protein builds muscle, with all of the protein that people in this country are eating, everyone should look like Arnold Schwartzenagger. There's a good reason they do not - it is that resistance training is what builds muscle mass. If you or an athlete you know is working out and not developing muscle, then the workout is not vigorous enough, or not being done properly.
Or, the muscles are overtrained. I talked to a woman a few days ago who was training 3 hours per day, 5 days per week. This is excessive, and does not allow ample time for recovery. She was actually gaining rather than losing weight as a result of it. One of the best investments you can make, if you can afford it, is a good personal trainer who can help you maximize your efforts by teaching you how to do an appropriate amount of training, combined with a proper amount of recovery in between workouts.
For teenage athletes, the development of muscle is very much related to growth spurts. All the protein in the world will not speed up this process, but excessive protein consumption will do a lot of damage in terms of kidney function, bone development and other biomarkers of health.
So, the diet for athletes is the same as the diet for everyone else, with the addition of more calories, and it should be based on complex carbohydrates.
Juul Achten, Ph.D., from the University of Birmingham in England, conducted a study examining the effects of complex carbohydrates on athletic performance. A group of male runners was divided into two groups. One ate a 40% carbohydrate diet and the other consumed a 65% carbohydrate diet for 11 days. The men ran every day and the mileage total for the study period was 110 miles.
During the last 7 days, all of the athletes were all timed daily while they ran a 16K run. The runners who ate the lower carb diet were 8% slower than those who ate the high-carb diet. The lower-carb runners also experienced more mood swings when given a standard mood assessment test. Many of the low-carb runners were forced to drop out of the study, while none of the high carb runners had to do so.
Another study examined whether or not the addition of protein to sports drinks affected athletic performance. Louise Burke, from the University of Melbourne in Australia conducted a study in which cyclists were divided into three groups - one drank a standard sports drink, another drank a sports drink with protein added and the third consumed a drink with extra carbohydrate. The cyclists pedaled for 2 1/2 hours at a moderate pace and then increased their workload. The researchers measured the amount of fat and carbohydrate burned, and their finish times. All groups burned the same amount of carbohydrate and fat, and there was no difference in the finish times, indicating no competitive advantage from consuming the extra protein.
The body uses glucose for fuel, and the most efficient way to get that glucose into the system is complex carbohydrates, not protein. And the diet recommended by The Wellness Forum is one that emphasizes the consumption of complex carbohydrates, which is beneficial to overall health, not just athletic performance.
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