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If you are wearing the uniform, you are an athlete. Both the Soldier and the more “typical” athlete will benefit from honing in on their nutrition.
When you read the words “sports nutrition,” thoughts of Power Bars, gels, Gatorade and protein shakes may come to mind along with a myriad of more obscure and expensive products and supplements. Clinical observation and a literary review quickly find that too much junk food disguised as “performance enhancing” products may be sabotaging your performance, waist-line and health.
The athlete’s first priority should be consuming high quality foods. In general, the more ingredients listed on an ingredients label and the longer the shelf life of a product, the further it is away from being a real food.
Fruits and vegetables contain highly available nutrients that are vital to bodily functions – choose a variety of colors and eat at least five servings per day. Quality protein sources, such as eggs, chicken or fish, improve recovery and muscle repair – eat a lean protein source with every meal. Nuts, seeds and olives contain good fats that provide steady energy and reduce health risks. When grains are consumed, they should come from whole grain sources such as brown rice or oats. Foods with added sugars serve no essential function in the body, can impose significant health risk for both athletes and non-athletes, and should generally be avoided except in extreme circumstances, such as an ultra-endurance athlete. Once your food quality is in order, you can begin to think about what to eat before, during and after a workout.
Several studies have found that eating slow-releasing carbohydrate, such as those found in fruits, lentils or bran cereal, one to three hours before exercise increases performance and increases the amount of fat burned during exercise when compared to a quicker-releasing carbohydrate source, such as a sports drink, potato or corn flakes. So skip the corn-syrup filled energy bar or sports drink and choose instead a slower-releasing snack, such as fruit with a hard-boiled egg or plain yogurt, about an hour before exercise for a more productive workout.
During a workout it is important to consider the type of exercise as well as exercise duration when considering fluid and energy needs. For most activities lasting an hour or less, drinking anything other than water (4 ounces per 15 minutes of exercise) is unnecessary; performance will not be improved by drinking a sports drink. Furthermore, drinking a carbohydrate beverage before or during your workout may significantly reduce the proportion of fuel that comes from body fat stores. So if achieving weight loss is your primary goal, then a sports drink would not be recommended unless the workout is more than two to three hours of continuous, moderately high intensity movement.
After your workout, the muscles can replenish carbohydrate stores quicker when carbohydrates are consumed within the first two hours and fastest if consumed within 30 minutes. The addition of protein to the carbohydrates consumed in the post-workout window has been shown to speed the replenishment of muscle carbohydrate stores even more. Therefore, a common practice among exercising individuals is to consume a smoothie, energy bar or other meal immediately after workouts. What this practice commonly overlooks is that there is a limit to your carbohydrate fuel tank. If you are exercising once per day or less, there is no benefit in filling your “tank” rapidly in the “post-workout” window versus slowly over the next 20 to 24 hours. In fact, you would be better off waiting to get home to eat a fresh whole-foods meal rather than slamming down a sugar-filled product immediately. Conversely, if the period of time before your next workout is shorter (less than eight hours), post-workout nutrition becomes increasingly important, and feeding should begin as soon as possible to improve performance for the next bout.
These recommendations are designed to help the general population in maintaining energy while facilitating improved health and optimal body composition. However, your needs may differ depending on individual weight and performance goals. Those working toward weight loss will benefit from the more conservative recommendations already given. Competitive athletes and those who have achieved their body composition goals may benefit from additional nutritional measures. In addition to a slow-digesting snack before the workout, a carbohydrate and electrolyte (i.e. sodium and potassium) beverage during exercise may improve performance only if the exercise involves more than 60 minutes of sustained activity.
An immediate post-workout meal will be beneficial if you plan to exercise again in less than eight to 20 hours. For those interested in gaining weight, healthy and nutrient-dense meals before, during and after workouts along with several additional snacks throughout the day will help you to add on pounds healthfully. Individuals with unique circumstances or particularly long and/or intense workouts may need more aggressive feeding strategies and would be well served by doing further research and/or seeking the advice of a sports nutrition specialist.
Air Force’s Nutrition Month Activities
In honor of Air Force Nutrition Month in March, the Ramstein Health and Wellness Center is offering a Health and Fitness Forum from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 19 and from 8 to 10 a.m. March 26 at the Hercules Theater. The forum will consist of a panel of health and wellness experts in their respective fields. Maj. Brett Bishop from the 86th Medical Group Physical Therapy Clinic, will discuss injury prevention; Tim Cline, the health and fitness technician at the HAWC, will cover fitness and exercise strategies; 1st Lt. Philip “PJ” Menagh, registered dietitian at the HAWC, will discuss how to achieve a nutrient-dense and athletic performance-improving diet; and Tech. Sgt. David Fernandez, certified diet technician at the HAWC, will showcase meal planning tools.
For more information on the Health and Fitness Forum or other HAWC programs and services, call 480-4292.
