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Fuel for Thought Series: Debunking Nutrition Myths with Alister Gardner
129 Plays6 months ago
You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled “Fuel for Thought”. Any guesses?
I mean if you know me, you know I love a good old play on words, hence the name of this new series that I’ve produced with Xact Nutrition.
Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups and sign up for big challenges but one of the things we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical, is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform.
So we’ve put together a multi episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that, in hopes that you come away with more in depth knowledge and a better understanding of nutrition.
On this episode of Just In Stride, Fuel for Thought edition, we’ll debunk various nutrition myths, with Elite road and trail runner, Alister Gardner.
When it comes to nutrition and best practices, everyone has an opinion. Whether it’s using salt tabs, choosing between real food vs gels or bars, identifying an ideal race weight, fasting during workouts or using supplements, we’ll provide detailed explanations and discuss the importance of each one.
So no matter if you’re an elite or just starting out, you’ll certainly gain something from this conversation and that’s no myth.
Here are some of the key questions we cover:
-Does taking salt tablets prevent/stop cramping?
-Is supplementing with maltodextrin beneficial for endurance athletes?
-Is it better to fast or fuel before training?
-Does carb loading enhance race day performance?
-The lighter you are, the faster you’ll race.
-Real food is better than gels/bars
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Offer from Xact Nutrition: This episode is presented by our friends at Xact Nutrition and they are offering you 15% OFF your order when you use the code JUSTINSTRIDE. So head to xactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today! Now shipping in Canada and the U.S.
Thanks for tuning in to the Just In Stride Podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback we’ll be able to make the show even better and it’ll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram @justinstridepod and YouTube @justinstridepod for all the latest episodes and updates. Glad you came along for the ride with Just In Stride!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction & Sponsorship
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Justin's Drive podcast. I'm your host, Justin Puyese. If you love endurance sports, you've definitely come to the right place. On this show, we'll talk to athletes, coaches, and professionals who can help us reach our true potential. Being a student of distance running for over 10 years and interviewing people in the sport for the last five, I've learned a ton, but there's always more to discover. Everyone has a story, and I know you'll resonate with each of our guests as we embark on this new journey together.
00:00:34
Speaker
Join us at home, on the road, or while you run. Together, we'll have some fun. So follow along on Instagram at justinstridepod and your favorite podcast platform and prepare to be inspired. Come along for the ride with Justin Stride.
00:00:51
Speaker
This episode is presented by our friends at Exact Nutrition, a tasty and healthy way for you to fuel your body before, during, and after a solid training session. I can't leave the house without a few fruit bars in my pocket and they never make it back home. Exact is offering you 50% off your order when you use the code justinstride. So head to exactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today.
Introducing 'Fuel for Thought' Series
00:01:13
Speaker
You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled Fuel for Thought. Any guesses? I mean if you know me you know I love a good old play on words. Hence the name of this new series that I've produced with exact nutrition.
00:01:26
Speaker
Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups, and sign up for big challenges. But one of the things we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform. So we've put together a multi-episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that, in hopes that you come away with more in-depth knowledge and a better understanding of nutrition.
00:01:53
Speaker
On this episode of Justin Stride, Fuel for Thought edition, we'll debunk various nutrition myths with elite road and trail runner, Alistair Gardner.
Nutrition Myths & Best Practices
00:02:03
Speaker
When it comes to nutrition and best practices, everyone has an opinion. Whether it's using salt tabs, choosing between real food versus gels or bars, identifying ideal race weight, fasting during workouts, or using supplements will provide detailed explanations and discuss the importance of each one. So no matter if you're an elite or just starting out, you'll certainly gain something from these conversations. And that's no myth.
00:02:30
Speaker
Hey, Alistair. Welcome to the Justin Stride podcast. Hi, Justin. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited to bring you on for Fuel for Thought series that we're doing with Exact Nutrition. And today we're going to debunk some myths around fueling and nutrition, and I'm hoping you can help us with that.
00:02:51
Speaker
I hope I can help a few people sort of separate fact from fiction. Yeah. And it's difficult with all the stuff that's out there, what we see on social media and what we experience ourselves and how long you've been doing it and what you've actually tested yourself versus what you just execute or try on race day or in training, right?
00:03:12
Speaker
Absolutely. I think there's too often people read a teaser article in a running magazine or something, and they go, oh yeah, that kind of sounds logical. And so they adapt to that, whereas it may not be the right thing for them, or just generally doesn't comply with how science has learned how the body works. And so yeah, unfortunately, we do have a few confusions, let's say, out in the small nutrition world. So let's try to
Real Food vs. Nutrition Products
00:03:38
Speaker
tackle a few.
00:03:38
Speaker
We'll try and clear that up. So can you just give us a little introduction on who you are, what kind of athlete you are, why you're interested in this kind of stuff? Yeah, sure. So I've been a trail runner and a road runner for close to 15 years now. I was on the Salomon Canadian running team for 10 years. We competed quite at a high level, had a chance to travel the world and do some big races with that.
00:04:05
Speaker
And I also have a diploma in nutrition and work for Exact Nutrition as a co-owner and a developer of products for many years. And so I've really gotten into what the different components of ingredients are, what they can do, what the benefits are, and sort of seeing face-to-face with people of all sorts of levels.
00:04:31
Speaker
their understanding of sport nutrition and how they use it or even if they know they need to use it. So I've just had a chance to bag up a load of real experience with the research.
00:04:43
Speaker
Awesome. Cool. So that gives us a bit of context about you and we can get into some of these myths and try and debunk them. So we'll see if we can stump you on some of these. But what's your, what's your thought on real food versus, you know, nutritional, nutrition products that we would take for endurance sports?
00:05:03
Speaker
Uh, it's, it's a really good question. And especially in the ultra running trail running space, I tend to see that question pop up maybe a little bit more, um, mainly because, uh, let's take your average ultra runner trail runner where they've got their hydration pack and they've got pockets. They tend to go with, and maybe a lot lower intensity effort. It's a jog for many, many hours.
00:05:26
Speaker
And therefore they can nibble on, you know, a sort of a trail mix kind of a Ziploc bag full of things, maybe some dates, like dry dates and things. And therefore they can sort of rely on real food because they're going at a much lower intensity and therefore able to digest much more easily. However, just notch that intensity back up a bit. Let's talk about half marathon runners, marathon runners where you're going to be kind of breathing more heavily.
00:05:53
Speaker
There's a certain reality of being able to run with banana in your pocket. It's not an easy thing to do. Being able to eat it is not an easy thing to do. Whereas the actual functionality of how those gummies or their gels in a sachet are made, they're made to be practical.
Natural vs. Engineered Sugars
00:06:11
Speaker
And then the actual food themselves is made up of simple carbohydrates with very few fibers and very few other things in there, which allow for basically the pure energy itself
00:06:23
Speaker
to be chewed or swallowed as quickly and easily as possible, digested as easily as possible, and then go straight to the muscles as quickly as possible, and therefore significantly reducing any sort of stomach issues that may come up with more complex fibres and other things added in there, especially when you talk about fibres.
00:06:46
Speaker
So that's sort of the key difference is really just how simple and easy it is for these stored nutrition products to be absorbed into the body and used by the muscles versus something which means more natural, more real food, which tends to be more processing by the body. And with these sports nutrition products, is it better to go more on the natural side or more on the kind of engineered side, would you say?
00:07:13
Speaker
It's a really good question. I think that comes down to people's personal beliefs about things. At the end of the day, a simple sugar is going to be the same molecule, whether it's glucose or fructose, whether it comes from cane sugar, whether it comes from high fructose corn, so all these things, they're going to be the same molecule at the end of the day.
00:07:38
Speaker
that's not what people are thinking of or really what it's really meant by sort of natural sugars or natural energy is because if we talk about natural even talk about maple syrup again same glucose and fructose mono saccharides which are in there
00:07:56
Speaker
But they come out with all these other little things. There's lots of little minerals and other sort of small components, vitamins in there, which may sort of be added naturally or come through the process and be in there naturally. Whereas we can be quite sure, something like Malthodextrin,
00:08:14
Speaker
Again, a very complex chain of, um, uh, of glucose. Uh, it's still the same molecule as the ones you'll see in the other products. And so it's just sort of what comes with the more natural foods, which I think is the, is the difference. Okay. So it might be a preference thing too, based on what you're doing or, you know, what, what you can stomach as well. Um, would you say that the lighter you are, the faster you can race?
Does Lighter Mean Faster?
00:08:40
Speaker
Uh, if I look at the Kenyans and how skinny and tall they are, they seem to be going very, very fast. It's sure that if we have a lot of fat, extra fat in our body, our body has to work and carry that. So yes, that's completely true. But at the same time, muscle, which is power is heavier than fat. And so where's that cutoff? Where's that balance?
00:09:05
Speaker
I've certainly, if you look at Killian, the famous mountain runner, he's got huge legs. He's definitely going to spin it up a body, but he's got huge legs. And then the Kenyans have got very skinny legs. And so we're looking at sort of different builds, maybe different situations. But I do think that if you can obviously maintain your body weight in good ways, and you've got a lot of excess fat,
00:09:29
Speaker
It's going to be sort of dependent on the kind of running you're doing, but a little bit of muscle, a little bit of strength training is certainly going to help you apply power to whatever you're doing. And so don't just believe being lighter equals being faster in your personal case. I think that really does come down to a person to person situation.
00:09:49
Speaker
So training overall strength, let's say, is more important than paying attention to the weight on the scale. Absolutely. And there's so many varying factors with weight on the scale. When we have a glycogen reserve, that's basically our energy reserve inside our body, for every gram of glycogen, there's three grams of water. And so if we've got something like 200 grams of glycogen stored in our body, there's another 600 grams
00:10:17
Speaker
But if we look at our body weight before a workout and after, all of that's gone, probably. We may be also dehydrated. And so you don't want to be lighter and dehydrated. Boxers do that to try and get in on the scales sometimes. They'll dehydrate themselves before a fight, so they're lighter on the scales. But that's not the key thing to do. You want to kind of just maintain, let's say, a healthy balance and not get distracted by day-to-day fluctuations because they can fluctuate day-to-day.
00:10:46
Speaker
I can actually say I checked that box. I'm never weighing myself. It's all about how I feel and overall balance. That's the key component there, I think.
00:10:59
Speaker
Well, just to that point, when I was probably in my peak training, I was actually weighing myself every single day.
Carb Loading Benefits
00:11:07
Speaker
But what I was doing was going, oh my God, I'm like 800 grams lighter today than it was yesterday. I also checked my heart rate. If my heart rate is up, there's a high chance I'm probably dehydrated. I've lost weight. My heart rate is up. Especially in the summer where those kind of things fluctuate a lot more. And so I can say to myself, okay, I'm going into tomorrow and it was always at bedtime.
00:11:27
Speaker
I go into tomorrow a bit dehydrated. But when I look at, let's say, all of those dots on a graph over weeks and months, I find up on an average. So I'm never targeting anything. All I'm doing is measuring fluctuations. That's what's important to me. So why is that important?
00:11:46
Speaker
So I mean, you don't always recognise if you're dehydrated. I mean, you can be thirsty and things. But I know that as a runner, I spend a lot of my time thirsty. But if you go to bed after a big training day, especially you lost a couple of litres of fluid out there running for two and a half hours on a very warm day, you managed
00:12:05
Speaker
you know, drink before drink during drink afterwards, you can't be 100% sure that you're now fully like, we hydrated afterwards, you may be quite sure. And when you sweat, let's say four litres in that time, and you re hydrated three, or being one litre, one kilo lighter, it's quite a it's quite a difference. And so again, it's just
00:12:26
Speaker
if you want to be in those numbers it's a daily kind of checking on yourself and those little factors of variations and so that's a kind of like just an ability to see that and just sort of keep a check on yourself and I was doing a lot of training I think I hit 200 kilometers in my week
00:12:41
Speaker
Um, you know, in, you know, the peak before, uh, I think that's Philadelphia marathon. And so, you know, I was doing my best to keep an eye on things like, Oh, I might've been dehydrated. Uh, I was also checking what I was eating and definitely always eating more than enough and not enough. And I was definitely a skinny kid at that time as well. So speak, and speaking of like preparing for an event or a race, does, does carb loading enhance race day performance?
00:13:10
Speaker
It's almost certainly in the sector depends on the races and the race itself. You do not want depleted. So basically, what is carb loading? Let's sort of just clarify that. Carb loading is not just that big plate of pasta the night before the race. You kind of like the last moment of carb loading then, except for breakfast, the morning of the race.
00:13:33
Speaker
Carb loading is really ensuring that you're maximising those glycogen reserves, which I mentioned. And so this is energy for your muscles, which stores either your muscles and your bladder and your liver. It's ensuring that we can maximise those and fill our body up with those reserves. Again, it's got some water attached to it.
00:13:52
Speaker
And that typically can happen over, let's say, a three to five day period. And so as much as we're tapering in that week or two before race day, those five days before race day, you want to kind of be increasing your carbon tape to ensure that your body is slowly absorbing and retaining that extra energy.
00:14:12
Speaker
So come race day, let's pick a half marathon, it's gonna take you an hour, 30, an hour, 40. You can be sure, you're definitely gonna have the energy for that first hour of that race. And you'll be fueling during the race with topping up to ensure that you sustain that same performance in the first half as you are in that second half. Because that energy does burn very quickly, burns for about 60 to 90 minutes. And so if we can ensure that energy is in our system there,
00:14:41
Speaker
Having energy to run fast is the most important thing to succeed. And we don't have a meter for carbs. So how do we know when we've had enough? Like, how do we know we're loaded? Really difficult to say again, we can look at ourselves on the scales. And so if I look at how.
00:14:58
Speaker
Um, I know my average and let's say back then it was 156 pounds. I think so. And if I was to get 159, I know, and yeah, sort of two days before race day, uh, I'm feeling comfortable. I'm not feeling overeaten. I know that my body is basically just rebuilt those reserves and there's fluid attached to that. Uh, so you never really know. And so let's just sort of keep an eye on those scales and say, oh, you know, typically I miss weight and maybe a couple of pounds or a kilo or two above.
00:15:28
Speaker
And I'm sort of just sitting there having just spiked up on that for one day to the next It's probably a result that again, we don't know for sure. We just know the body can reserve I think about 2,000 calories worth and So 500 grams. Yeah, it's about 500 grams worth of like glycogen and so with three grams of water for each and
00:15:53
Speaker
That's about two kilos above our average body weight. Okay. And does that mean you should just eat carbs? Or can you eat other things? You can eat whatever you want, really, can't you? It's definitely carbohydrates, again, are the body's primary source for energy, especially during moderate to high intensity exercise or endurance sports.
00:16:15
Speaker
And so, yeah, certainly your body needs protein. Your body can benefit from fats, especially sort of, you know, good quality fats, like omega-3 and omega-6 and things. But when we're talking about that run-up to the race, yeah, it's just adding a little bit extra carbohydrate to our diet. That's going to go into the body and be absorbed in converted to glycogen to build up that reserve.
00:16:38
Speaker
Okay, fair enough. Now, is it better to, you know, during training, is it better to run fasted or fuel?
Fasted Training Debate
00:16:49
Speaker
Really good question. So it's not about that one training, it's going to be about your general calorie intake, but there is going to be positive and negative factors maybe about that one training. So
00:17:04
Speaker
Getting into the detail of let's say training fasted, if I get up in the morning and I go for a 5K run first thing before breakfast, yes, I'm probably fasted because I haven't eaten since the day before. However, I do have those glycogen reserves, which are probably coming to the body from the meal from the day before, which are going to be there and get spent.
00:17:26
Speaker
If I did that fasted for two hours, you'd really see a big difference between let's say the first half an hour when your body's got, yeah, don't worry, I've got glycogen reserves. So that second, the back end was that I've got no more glycogen reserves. Don't feel great. It feels like bonking basically. And that is going to be a fasted state. Is that a good thing to do? There is the ability to train the body to adapt to burning fat. Absolutely.
00:17:55
Speaker
But the body's also saying, well, how many carbohydrates left? I'm going to just take energy from everywhere. And so if you're doing that a lot, that could also include taking proteins and muscle carbohydrates attached to amino acids and proteins and actually burning those as well. So you start actually eating your own body if you do that too much or for too long.
00:18:14
Speaker
And so the key to do it is once in a while doing that is great and absolutely refueling afterwards with carbohydrates and protein will be essential to make sure that you don't start feeding on your own body. A lot of athletes we see doing that and jump into it, like really, oh yeah, I'm going to start doing fasted runs and things. They will lose muscle mass very quickly because their body is going to start basically looking for all sources of energy in those later stages of that run.
00:18:44
Speaker
So yes, it can be done. You can help adapt to burning fat, but you really need to be careful about how you are fueling your body overall and over a longer period of time. Okay. So not every time, but sometimes in your training cycles.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's always, it's always been a fun island. I did it, especially, um, I think it was on the, on the path to UTMB. I would manage a very low intense, I mean, very low intensity sort of one, one and a half hour run and didn't really eat anything before, didn't read anything during. And so I just knew I was kind of running on empty. Again, I've done lots of volume in my week, kind of running on empty. So I just kept the effort extremely low.
00:19:27
Speaker
So it was just knowing that I was having to sort of resort to other, or control my car burning, and it would end up being more fat. And I know if you work with someone like David Jekke, you could actually probably look into the details of exactly what ratios our body are burning, sorry, what ratios of fuels our body are burning.
00:19:48
Speaker
I think it's got the right equipment to do that, but knowing just if you go out there and try and do a big, long run, completely fasted, your body's going to be looking for energy anywhere and you need to make sure that you replace it later on. Later on, yeah. That's not during, definitely after.
Maltodextrin: Benefits & Misconceptions
00:20:04
Speaker
The word maltodextrin has come up, it's thrown around a lot when it comes to nutrition and fueling. Is it beneficial for endurance athletes, do you think?
00:20:15
Speaker
Absolutely, but all for the wrong reasons. I think people talk about it. I think this is a sort of, we talked about it before, it's like a wolf in sheep's clothing a little bit. So melted extra is not a sugar by definition. However, it's a very complex chain of sugars.
00:20:36
Speaker
So glucose, which if you know the glycemic index, glucose is right at the top there at 100. And so it absorbed by the body really quickly. And so when people talk about these sugar spikes and all these things, they talk about simple carbohydrates like glucose. And when you read on the packet, it's got sugars and it's got carbohydrates as there's two different things. And so those sugars go into the body very easily.
00:21:01
Speaker
Mounted Exterine is a complex carbohydrate because it's a complex chain of glucose molecules, but it actually is absorbed faster than glucose. I think whereas glucose is at the peak of the heart when it's supposed to be at the top at 100, it's like at 105. And so it's not a slow burning carb, it's a fast burning carb
00:21:24
Speaker
faster than glucose because it's basically, and I've seen diagrams on it, it's like a chain or a snowflake with lots of different points where you can, the body will absorb glucose from each of these different points. Um, I guess on the spider web or a snowflake. And so that's, uh, yeah, goes onto the nutrition table as a carbohydrate, but it's actually faster burning than a sugar.
00:21:51
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah, no. So who is this benefiting the most? To me, it sounds like maybe a high intensity athlete. Well, it benefits everybody. And so you'll see a lot of maltodextrin for very good reasons in endurance sports, gels, chews, drinks, a lot of drinks and things. If you think about how you're going to drink a drink, you don't drink the whole drink 500 milliliters in one go. You sip it over time.
00:22:20
Speaker
so you're not like a gel having a sort of a shot of energy into your system waiting half an hour 45 minutes and then having another shot you're actually taking micro like pinches of fuel of about an extra in over that 45 minutes so you've drunk the bottle over that time so you shouldn't expect a peak in that time it'll just be lots of little drips and
00:22:41
Speaker
accumulating to that total energy amount, whereas a gel may be like, okay, a whole gel in that moment, oh, I feel all of a different, all of a sudden I can feel that in me. And as it disappears from the body, as the sugar gets burnt off, and you start to dip again, you feel the ups and downs. And so how we take it tends to be different.
00:22:58
Speaker
It's very deceptive because given the impression that we're not consuming sugar, which can consider it bad because it's a fast-adorned energy, it's actually faster. That's why it's the wolf in sheep's clothing. Cool.
Do Salt Tablets Prevent Cramps?
00:23:16
Speaker
Does taking saw tablets prevent or stop camping?
00:23:23
Speaker
Long answer, no. Short answer, no as well. I don't know, it's a difficult one. So there was a really good article by a guy called Alex Hutchinson and I knew a bit about it already and he kind of summed up very well.
00:23:37
Speaker
a bunch of athletes were tested and there were people who did strength training and people who didn't and they were training for a half or a four marathon and they did sort of checks and reviews on them after the races and they said okay who had cramps and who didn't and there was a massive difference
00:23:54
Speaker
between those who did strength training versus those who didn't. But their hydration levels were all very similar. And so I think what they're seeing is that cramping is not so much to do with being dehydrated. And therefore, the sodium thing which is being sweated out and being lost, being the problem, it's about a sort of an effect on how
00:24:16
Speaker
the neurons are actually reacting in contractions. The muscle is kind of having a spasm of not controlling, maybe because it's not resistant to the work it's doing in that situation. However, take
00:24:29
Speaker
or to a race weekend at the end of May, which is sometimes like the first warm weekends of the year here in Canada or the east side of Canada, you're going to be sweating a lot more. You have done loads of training in the cold, so there's no doubt factors which are going to also affect it by being dehydrated.
00:24:47
Speaker
So if you're not quite as strong as the guy next to you and you're also very dehydrated, well, therefore, yes, you'll have an increased chance of having those cramps. But there are so many factors. They also have done research which has found that some people are just more susceptible to cramps as well. One thing we can be for sure, though, is back to your question about the salt tablets and things. If
00:25:13
Speaker
we do not hydrate properly and hydration is about maintaining that balance of sodium and water in our body so taking fluids with either a sodium pill or putting tablets in your water or powders into your water and things if you're drinking lots of water or not taking in those electrolytes or you're not drinking enough fluids then there are higher risks that's probably the best way to say it however
00:25:40
Speaker
You're not just going to fix the problem by taking the salt pill. You're not going to avoid the problem by taking the salt pill. And back to the loading question, can you salt load and hydration load also? Does that make sense?
00:25:53
Speaker
Yes, that's a really good question. So you can actually see it if you drink, well, your body wants to self-regulate. And so if you drink lots of water that doesn't have added salt in it, you just go and probably pee that extra water out very quickly.
00:26:10
Speaker
But if you have lots of fluids with lots of sodium in it, you actually see that the skin, let's say around your watch or around your sock, you actually can see that kind of bulge factor because your body is retaining that fluid and it will more slowly release it, either rear sweat or rear urine. And so you can add extra, your body can retain some extra. And that probably is where having electrolytes does really ensure that does happen.
00:26:37
Speaker
You could always argue the downside of that is we're going to be heavier because you've got lots of extra water on your body. But I think that's again, that's it's a rough science in the sense that yeah, you're a little bit heavier, but yeah, you need that fluid. It's a bit like the extra glycogen weight. Yeah, you need going to be heavier, but yeah, you can have the energy to run. And so it really comes down to
00:26:57
Speaker
Not a big difference. You're just ensuring over the period of that run, that eight ultra race or that marathon, let's say that you're just maintaining certainly your energy levels and maintaining your fluid levels probably within to about 5% of your normal body weight.
00:27:15
Speaker
And some people say you can be fine at 10% loss, but I think why test those more stressful ends, like keep it where your body's happier, you'll perform better, that's for sure. Okay, cool. Yeah, because I always the standard things you think about like leading up to races like I want to drink more water, eat more salt, like eat more carbs, like it's all more, but it's I guess it's all in preparation for the deficit you're going to face later on.
Caffeine's Impact on Endurance
00:27:42
Speaker
you know, topping it up when you're actually doing the activity. I did write something else down and I thought about it just in terms of, you know, something we have regularly like caffeine. Some people cut back on caffeine before, you know, races or to enhance their training. Is that something?
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. We create a tolerance to caffeine. It's probably the thing I hate the most about tapering is I really should cut back on caffeine a week or two beforehand so that I get the effects of caffeine better or during a race. But I just do love my morning cup of coffee and I also do love when I just start for lunch at 2pmish kind of thing. That's my routine. And so yeah, I definitely don't highly own caffeine during races.
00:28:35
Speaker
Algoni does create a sort of a relative tolerance and so you could just dose with more caffeine during race day if you, like me, have a tough time of it.
00:28:44
Speaker
But I think it's something to consider. If you hardly touch caffeine, it obviously won't take you much caffeine if you're going to do it on race day to fill the benefits. But if you're going to do that, certainly if you're not used to what caffeine is, do try it out a couple of times beforehand, just in case it's got some negative side effects as well. Some people talk about going to the toilet very quickly afterwards. So it's something to consider if you're not used to using caffeine.
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah, there's that factor as well, like the other effects, like the laxative effects that caffeine can have on the body, especially with coffee in the morning. And yeah, it gets tricky. I guess the same thing goes for like caffeine, you know, eating too many carbs and then cutting back too much on fiber and stuff. Also, you also run into the opposite effect of digestion.
00:29:34
Speaker
Absolutely and that's a very good point and so for me I'm very happy to carb load in let's say lots of healthy carbohydrates with a mixture of fibers and things you know what sort of like whole grain type things.
Protein Myths for Vegan Athletes
00:29:46
Speaker
Let's see race days on Sunday so I'm happy to do that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
00:29:52
Speaker
become Friday and Saturday, I will simplify those carbohydrates, you know, just to be able to make sure that I sort of like, it slows down the system a little bit. A high-fiber pasta meal on Saturday is maybe not as good as a low-fiber one. Having said that, maybe it goes out of your system in time for race. It does depend on the person. I think in relative terms, it's just how we,
00:30:18
Speaker
you know sort of how we react to that we know ourselves the fact is on the macronutrient scales or the fats the proteins and the carbs the carbs are the extra ones you need to get in for that time in that carb loading period awesome um another one well since i'm vegan i think i should ask this one but like we don't get enough protein what do you think about that
00:30:42
Speaker
No, I'm surprised most vegans are still alive. They should have walked all the way in such a short amount of time. It's just not true. I've been vegan 12 years now, maybe a little bit more. All of the injuries I've had,
00:31:03
Speaker
are the same as injuries as people who are not vegan and so I'm not concerned about that. I think it's the difference is you can easily get your protein from other sources and also there's lots of places where you're surprised there are protein where you didn't think there was because we talked about pastas. Pastas are my carb source. If we go and look at the packet one portion of pasta may have nine maybe 12 grams of protein in that as well
00:31:29
Speaker
And I know me, I don't just eat one portion of pasta when I'm sat down to, you know, my plate of pasta is probably at least two portions to what Canada Health said on a nutrition facts table. So that's potentially 18 to 24 grams of protein in a meal plus the bolognese and the things that are going on to the top of that. So, you know, we do need to make sure we're taking enough protein and that meat does go up as athletes.
00:32:00
Speaker
But as vegans, I don't think we're disappearing. We're in the way. And always remember, the world's strongest manners are vegan, so that helps to put things in perspective. It must be true. I'll ask this because I'm out of myths. I don't know if you've come up with any other ones, but I thought about this.
Verifying Nutritional Information
00:32:19
Speaker
When people get information, especially in today's day and age, because they can get it so quickly and so regularly,
00:32:27
Speaker
how can they make sure that it's true? Do you know of any good references for people who are interested in this stuff, that are curious about it? It's more than just a Google search, right? You have to have reputable sources in order to kind of...
00:32:46
Speaker
And, you know, people like yourself who put yourself in this type of work, you know, help us to understand. But do you have any kind of tips for people that, you know, hear the latest fad or are on to the next thing?
00:33:02
Speaker
That's such a hard question to answer because I'm sure even if everything I said someone will come back to me and say oh by the way you said that thing about that thing it's not quite right and I'm like oh yeah you're right I kind of explained that wrong and so there's details but then there's also these trends which happen there's diet trends and I know from when I was a small kid and you know sort of my mum talking about watching what she eats and all these things you know like some
00:33:28
Speaker
just there was the Atkins diet and then there was the Paleo diet and there was the Keto diet. All three of these were basically a story to say another way of saying oh get carbs out of you, get pasta and bread out of your diet and you'll lose loads of weight.
00:33:42
Speaker
What happens is, and I'll try not to wait this too long, that will happen because our bodies will basically lose that glycogen reserve. So I mentioned for 500 grams of glycogen in our body, we'll have another 1.5 kilograms of water attached to it, so two kilograms. If someone says we'll dump bread and pasta from your diet, and five days later, you can say you've knocked two kilograms off your body weight because your glycogen reserves are disappearing.
00:34:10
Speaker
And it's like, wow, this weight loss works. And it could be a little bit more for bigger people and things. And they kind of, okay, well, that works for that week, but it's not necessarily what's happening with regards to the body. And so if a trend pops up and you see that everyone's jumping onto it and it's very compelling and all these great stories, and this is the thing I think we need to look at, oh, it worked for me, doesn't necessarily mean that they know exactly what's happening.
00:34:38
Speaker
There are really good sources, and if you want to be a proper, let's say, nerd about it, you go onto PubMed, you type in a couple of key words, and you'll see actual research by actual universities who have gone double-blind studies.
00:34:54
Speaker
It takes a long time to read these sometimes 30-page PDFs of research. Or you can sometimes find, let's say, the nutritionist that works for a great one, Sheila, for University of Ottawa.
00:35:09
Speaker
So she's been there. She's been in my position, but a lot deeper into it, working with actual athletes. And the university is prepared to actually put her name forward and allow her to talk about these things. So there are reliable people out there. But what you'll see with that is she'll talk about different subjects and different situations, but she will never don't think will pop onto a trend. And that's where he kind of sees the differences.
00:35:36
Speaker
Okay, great. Well, yeah, that's some awesome information anyways. You gotta dig into these things a little bit further to see if they're actually true and will actually help you. But I think we have a good all around conversation around the myths and debunking them. And I appreciate you taking the time.
Closing Remarks & Listener Engagement
00:35:54
Speaker
It's a great way to kick off this series about nutrition topics and one that I'm very excited about. So thank you, Alistair.
00:36:01
Speaker
I appreciate it and I'm always open to hearing feedback and things, if anyone thinks things are the worst. Awesome. Well, I wish you a very good day. Hey, thanks Justin. Cheers.
00:36:13
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Justin Stride Podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback, we'll be able to make the show even better and it'll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram at JustinStridePod for all the latest episodes and updates.
00:36:37
Speaker
Of course, this show wouldn't be possible without a solid team behind me. With logo and design by Vanessa Pugliese, as well as audio, music, and editing by Forest McKay, a huge thank you goes out to both of them. Guest outreach, social media, writing, and advertising are handled by me, your host, Justin Pugliese. Finally, we'd like to thank you, our listeners, for coming along for the ride with Justin Stradd.