Home Astrology Astrology - lrresistible Magic Picture Writing in the Sky The Origin of the Horoscope Christianity and Astrology Stargazing and Star-Reading Fitness Vitamins Minerals Training and Diet Dietary Mistakes Is salt intake necessary during effort? The Achilles Tendon Gastronomy, a Modern Discipline Health Health Status and Health Costs Health Insurance - Demographic Factors and Income High Blood Pressure Medicare Issues Health Services - How Should We Decide How Much to Spend Fashion Fashion Questions & Answers Revolt or Style - The Designer Culture Sport Sport and Tourism Partnerships Sporting Superstars - Pele, Muhammad Ali Tourism and Culture Partnerships Olympic Memorabilia Collecting Sport and physical activity Family Recipes Some Characteristic of Second Home Towns The care of the dog The Problem of Ageing - Long Term Care More Is Anything at Rest in the Universe? Computer Graphics	Dietary Mistakes - What not to do What sportsman, whether in competition or otherwise, has not suffered at one time or another from cramps, hunger pangs, exhaustion, digestive problems, stitches, a sharp decline in muscular tonus, or desperate thirst ? All these problems can be prevented by a balanced, suitable intake of food, either before, during or after the competition. In fact, good eating habits should be adopted a long time in advance. They play a large part in bringing the athlete gradually up to top form. The opposite is also true-a freak diet during the competition or pre-competition period frequently results in poor performance during exertion. Among athletes, there are two extremes: some over-sacrifice dietary rules to gastronomy, while some do quite the opposite, building dietetics up into an infallible and miraculous means of helping them win victories. According to the latter, success depends on a so-called “wonder” foodstuff or even nutrient, whether it be raw meat, vitamins, potassium, sugar or glucose, etc. In both cases, the nutritional mistakes or beliefs are numerous. We shall therefore look at the most common dietary mistakes and beliefs which are encountered in the sporting environment. 1. Build up one’s strength at the meal preceding exertion Because of the relative slowness of the digestion, the last meal will not have any effect in providing the energy-giving substances required for exertion during a competition. All the specialists are agreed in recommending a very light meal. 2. Take a meal shortly before exertion The last meal before exertion should be taken at least three hours, and even four hours for some people, before exertion. Why such a long interval between the last meal and the beginning of the competition ? When exertion takes place during digestion, the latter is seriously upset and there may be stomach cramps or even vomiting, tachycardia (increase in the number of heart beats per minute), and breathlessness. During digestion, the blood supply is drawn towards the digestive area, i.e. away from the muscles and the brain. If, at that moment, the athlete exerts himself, the muscles are at a disadvantage, since they require an inflow of blood to carry out their work (hence a lack of tonus, slowness and difficulty in starting to move, poor performance, sleepiness). It is therefore easy to see that digestion and muscular effort do not go together comfortably. 3. Avoid certain foods before exertion The composition of the meal preceding the competition should not be rigid. Some people are able to eat practically anything and achieve their best performance, while there are others who on the contrary have to restrict themselves to a pre-competition meal in the sporting style (ham, jam sandwich) if they are to avoid digestive difficulties during exertion. I know one judo champion who, during the whole day of a championship (Paris Tournament, Olympic Games), was only able to take liquids. Thus, without taking it to excess, the athlete may eat in a reasonable manner whatever he likes, even if this includes foodstuffs which have a bad dietary reputation in sporting circles. However, to make the most of the possibilities, it is preferable to take the precompetition meal recommended by the Scandinavians. “This meal is made up mainly of bread, marmalade (jam), a slice of ham and a lightly sugared drink (less than 20 grammes per litre). Whatever it includes, the meal should be a light one, and athletes must be advised not to take in large quantities of poultry, meat, etc. at that moment.” 4. Take salt tablets to avoid cramps and tiredness During intense, repeated exertion in high temperatures, the secretion of sweat increases, particularly the amount of water, while the concentration of salt in the sweat is reduced. The kidneys adapt themselves by reducing the excretion of sodium in the urine, and the liquid secreted by the salivary glands contains less salt. At this level of adaptation, the trained athlete is able to retain his hydromineral (water and salts) balance and maintain his physical condition with only 5 grammes of salt per day, at the same time as providing intense work in a hot, humid atmosphere and excreting between four and nine litres of sweat per day. Thus the addition of a little salt to foodstuffs is sufficient to make up for excessive losses. 5. Take potassium when it is hot Under normal exertion conditions, there is no point in the athlete taking in extra potassium, since only very little potassium is lost in sweat. Many authors have given proof of this. Normal eating ensures an adequate supply. If a loss of potassium is feared, 11/4 litres of natural orange juice provides the equivalent of a potassium loss corresponding to between two and three litres of sweat. 6. Avoid drinking during exertion on the grounds that it makes one lose one’s strength In sport, there are two particularly tenacious ideas which are still being hawked around in 1981 : “The runner who does best in hot weather is the one who drinks the least.” “Don’t drink during exertion-you’ll lose your strength.” In our opinion, it is these ideas which should be lost ! In fact, work carried out by Scandinavian scientists has demonstrated the essential role of drink in respect of performance. When the athlete perspires, the liquids bathing the muscular cells are reduced. These cells cannot function properly until the quantity of liquid is built up again. In order to limit the drop in performance due to perspiration during exertion, a glucose solution must be taken in. The concentration of glucose in the drink varies according to the air temperature (summer or winter), for example : below 10°C : 120 grammes per litre ; around 20°C: 60 grammes per litre ; above 25°C: 40 grammes per litre. 7. Increase intake of meat in order to increase muscular strength Most athletes are convinced of this, and base their excessive consumption of meat.On the fact that proteins are active in the formationof muscle. The well-known saying “beef muscle makes human muscle” is firmly entrenched in the minds of athletes. Much work has been done which proves that the energy provided by protids during intense physical exertion is no greater than at rest. Which means that when there is too muchover 20 % of the intake of calories-the excess is destroyed. 8. Take a sweetened drink before exertion, thinking that it will raise one’s energy level It is generally admitted that the last normal meal should be taken at least three hours, or even four hours for some people, before the competition. On the other hand, there is no point in taking a glucose drink during the period between the end of the meal and 20 minutes before the competition. In fact, a “sugared” drink consumed during this period results in the secretion of insulin, a hormone which reduces the blood-sugar level and thus the physical possibilities at the beginning of the effort. In other words, an excess of sugar, in the form of drinks, while at rest is likely to have the opposite effect to that intended. However, a glucosed drink taken during the 20 minutes preceding exertion, by virtue of the time required for absorption and therefore for it to become usable by the organism, will be effective between 20 and 30 minutes after being drunk, i.e. at the beginning of exertion. 9. Think that perspiring copiously during exertion will make one lose weight It is not rare to see athletes wearing several layers of clothes or even a sweat garment during training in the hope of losing more quickly the weight put on during holiday periods or between seasons. They even work hard at it, since these athletes have noticed that perspiration is greater during intense exertion. It is true that weighing oneself immediately after exertion shows a weight loss of between one and three kilos, depending on the intensity and duration of the exertion. That is normal. However, if the weight were to be checked after the meal following the training period. the athlete would have the disagreeable surprise of seeing that there was no weight loss. In fact, during intense exertion, the loss of weight is due to dehydration-in other words, to the loss of water through perspiration. During the intake of food following exertion, the organism makes the most of the opportunity to maintain the balance of liquids bathing the cells. Thus, during the meal following exertion, water in the food will not be eliminated in the urine but retained to compensate for the loss due to exertion. As a consequence, the weight measured before training will remain practically the same. On the other hand, in order to lose weight, there must be an effort at between 30 and 50 % maximum capacity since, at that moment, it is fats which are used up by the organism. 10. Thinking that the abuse of vitamins improves performance Vitamins are substances without any inherent energy value, which are necessary to the organism and its growth, acting in small proportions and which cannot, generally speaking, be produced within the body. This means that they must be provided in the diet. The presence of sufficient quantities of vitamins is essential for obtaining good sports results. Experiments carried out on young people show that the vitamin enrichment of diets which are already balanced in no way increases capabilities for work and exertion. Several important rules should be observed by the athlete in using vitamins. - Never give one vitamin on its own, but in multi-vitamin preparations ; one vitamin absorbed alone in excessive quantities results in an imbalance which is prejudicial to muscular effort. - It is not necessary, in terms of vitamins, to “dope” the athlete at the time of the event with a large overdose of vitamins. Care should be taken that the daily diet during training includes a sufficient, but not excessive, quantity of vitamins. A very varied diet (fresh vegetables, dairy products and cereals) will not only cover daily requirements, ‘but will also- ensure optimal daily doses slightly higher than the daily minimum. As the Sandinavians point out humorously, “the absorption of large quantities of vitamins in the form of pills is a rather expensive means of increasing the vitamin content of the urine”. 11. Thinking that alcohol promotes muscular strength The work of physiologists provides a clear, unequivocal answer : this is not true. The calories provided by alcohol cannot be used for muscular work. The organism’s elimination of alcohol is no more rapid for a labourer or an athlete than for a sedentary person. Alcohol may have a part to play regarding energy in respect of the organism’s fundamental requirements-the so-called rest consumption. On the other hand, if the organism carries out a normal activity (walking) or an intense activity (a removals man, lumberjack or athlete), the consumption of calories will increase as a function of the intensity of the exertion and, for the lumberjack or the athlete, could rise to ten times higher than at rest. The contribution of alcohol to progressively increasing consumption rates does not vary. Thus the labourer “uses”, in terms of energy, the same quantity of alcohol as the person sipping a whisky lying in a hammock. All this shows that the labourer does not need several bottles of wine a day in order to carry out his work on the grounds that he “uses up” a lot of energy. 12. Forget to eat during exertion =exhaustion Athletes who “forget” to take regular nourishment during exertion of a prolonged nature (cross-countryskiing, marathon, cycling race, etc.) may suffer from a sudden feeling of weakness and lose all strength to continue skiing, running or cycling. It is easy to halt this state of weakness, whether it manifests itself by pangs of hunger, exhaustion or loss of strength, by the immediate intake of carbohydrates in liquid or solid form. The meal preceding exertion does not prevent pangs of hunger in any way. In fact, they can only be prevented by an intake of food during exertion whenever this lasts more than 45 minutes (glucosed drinks such as XLI, Milupa, Athlon, etc.; glucose tablets such as Dextrosante, Dextrodose, etc.).