I’m trying to eat the most natural and unprocessed food possible. This is a bit of a change and steers towards the “paleo” type movement happening at the moment. I’m not fanatical about it and stick to it religiously but try to remove all unprocessed foods.
However, during and after training sessions I’m finding this a bit hard to implement. During two hours runs I just can’t stomach whole solid foods and during 4 hour bike rides, I’m finding it hard to carry, unwrap and eat the solid whole foods, especially if trying to ride in a bunch, through traffic or on windy or bumpy roads.
I’m beginning to see the benefits of sports specific nutrition. Mainly I will start to use some sort of bars or gels only during long training sessions and will have some sort of recovery shake after every workout as opposed to the obscene number of pre cooked chicken breasts and sweet potato in my fridge for the 10-11 sessions each week.
Anyone in a similar position or want to add their thoughts?
I eat unprocessed (mostly) and vegan. I’ll eat refined sugar on a training run but not blue 4, sodium benzonate etc I bring a mix of dehydrated coconut water, salt, and sugar in bags then add it to water I pick up while training is my main fuel. I might bring it pre mixed on the bike. Fruits are the best while training I might stop in a store on a long run to buy fruit and eat while running only takes like 3 minutes. I’ll eat those organic bars that are raw or whatever like dates and almond butter from the health stores rarely but I do it and bring those sometimes on the bike. If it’s like a long endurance like 4+ hour type thing I don’t sweat stopping for a sec it’s not preferred but I usually need to get water or something at some point I’m usually solo tho
Not trying to pick a fight but actually your body can not distinguish between “natural” and “unnatural” foods. Unnatural, processed foods developed for the very reason you posted this thread: convenience. Also, I’m not aware of any convincing evidence that eating an “all natural” diet has any positive health effects per se, as the huge number factors affecting any given person’s health is so large as to make studies extremely difficult. I have always felt that just eating whatever you like to eat “within reason” is the best policy, but just watch the total number of calories you’re taking in, and obv balance your cal in vs cal out every day, 365 days/yr. I’ve been making my own food choices for over 42 yrs, i.e., since i went off to college at age 17.5 in Sept 1972, and i am still lean and cut with a resting HR of about 35 bpm and am often guessed at 15 to 25 yrs younger than my actual age of 59 (60 in about a month or so), so this approach seems to have worked for me so far:)
Again, not trying to argue but just saying that maybe you might not have to be quite so strict about what you eat, espec if you’re training a lot.
Yea it can in certain situations you’re not gonna find bht in an apple or sodium benzonate, alkylphenols, bpa, brominated flour, hydrogenated fats, guess what hydrolyzed protein is you’ve probably seen it on the news under a different synonym that’s neurotoxic. you’re getting nutrients at a healthy rate too because fiber is a thing if you’re not refining it lowers bioavilabilty. It is very difficult to attain unhealthy levels if ldl, insulin resistance, consuming carcinogenic stuff, and endocrine disrupting chemicals etc eating real food. Food is perfect as it is found in nature. Unless you’re very aware of the implications of the processing it went through and how the chemicals they’re using in the product + the packaging are going to be biologically relevant then it’s much easier to eat natural organically grown food. Training isn’t going to fix cancer or stop phthalates from being estrogenic etc your diet can improve your performance I think diet is #2 behind the actual training. I also care about the environment and the pesticides they use like ruin ecology and fertilizers ruin water and cause eutrophication. To produce a cow requires much more resources, if people eat the plants they’re consuming then much less byproducts would be seen by the environment. While that cow is alive it’s producing 18% of greenhouse gas emissions and causing water pollution. So by going vegan less plants are produced to feed cows and the cow isn’t alive to ruin the environment too. Also animals typically produce long-chain saturated fats and cholesterol which plants do not. so that is why my diet is the way it is, it’s tailored for the environment and optimum health/functioning = organic vegan no processing. I’m young af but I feel like my diet makes me so potent like I’m just fuckin saturated with nutrients lolol