I must admit it always makes me laugh the way they keep on telling us about different foods is bad for us. By they I mean basically the scientists. I do understand that as time goes on new technology can give more understanding.
How many times have we read how different foods are bad or good for us only to be told the opposite later. Not food and not sure of date but I think it was around the 60`s they said smoking helps you. We know that is not the case now except and I am sure all smokers will agree it relieves stress & tension.
Only a few days ago I was reading how moderate drinking can help reduce Alzheimer & dementia risk. Latest thing now is they got it all wrong and say we can now eat twice as much salt as the NHS recommends.
I think the key word in everything we eat or drink is moderation and not to go overboard. I personally never take notice as I do not eat anything in excess. Having said that there were 6 jaffa cake chocolate rolls in a packet of which I ate 4 for lunch yesterday, wifey called me a pig!!! (-:
I bet if someone took the time to read what is best for runners what is recommended will have changed over time.Are carbs or protein best etc. I think there is a lot of hype & commercialism over energy drinks & bars etc,big money to be made.
I was reading a couple of days ago about 6 top ultra runners in US and what they eat on a run. I do not think anyone of them ate anything special but what they like. One ate just normal food and even one had cheeseburger halfway through the race. I think he or she must of had it in their bag or a big detour to Mcdonalds.Most just drunk plain water and not energy drinks.
I once tried eating raisins as I read they give you energy. Almost chocked to death as I tried eating them on the run!!! Never got used to eating on the run so I gave up as do not really need anything for the distance & time I run,but then that is me.
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dindy
Graduate10
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I saw something on bbc news yesterday that said “being overweight cuts dementia risk”
For all the energy food and drinks on the market, you still see sports people having water and a banana. Wimbledon is a good example. although with them it’s probably a 200 year old unbreakable tradition.
Yeah, and rock’n’roll was devil’s music. Oh, hang on..
You’ve got the point. Tomorrow, Black will be the new pink, they will tweak and change it all again. I think if you feel good and think you look good, you’re onto something good so stick with it. If you dislike something, change it. A lot of it is common sense and will power. Unlike running where all is perfect!
I agree all the energy bars and drinks are just commercialism gone crazy. Most are also filled with tonnes of additives, so water and a banana are probably far better for you! I think different people’s metabolisms may mean we’re all different in our “optimum” requirements anyway.
I do try to eat protein within an hour of doing weights work at the gym, just because I experimented and seemed to gain muscles more that way. I don’t grab the expensive whey protein drinks many gym users seem to be programmed to buy though - just a cheap bag of mixed nuts from Morrison’s! I think everything in moderation and eating what you enjoy is probably always going to be the best option!
Nuts aren't a complete protein source though as don't have the full amino acid complement. Meat and eggs do. Though a vegan diet is even better as there varied approach to fruit and veg almost guarantees a full amino complement.
They do fine for me post gym thanks, Pink. I don’t want to carry cheese, milk or eggs in my gym bag! 🙃
I’m not veggie or vegan, so don’t need to worry too much. (Though we do eat tonnes or fruit / veg / seeds / pulses etc anyway...Mmmm 😋) To be honest I’d prefer a smoothie straight after the gym (yoghurt + milk with yummy frozen fruit and veg), but they’re nicer made fresh when I get home later. Nuts will do until then. Those whey protein shakes just look disgusting. 😊❤️
I have a whey protein smoothie with one scoop of white choc flavoured protein. Almond milk, a banana and then sesame seeds and cacao powder. Topped off with supefoods like chia seeds and goji berries. It tastes the same as maltesers. Id challenge you to turn it down hehe.
OK - that version sounds good! Am coming round to yours after the gym then... 😃
It’s the horrible “bare” ones people have in their shakers at the gym that look disgusting! 😝
Have to admit, if I wasn’t stingy on buying food, I’d buy the natural TRIBE products more. I’ve a great TRIBE cocoa & cinnamon protein shake I’m saving for a special occasion! Just the simple ingredients list on the sachet sounds great! 😊
Yeah, I can see that. But I had an uncle die of bowel cancer, he survived having most of his gut removed and his ass sewn up. But it got him later, a life of beige food was largely to blame. So I try to eat a bit healthier on account.. but who can say what is healthy, so why try eh
Some foods are undoubtedly bad for you, often highly refined ones. However, it's never stopped me eating a bag of donuts at a sitting - though I have to be honest and say doing so makes me sluggish and certainly unable to run efficiently for a day or so. The main yardstick against which to measure what's good for you is to listen to your body. Left to their own devices and not blunted by an excess of junk food, bodies are very good at knowing what they should and shouldn't consume for optimum health: a grass fed horse will never eat ragwort for example, but a stable kept one may do so as it's lost its instinct for which foods are harmful (a friend lost her horse this way). Having said that, my partner smokes, drinks 24+ cups of double strength instant coffee a day (I mean two heaped spoonfuls), eats biscuits and chocolate till they're coming out of his ears, hardly ever eats anything fresh, considers pot noodles and crisps to be a balanced meal, and he has more strength and stamina in his little finger than I have in my whole body and almost never gets ill ...
Most likely the smoking. The snoring is fairly recent though. He was a heavy drinker too when we were first together and never snored. Maybe I should push him off the wagon in the interests of getting enough sleep!
I agree - and in defence of the scientists (cos I am one) it is generally the press and product marketing departments that blow the results out of all proportion. Sample type and size, uncontrolled variables, methods and materials and statistical choices means research papers often contradict previous findings. Like smoking - if you were studying stress relief and reduction of appetite, you might report smoking has a positive effects. The press goes mad saying smoking is good for you, tobacco companies push the results for increased sales. It is only when loads of other studies report the damaging physical impacts of smoke the message changes - and only then when it is so sensationally contrary to previous press stories, and pushed by a large organisation like Cancer Research, to even be noticed. Added to that we, as the public, are rarely granted open access to the full research paper to even check out the stories - unless we have a relative in academia or a very expensive subscription to academic publishers like Elselvier or Wiley🙄 I can forgive anyone for being completely confused.
should probably note here for anyone else reading, that if you can find the email address or another way of contacting an author, they will probably send you their paper for free
Yep... it's not generally the scientists (unless you are reading all your stuff in the academic journals) Although some 'conclusions' written by scientists are not merited by the study they have written up.
But I feel the whole 'they can't make their mind up' is an agenda in itself. There are a lot of issues with what gets researched and how and medics are not immune to all the biases from which we all suffer.
I also feel it is a mistake to conflate work on maintaining athletes in top performance (frankly, whilst there are worse habits, it isn't the healthiest!) and what the general population needs. And as for what a rat needs and what I need...
There are scientists who will make, shall we say, optimistic claims about their results. But mostly those writing up their work for academic publication will include uncertainty around their results, caveats, clear explanations about their methods ... and then they provide a summary, which they are naive about how it will be misinterpreted or quoted from, to the press, or the press will just write a story anyway without bothering to check anything (and I'm sure they are all on deadlines). We've all seen enough stories that get basic things wrong like calling a fungus a bacteria - if they get that wrong, what else are they getting wrong or not bothering to check.
The public also want a simple answer. "X is bad, Y is good". People in general are bad with the idea of moderation and even less good with the idea that some foods could be alright for some people and worse for others.
oh - and if you want data from which it is valid to draw certain conclusions on, you have to do rigorous experiments. Now who is going to volunteer for a study where they feed you something which they suspect is bad for you, and then follow you to find out if you get sick? Feed you 10, 20g of salt a day and then see how many people have heart attacks? It's not ethical. They proved the link between smoking and cancer by making beagles smoke. They shouldn't have had to do that.
Spot on. I giggle too when I see these news reports and just ignore them. I've been eating butter and full cream milk for years simply because they taste so much better (skimmed milk just tastes like water 😝) and recently I read that "they're" now saying full milk is ok! Everything in moderation is fine but I do believe that processed food and sweets are a no-no. Butter and full cream milk are centuries-old natural food so we can't go wrong with that surely.
I think for ultra runners it's a question of just getting calories in how ever they come. But I know nothing as I've not done an ultra 😭
There is a knack to eating and drinking while running so keep trying and give dates a go - they're bigger than raisins and easier to eat on the go.
I’ve not had to try eating while running yet (not planning to go far enough at this stage!) but if you want non-processed snacks bigger than raisins, and probably easier to eat than sticky dates, you can find tonnes of recipes in “clean eating” books for energy balls made by blitzing together numerous ingredients such as dates and nuts, then rolling them into balls. They always sound great - I keep mean to try making some for hillwalking.
The dates work for me, I've used them for ages. I keep them in a plastic bag in a belt so they're not too sticky to use. But I also use my own flapjacks which are so delicious that they usually get eaten between runs 😋 and there's none left when I need them ☹️
Even skimmed milk is sweet! I like it 😁. I noticed how sweet milk is when I got a milk frother
Newspapers like the Daily Mail print anything It’s laughable stuff. I don’t know how they get away with it We know what’s good and what’s bad and it’s up to us to choose. Unfortunately folks want instant gratification so shovel any old rubbish in their cake ‘ole. we are what we eat 🤷♀️
My husband snores when he’s been on the beer. It’s so unbelievably loud. Doesn’t seem to bother him mind 🤨☹️ “Did you just hit me?” He once protested See! Alcohol related violence 😤
I strongly recommend the 'Daily Mail exclusionary diet' A couple of years ago I decided that was it, I wasn't clicking on any links to DM and if I did accidentally I would close without reading. Talk about de-tox!
Not entirely sure the point you are trying to make. But after having been a smoker for over 20 year, I can tell you that the only stress it relieves is the stress craving nicotene causes and just because doctors used to prescribe them to pregnant women to ease pregnancy I doubt anyone would now argue that position. Cornflakes were invented to discourage masturbation. I never did like them.
But that aside, all anyone can ever do is try to steer a healthy course and some approaches do clearly have benefits over others, so I can't see the argument of just eat what you want as it's all snake oil holding much water, sorry.
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Early Morning Runs and what to eat?
A slightly more technical report to you HM.
Dark chocolate is considered running food! 
