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PRE-SEASON
STEVE BORN
Contributing Editor for The Master Skier
Steve, an avid Nordic skier, is a technical advisor for Hammer Nutrition. He has worked with hundreds of athletes, helping them optimize their supplement/ fueling program. Steve is a three-time RAAM finisher, 1994 Furnace Creek 508 Champion, the only cyclist to complete a Double Furnace Creek 508 and holds two Ultra Marathon Cycling records. He was inducted into the Ultra Marathon Cycling Hall of Fame in 2004.
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While there are many tangibles and intangibles that go into being successful as an athlete, I believe three things stand out in terms of being “optimally prepared”:
The use of high quality equipment - You don't need the "limited edition " model but you do need good equipment.
An intelligent training and recovery program - You need a systematic, incremental, personally adapted training program that places equal emphasis on recovery.
The consistent consumption of a high quality diet, augmented with an intelligent supplement/ fueling program - Many tend to focus more on the first two components of this "formula " than on the third, particularly supplementation. However, you need to remember that as an athlete you are demanding a lot out of your body.
Your nutrient requirements, just to maintain health, are much greater than the average person. That's why a combination of diet and supplementation is vital, especially now as you begin your season.
Let me ask you a question: Do you believe that your diet provides the optimum amount of all nutrients, and thus you take no supplements? If you answered "Yes, " then this article is worth reading because it's a combination of diet and supplementation - not one or the other, but both together, that will yield best results.
The "balanced diet will provide all you need " concept is a myth; you cannot obtain all of the nutrients your body requires from your diet. Here are a couple reasons why this view is outdated.
There has never been a single clinical study that documents what comprises a balanced diet, nor one that has demonstrated one's ability to meet basic nutrient requirements through foods alone.
There is an ever-growing body of research, done by nutritional science's most brilliant minds, showing that food alone does not supply all the micronutrients we need to prevent deficiency, let alone achieve optimal health.
Very few of us have routine access to fresh, locally grown foods. Much of our diet comes from foods grown far away, picked when unripe and then sent packing. Nutritional content is questionable.
So where does regular food consumption fall short? Never in salt! Often in protein for hard-training athletes. Seldom in fat. Almost always in micronutrients, and that's the focus of this article.
Regular diets simply can't cover the range of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants and other micronutrients necessary to maintain optimal health and peak athletic performance. If you want to achieve your best performances, and enjoy optimal health (not minimal, optimal!), then daily supplementation is a necessity.
No supplement program can take priority over a healthy diet, we all agree on that. So even though this article is about supplementation, I cannot emphasize enough that your primary nutritional goal is to consistently consume a healthy diet.
What does this entail? It means eating whole grains and locally grown organic foods as much as possible, while avoiding packaged, processed and junk foods at all times. It means a low-sodium diet, a variety of foods, avoiding foods containing artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors and preservatives.
Avoid added simple sugars (sucrose, fructose, glucose, etc.) in your diet and in your sports fuels. The quality of the calories you consume always matters.
Even the best diet is not enough!
Our food won't meet the nutrient needs of average people, let alone athletes. Dr. Bill Misner states, "Athletes today ingest only 11% of the organic nutrients from their food sources that the athletes of the 1940's enjoyed."
Even more sobering is the research that suggests that many people's diets are insufficient in supplying enough nutrients to prevent a deficiency disease. Forget about providing enough nutrients to promote optimal health.
Misner's hallmark paper, "Food May Not Provide Sufficient Micronutrients to Avoid Deficiency " (Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients 261:49-52, April 05, available on the Hammer Nutrition website) is but one effort to point out this startling problem. Your diet, no matter how good you think it may be, may not provide enough of the micronutrients needed to prevent a deficiency.
That's why taking supplements, especially a multivitamin/mineral, is a wise strategy; it helps bridge the gap between what you should be receiving and what you're actually getting from your diet.
Consuming the best possible diet as consistently as possible and augmenting with a multivitamin/ mineral supplement plus additional antioxidants and auxiliary/complementary nutrients is the best way to cover your nutritional bases.
The Recommended Daily Allowance: Recommended for what?
The RDA standard, and its successor since 1997, The Reference Daily Intake (RDI) standard, doesn't take into account the higher needs of endurance athletes. Dr. Misner states, "Researchers have established & that athletes tend to deplete vitamins, minerals, enzymes, coenzymes and other substrates more than sedentary people do. " It's not just more calories that endurance athletes need, it's the whole nutritional bag.
In The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book: Using supplements for optimum health, 4th ed. Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., and Nancy Bruning outline the benefits of using a higher-dose vitamin/mineral supplementation regimen in "The RDIs, The Minimum Wages of Nutrition, " it pretty much says it all:
Just like the RDAs, the RDIs have three basic problems: (1) you cannot get all the nutrients you need from today's food; (2) the RDIs reflect amounts that are adequate to prevent nutrient-deficiency diseases, not tailored for individual needs; and (3) the RDIs do not address or consider optimum health or the prevention of degenerative diseases..."
In another chapter, "The Optimum Daily Intakes (ODIs), " they write: "In order to attain a state of optimum health and disease prevention, we must take into our bodies " optimum, not minimum, amounts of vitamins and minerals. " The need for ODIs is based on six factors:
1 The RDIs are based on an amount that simply prevents overt deficiency diseases.
2 The RDIs do not take into account preventative or therapeutic levels of nutrients.
3 We cannot meet the RDIs even if we eat the "perfect " diet.
4 Because of many factors, including the loss of nutrients through shipping, storage and processing, the foods available to us do not contain the amounts of vitamins and minerals they should contain.
5 Owing to the constant bombardment of stress factors, from pollution to emotional stress, we require higher levels of vitamins and minerals than originally thought.
6 We do not absorb 100% of the vitamins and minerals.
Basic recommendations regarding supplements: When purchasing a multivitamin/ mineral supplement, look for one that has more than "100% of the RDA/RDI " amounts. These standards are, "the 'minimum wages ' for nutrition, " which means it supplies inadequate amounts of nutrients, especially for athletes and active people.
The words of another nutritional scientist are even stronger, "If you use the RDAs to plan your nutrition, you will never, never reach your athletic potential."
Use a product that is encapsulated, not in tablets. The "plusses " for tablets are: A) more nutrients can be fit into a tablet versus a capsule; B) less expensive.
A hardshell/coated tablet can oftentimes not break down completely, can irritate the stomach and/or be passed through undigested. Capsules may be slightly more expensive than tablets, I think it's a worthy investment.
When it comes to minerals, make sure the product contains a good quality form of minerals. When it comes to minerals you do "get what you pay for. " There are some minerals that provide higher amounts of the actual mineral while also having higher absorption rates.
When you look at the mineral component of a multivitamin/mineral look for these types of minerals: amino acid chelate, glycinate, citrate, aspartate, orotate all of these are well-absorbed forms.
Make sure you're obtaining the elemental value of the mineral. When a label says, "500 mg calcium citrate " you're getting 500 mg of the calcium citrate compound. Unfortunately, this contains only about 100 mg of calcium.
Look on the label for "500 mg calcium from calcium citrate. " You'll get a full 500 mg of the actual mineral from 2500 mg of the calcium citrate compound.
Taking additional antioxidants, above what is in a multivitamin/ mineral supplement, is a wise strategy. A multivitamin/ mineral will provide some of the basics in antioxidant protection: beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, manganese and zinc.
However, considering the numerous types of cell-damaging, immune system-compromising free radicals that are produced in the human body, and taking into account that, as athletes, we produce a significantly greater amount of free radicals than sedentary people, providing the body with additional antioxidant support is an excellent idea.
Some of my favorite antioxidants are: Coenzyme Q10, idebenone, r-alpha lipoic acid, lycopene (also beneficial for prostate health), grape seed extract, carnosine, astaxanthin and glutathione. There are many others but these provide a tremendously wide range of antioxidant benefits.
Bottom line: Any additional antioxidant support you can give your body is worth considering.
Summary
Keep in mind these three key factors - high quality equipment, an intelligent training and recovery program and a consistently high quality diet, augmented with an intelligent supplement/fueling program.
All three are important, if one is lacking, the others can't pick up the slack.
I hope this article will provide you with some good "food for thought " and convince you of the importance of an intelligent supplement program and the key role it plays in helping you achieve optimal athletic performance and overall health.
There are many excellent articles on the Master Skier (masterskier. com) and Hammer Nutrition web sites, definitely check them out.
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