Nutrition Basics

Nutrition made simple
Logique and Economique

I wish to state right up front that my recommendations are exactly that, and are meant to keep life as simple and economical as possible. There is no need to engage in eating plans which require you to be out of step with society at large, unless you are genuinely allergic to one or other food. In my family we were forced to eat everything, and we did. The idea was that we would never embarrass a host by not eating something which he/she cooked for dinner. Our family has a rich tradition of Mediterranean eating habits, enriched with oriental cuisine. So, I am a little biased towards what I grew up with.

As a complete aside, I had the good fortune to engage in some discussions with a physician a few times. This particular doctor specialised in auto immune diseases, and the friend whom I accompanied was a Lupus sufferer. This doctor would not see a patient until that person had first seen a geneticist. The reason became clear as you will soon realise. The geneticist will attempt to trace your ancestry, which region your ancestors come from, and therefore what foods they ate, and this will provide information which the physician will use to better understand why you are suffering from this particular illness or disease, and how to treat you the patient. It was very interesting.

I will paraphrase what he said thus.
“We inherit our genes from our parents and ancestors…obviously. In the same way, we carry our health and diseases in our blood, and this too we inherit from our parents, their parents, and our ancestors. People from different regions eat different foods, which over centuries affect their physiological make-up. The way our ancestors ate affects us. It determines our height, bones, hair, eyes, immune system, and significantly, what diseases we are likely to be more susceptible to”.
“So how do we change the blood we inherited”, I asked?
“You start by changing your eating habits”.
I remember a phrase which I always thought was a cliché: “You are what you eat”. It seems this is a true statement. What you eat will largely determine your general health. By eating differently you are changing what you carry in your blood. This won’t change your height, the colour of your eyes, or the colour of your skin, but it will significantly affect your immune system, for better or for worse.

If you are diabetic, or have high blood pressure, or have high cholesterol, you eat accordingly, right?

By the same token, regular combative cycling will require an appropriate eating plan. Cycling can be pretty brutal if you are engaging in it competitively or ride four times or more per week. It makes demands on your body which force you to alter certain habits. Getting enough sleep and rest would be prime examples. Likewise, if your long, hard ride is on a Saturday, then Friday night drinks till late is a big taboo. Try not to compromise tomorrow’s ride.

Basic Principles

Your weight is determined by how much you consume versus how much energy you expend. It’s input versus output. If you put in more than you put out, you will gain weight, and vice versa.

The best and surest way to improve your cycling is to lose weight. It is a guarantee. I speak to so many cyclists who look pretty normal to the untrained eye, and yet when asked about their cycling, they will complain that the training has not been going well and that they have gained weight. This statement is generally accompanied by a pat or a rub of the offending area, most notably the stomach. They know that a kilogram here and a kilogram there makes a huge difference to their cycling; especially their ability to climb. Most cyclists are accused of being too thin by the population at large, and often by their family members. Being thin and lean does not mean being unhealthy, which is what the denigrators are implying. Or is it a touch of envy?

Once you have reached this stage, you will not want to change. I know that I look thin by world standards, but other cyclists appreciate the fact, and their opinion is all that counts. Also, it is simply wonderful to fit into ‘off the peg’ clothing easily.

The ideal condition you want for your metabolism is a form of mild ketosis, which is a condition where fat stores are broken down to produce energy, because the body does not have sufficient access to its primary fuel source, glycogen. You want your body to play catch-up rather than try to use readily available glycogen. If there is an excess of glycogen, the body will store this as fat for later consumption. If you allow this to occur regularly, you will gain weight. So you want to be on that edge pretty much all the time. It means watching what, when, and how often you eat and drink. Surprisingly, regular exercise does not give you a licence to eat, drink and be merry all the time. I remember interviewing Darryl Impey, stage winner and yellow jersey wearer in the Tour de France, for an article in the cycling mag that I edited. He recounted how he could not even have the odd beer with his friends because of the extra calories. And so it is for us as well.

Regular exercise boosts your metabolism, which means that you burn more calories daily, even when, on a particular day, you have not been for a ride. This is good.

Try your best to eat healthy calories. Here is a basic list of foods (bad foods) to avoid because they are unhealthy.

1. Fried foods, like crisps, koeksisters, doughnuts.
2. Chocolates, sweets, cake, biscuits, refined sugars.
3. Processed foods which contain MSG and use sugar as a preservative.
4. Fizzy cold drinks.

The list can go on, but you will do well if you avoid or limit just these. Obviously, alcohol also turns into sugar, so be aware. The French reckon that one glass of wine per day is good for your health. If this is true, then the second glass undoes the good, and the third is bad. Besides, what is a glass; a thimble or 500mls? I don’t think the pros drink alcohol very often. I don’t think those are good calories. Nevertheless, let’s not be too strict on ourselves because we are not pros. If you are waiting to be ‘discovered’ and are hoping to get a ‘contract’ with a Pro Tour team, get professional advice. This is a site for non-professional cyclists who still have a life outside cycling.

If you are riding the next day, by all means have carbs the day before, even the night before. If you are not riding the next day, avoid carbs the night before.

Once you have reached your goal weight/shape, you can start experimenting with more or less training to see how your body reacts, and how it recovers from a hard session. Unfortunately, the older you get, the longer it takes to recover. Directly after a ride or indoor session is a good time to put in some carbs with a little protein. There is a 45 minute window during which the carbs replace the glycogen/glucose you have just used. It’s almost a free meal.

The best time to exercise is in the morning, before breakfast, if the work-outs are two hours or less. This forces your body to use energy stores which you put in yesterday, and it begins to get accustomed to finding fuel which it had previously stored. This will give you the opportunity to refill your carb tank with a well-earned ‘oatie’ cereal breakfast, which will go straight back into your glycogen store. Alas you will be hungry again long before lunch. Don’t worry, have a snack like a banana or a rusk, just so you can last till lunch. Longer work-outs require a different strategy.

This brings me to the next point. How many meals per day is ideal? I have found that the three traditional meals are the minimum, but if you count a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack as meals, then five meals is a better proposition. The rationale is simple; your metabolism remains upbeat when it digests food regularly, and your body realises that it does not have to store surplus energy because it knows that it will be fed soon. Your system burns more calories this way. The trick is to make sure the three ‘traditional’ meals are not oversized.

There is an old saying which goes: ‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper’. It is an over-simplification, but it has some merit.

Carbohydrates (Carbs)

Carbs are your primary source of energy (Glycogen) and also contain fibre.

Good carbs are long sugar molecules which take time to break down into useable glucose, and are processed as little as possible. Good carbs will not dump your energy level.

Broadly they consist of rice, potato, pasta, manioc (cassava), bread, corn (mielie meal), flour (bread), cereal (oats, rye, barley, hops). These should be used moderately.

Great carbs come from pumpkin, butternut, sweet potato, cauliflower, carrot, gem squash.

Bad carbs are short sugar molecules which turn into instant energy. Once they are used up, you will feel weakened, and if you are in a ride situation, you will have to use more in order to maintain your energy level. Bad carbs come from processed foods like sweets, chocolates, and the list of unhealthy foods above.

Proteins

They are your muscle building blocks and essential for good health.

Proteins are found in meats (red and white), fish, eggs, dairy products and ‘super foods’. Except for ‘super foods’, they typically do not contain fibre, which is essential for your digestive system.

Super foods

These are foods rich in protein, fibre and some carbs. They include pulses (lentils, beans), all green vegetables, peppers, avos, nuts, coconut.

Carbo-loading

This is a method of overloading the body with excessive carbohydrates, and storing them in anticipation of a huge effort requiring the expenditure of an unusual amount of energy. The traditional way was to starve the body of carbs for a few days, up to three days before the big event, then overload on carb-rich foods until the day before. This was made famous by Comrades runners, and adopted by amateur cyclists; often without the prior ‘starve’. This means that your body never gets to use its fat stores and relies only on recent input. Also, part of the build-up to races was loading up on carb drinks days before the race. What were we thinking?

While carbo-loading may be de-rigeur a couple of times a year, it cannot be a habit for your weekly long ride. One decent high-carb meal should deal with it. Of course, if you are riding a multi-day event which requires many hours of cycling every day, then you start eating for the future from two days before, and during the event.

Carbo-loading is no longer fashionable or deemed to be beneficial, and has been replaced with a more ‘balanced’ type of eating habit. I still believe in a high-carb diet because I ride quite a lot, but I get my carbs from healthy sources…mostly.

I have found most ‘diets’ to be inconvenient at least, as is evidenced by the banting fad, which is based on a high fat diet. I am not a fan of banting for several reasons:

1. It is high maintenance (read inconvenient)
2. It is expensive
3. It does not provide enough ready energy for high activity
4. It elevates cholesterol (apparently healthy), and this, to my mind, interferes with healthy blood circulation.

In conclusion, I have found that a consistent, balanced diet, with a leaning towards carbs, offers best results, and is easiest to manage, if you are cycling four times or more per week.

Nutrition during a ride

If you are eating properly, there should be no need to worry about actual food for rides of three hours or less. The main focus is to remain well hydrated. I usually ride with one bottle of electrolyte liquid and one bottle of water. I take a gel in my pocket in case the pace is high and I feel the need for a quick boost of energy. I would typically use it towards the end of a ride, maybe with 20 or 25km to go. I often see cyclists eating a banana while riding. This is excellent as it is easy to chew and swallow, and releases a combination of quick and slow sugars.

I find bars and other chewy things difficult to chew and wash down during the ride. They are good during a scheduled stop.

Maurice’s preferences

I like cereal in the morning, and a ‘carby’ lunch, often consisting of a bread roll or sandwich. Supper varies depending on the next day’s riding schedule. My typical Friday evening meal includes rice, lentils, spinach, and some protein like stew or curry. It digests easily, metabolises quickly, and gives me enough energy for the 95km Saturday club ride. I also believe in having breakfast before a long ride. My snacks include fruits, cheese, salty biscuits, biltong.

I eat fruit and vegetables whenever I can; cooked or raw. They, along with a balance of the foods mentioned above, will provide all the nutrients your body will ever need. There should be absolutely no need for the handfuls of costly supplements which so many people use.

Braaivleis, beer, puddings and other delights are great after long rides.