Meat and Potatoes
Vindication at last! Friends have always looked at me kind of funny when I eschewed the typical pre-race “carbo” bloating (I mean loading) meal of Pasta in favor of a nice 8-10 oz. steak, a baked potato with butter and a side of green vegetables such as green beans. Now Active.com has an article on why you should eat meat and potatoes! It is titled The meat & potatoes of sports nutrition and it nails it on the head. I think athletes are missing out when they buy into the supplement/shake/cardboard bar mentality of nutrition. First, they are missing the satisfaction of actually eating something real versus they typical fare offered by most supplement shakes and bars. Second, and there is some research to support this, they aren’t necessarily getting all the nutrients that are in those supplements anyway, since they may not be usable in that form. Third, many nutrients work synergistically and require other things like, ohmygod I can’t believe I am saying this, F-A-T to work properly.
Don’t get me wrong, these nutrition supplements have there place, namely during a race or on a long ride/run when it isn’t practical to bring a steak with, but day in day out, you should opt for real whole food made by real farmers with minimal processing and minimal chemicals added. Stay away from food made in the lab. It almost always contains crap like high fructose corn syrup, etc. One of my favorite ways of doing this is by making a fruit smoothie and having it right after a workout (I usually do add one supplement, if you can call it a supplement, which is whey protein powder)
