2845: Carbohydrates: Yes? No? Friend? Foe? by Nancy Clark on How to Improve Athletic Performance

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[00:00:30] Das ist Optimal Health Daily. Carbohydrates – Yes? No? Friend? oder Foe? von Nancy Clark von NancyClarkRD.com. Und ich bin Dr. Neal, Ihre sehr eigene Personal Narrative. Hey there, happy Saturday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily – oder OHD – where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs – und immer mit ein bisschen meiner commentary an die Ende.

[00:00:54] Now, we have a bunch of shows covering different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily in any podcast app to find all of them. And with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. Carbohydrates – Yes? No? Friend? or Foe? By Nancy Clark of NancyClarkRD.com. Ever since I stopped eating carbs, I've been feeling so much better.

[00:01:23] The keto diet works fine for me. It keeps me from having cookie binges. I tried giving up carbs and my workouts tanked. I had no energy and felt horrible. Athletes' opinions about carbohydrates range from evil to essential. Some anti-carb athletes rave about how great they feel. Others complain about weakness and fatigue. Abundant research supports eating a sports diet based on grains, fruits, and vegetables.

[00:01:49] The wholesome kinds of sugars and starches that feed the brain and fuel the muscles during hard exercise. If anti-carb anecdotes leave you wondering what's best for your sports diet, keep listening. Why would anyone choose a very low-carb ketogenic diet? In a ketogenic diet, about 70% of the calories are from fat and only 5% of the calories come from carbohydrate. Think drinking olive oil and eating lots of butter, not eating lots of protein.

[00:02:19] This very low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein diet trains the body to burn dietary and body fat and produces ketones, which are byproducts of fat metabolism that can be used for fuel. Speaking at the 2016 annual meeting of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Jeff Volek, PhD of The Ohio State University, noted that a keto diet has been used for many years in clinical situations,

[00:02:45] such as epilepsy to control seizures, obesity to lose weight, and diabetes to control blood sugar. Some athletes are now experimenting with ketosis as a means to enhance endurance. Even the skinniest of athletes has enough body fat to support many hours of exercise, eating a keto diet forces the body to burn more fat. This enables an endurance athlete to consume less fuel during exercise, like gels, sports drinks, gummy bears, and so on,

[00:03:13] and potentially enhance endurance if the exercise is very low intensity, such as a 24-hour trail run, for example. This also reduces the risk of creating intestinal distress. An alternate way to improve performance and resolve undesired pit stops is to meet with a sports nutritionist who is also a registered dietitian. They can assess your diet, create a winning food strategy, and help you figure out what causes intestinal distress in the first place.

[00:03:40] You can likely resolve the issue without resorting to a tough-to-maintain keto diet. Why do some athletes say they feel better when they stop eating bread, cereal, and other grains or carbohydrates? When athletes rave about how much better they feel after having made any dramatic dietary change, such as cutting out grains, I ask them, what were you eating before you made this change? Inevitably, the answer is the standard American diet,

[00:04:08] with skipped meals, abundant fast foods, and more junk snacks than high-quality meals. No wonder they feel better. They're eating better. Other reasons for feeling so much better after giving up grains might relate to food sensitivities. When you cut out a whole food group, you eliminate a lot of foods. Likely just a few of the foods created feelings of unwellness. A registered dietitian can help you reach the same level of feeling great

[00:04:37] by working with you to figure out which foods contributed to the sensitivity. Maybe cutting back on just onions and garlic could have done the trick. That's way easier than being in a state of ketosis. Some athletes who rave about their ketogenic diet see the diet as a way to curb their addiction to sugar. A high-fat diet curbs hunger and simultaneously curbs cravings for sweets. An easier way to reduce sugar cravings is to prevent extreme hunger. Despite popular belief,

[00:05:05] sugar binges are unlikely due to sugar addiction, but rather to the physiological effects of hunger. Again, a registered dietitian can help athletes resolve cravings for sugar without resorting to ketosis. Ketones vs. Carbs What does the sport's nutrition science say? A recent study in Elite Racewalkers showed that a ketogenic diet is associated with the ability to burn very high rates of fat at high exercise intensities.

[00:05:33] However, the downside is that burning fat requires more oxygen. Speaking at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Conference, exercise physiologist John Hawley, PhD, head of the Center for Exercise and Nutrition at the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research in Melbourne, Australia, commented that The research indicated

[00:06:00] a sustained keto diet impaired competitive performance, despite an intensified training program that improved 10-kilometer race walking performance by about 5-7% in the carbohydrate-consuming control group. Instead of totally eliminating carbs, Hawley and his co-researcher, Louise Burke, head of sports nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport and chair in sports nutrition at the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, suggests athletes limit carbohydrate intake

[00:06:28] around specific training sessions. So they train with low-carbohydrate stores a few times a week to gain a metabolic fat-burning advantage, but still train well-fueled most of the time to support high-quality workouts. To train depleted, athletes could, for example, work out hard in the evening, limit their carb intake afterwards, so eat chicken and a spinach salad with lots of dressing for dinner, and then train again the next morning on empty. Note, this is not fun,

[00:06:57] but it does boost mental toughness. Training in a carb-depleted state in that second workout triggers beneficial metabolic adaptations that can help improve sports performance. The bottom line. Eliminating carbs eliminates a lot of nutrients that support overall good health. It also limits your ability to eat from the same pot as your friends and family. It can strain relationships and interfere with quality of life. Yet each competitive athlete is unique

[00:07:26] in terms of what works for their body and mind. One sports diet does not fit everyone, and some say they are content in ketosis. I cringe when athletes report they have eliminated carbs because they are addicted to sugar, or believe that carbs are fattening. If you have a poor relationship with carbs, you want to meet with a sports dietitian who can help you find peace with grains. This professional can help you create a fueling program that you will want to enjoy for the rest of your life.

[00:07:55] To find your local sports nutritionist, use the referral network at scandpg.org. While ketosis may seem like a fascinating nutritional adventure, in the long run, don't you think from time to time you'll want to be able to enjoy with your friends some birthday cake or beer? Because after all, those aren't allowed on a ketogenic diet. You just listened to the post titled Carbohydrates. Yes, No,

[00:08:25] Friend, or Foe by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. Look, I'm all about finding habits that best suit you in your lifestyle and most importantly, habits that are unlikely to cause you harm. So, if you follow a ketogenic diet and it's not harming you, then go for it. The one thing I do want to mention is about the ketogenic diet and fat burning. We do see studies

[00:08:55] that talk about how when people are on a ketogenic diet, they tend to burn more fat. But here's what they often don't talk about. When we're burning fat while on a ketogenic diet, it's usually not body fat. Instead, the fat that's being burned and used for energy is the fat that's most available. The fat that's floating around the bloodstream. And this makes sense. After all, as today's author Nancy said, when following a ketogenic diet, most of the calories,

[00:09:24] about 70% of calories, are from fat. So, one of the most available nutrients in the blood all the time is fat because that's where most of our nutrients are coming from. This means it's natural that the body will turn to burning more of this fuel for energy since it's more available. So, by following a ketogenic diet, just remember, you aren't going to necessarily burn more body fat. I want to make sure we're super clear about that point. All right.

[00:09:54] That'll do it for today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for sharing this show with someone that's one of the best ways to keep this show going. I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you back here tomorrow as usual where your optimal life awaits. Let's see you back here. Thank you.