If we don't question what we eat can we rely on the outcome?

Written by top level Personal Trainer Leo brooke-Little

Supplement – something added to supply a deficiency.

In the UK we are now returning to human height levels last seen 1000 years ago. From this we can infer these striking facts:

• From the middle ages to the mid 20^th century we suffered deficiencies in our diet
• The over abundance of food over the last 50 years has supplemented those deficiencies
• The simple diet of countrymen 1000 years ago did not need supplements

My own experience of running over the past 20 years has been that for the average athelete, and that includes most of the exercising population, we do not need more than regular unprocessed foods and water to function. I have run mountain marathons of 100 miles and fueled myself well on regular foods such as cheese, salami, dried & fresh fruit, bread etc.

Moving on to the elite athlete in training, why would we need to supplement their diet? The maximum protein needs of any athlete are about 2g per kg of bodyweight per day, the majority of the population probably eat that anyway. Fats and carbohydrate are so much part of the modern diet that it is difficult not to have a surplus of them. What the average athlete is likely to need supplementing is vitamins and minerals. So how do we best do that? Start off with a good dose of sceptism, protein shakes are widely promoted because they are a way of selling a relatively cheap product at a high price and offer results that the manufacturers suggest you cannot achieve without them. Vitamin and mineral supplements are sold with similar claims, again they are on the whole cheap chemicals with high price tags. Can we really absorb and utilize them all properly? We have evolved to absorb these chemicals from various plant and animal sources that break down as they pass through our intestine, if we dump them all directly into our stomach can we make best use of them? Regardless of the science behind supplements and the good intentions of the manufacturers, we know that a balanced diet with fruit and vegetables provides us with all the vitamins and minerals we need.

Part of the problem is that we are bombarded with claims by various manufacturers. The drinks industry labels sugar based drinks as carbohydrate playing on the general populations idea that sugar and carbohydrate are different things. Whey powder in protein shakes is made up to be a wonder protein even though it is difficult to absorb in the quantities it is drunk in and is so highly processed I would question allowing it into any type of diet.

I would argue that without a reasonably balanced diet you will not become any type of athlete in the first place and that before you look at supplements to your diet you should firstly look closely at your diet and secondly at your training. If you look close enough you will identify the problem and then be able to find a solution that will not involve supporting the supplement industry.

Bookmark with: