Why Rice Cakes & Not Avocados?

 This week’s blog is going to try and untangle the very complex relationship that some runners have with food and fueling. Food, nutrition, and weight are huge issues and one that I try to steer clear of having learnt that the relationship people have with food is influenced by a multitude of bio-psycho-social factors including genetics, thoughts, feelings, upbringing, society and of course media stereotypes. When I first meet runners, they usually have 30/40 years of outside influence of their eating habits that can be hard to shift but my message is always the same; eat to fuel your body, eat as many and as much nutrients as you can to nourish your body so that it works with you and not against you.

So, let’s talk about the elephant in the room…why do people think they have to be skinny to be fast? There I’ve said it, phew, glad that’s out in the open because I challenge that, running fast requires good genetics and a good solid base of training – simply being skinny doesn’t automatically make you a fast runner. Yes, you might run slightly faster but it’s not sustainable for long, I’ve seen so many runners lose weight, run fast, eat less, run faster, eat less and eventually burn out through injury or overtraining. 

Just like putting weight on, this process doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time for your body to break down because your body is amazing and will do everything to keep you alive; it might be several months or years before you break, there will be warning signs but often these are ignored as paces drop with the weight.  However, this is just my observation, we must do what works for us on an individual basis, if things are working for you then that’s ok, if you are stuck in a rut with your training i.e., you don’t seem to be getting any better even though you are training harder, ask yourself if there is anything you could do differently.

The reason that the right food is so important is because runners generally perform better in a fueled state (remember the blog from last week) and that means eating carbohydrates! Oh no! Not carbs! this seems to be a radical statement.  Carbs have got a lot of bad press over the years and for runners shifting this mindset is, in my opinion and from the amount of research I’ve read, so important. Our brain prefers to use carbs as fuel, running long distances you need carbs to fuel…. yet carbs seem to be the villain in society, low fat, no carbs, fasting diets have been ingrained into society and we have been told to eat “fat free”. However, manufacturers took out the fat and replaced it with sugar, so it tasted nicer! As Dr Stacey Sim says “people are eating rice cakes instead of avocados and sugary jelly instead of nut butter on their toast.  The population gained more weight and metabolic health suffered”.

We’re all adults, we’ve heard the phrase you need to put fuel in the car for it to work, yet many active people do not eat enough to support their training and most importantly their recovery needs, especially as we get older.  There then tends to be a vicious cycle of not eating enough, the body goes into starvation mode, holds onto fat, don’t lose weight, train more, low energy, tired, poor performance in training, not seeing the same numbers appear on the smart watch, train harder, cut back even more on food so in the end the body does not have enough energy to support all the physiological and psychological functions needed to maintain optimal health.

 My final word on this and I’ve had several comments over the years about my weight, luckily, I am very confident in my ability and just let the comments go but I know how damaging words can be to people both men and women when people say, “you don’t look like a runner”.  My reply is how can you look at someone running at any level and comment on their ability as a runner just by the size of them, you can’t see their heart rate, their bone density, their ligaments, or their strength, guts, and determination.  I’ve seen healthy and strong runners go to ill and fragile runners who have given up their love of running due to the perceived idealistic image of what a runner should look like.

Do what works for you, eat the colours of the rainbow, put nut butter on your toast and ditch the rice cakes, yes even if they are covered in chocolate!