Keyan Runners Diet

dienbienphu

I was watching a programme on what Kenyan runners eat and a lot of their diet is composed of natural basic foods. Nothing in their diet seems to stand out that much apart from the small quatities of meat they apparently eat. The runners only consume meat 4 times a weeks, some less, and thats restricted to 100 grams per portion. I was surprised to see that they ate so little meat since there seems to be a big consensus nowadays for athletes to stuff their faces with protein.

What do you guys think?

RayCun

Kenya is a poor country. They eat what they can afford. When they're successful and can afford better, they eat what they're used to.

(They also drink tea loaded with sugar, but I wouldn't build a diet around that)

macinalli

Not too surprised tbh. I think it's more of a cultural thing in western countries that every meal has to have meat in it - I would say that's not true at all. Meat is great for protein and iron, but there are lots of other foods out there that can give you these too. Lentils, pulses, seeds, dairy, eggs are all good sources of protein but a lot of Irish people wouldn't have a clue how to cook a dinner using lentils!

As for portion size - again no surprise here. Do a search on this forum and you'll find it's one of the top recommendations for runners looking to lose weight.

dienbienphu

macinalli wrote: »

Not too surprised tbh. I think it's more of a cultural thing in western countries that every meal has to have meat in it - I would say that's not true at all. Meat is great for protein and iron, but there are lots of other foods out there that can give you these too. Lentils, pulses, seeds, dairy, eggs are all good sources of protein but a lot of Irish people wouldn't have a clue how to cook a dinner using lentils!

As for portion size - again no surprise here. Do a search on this forum and you'll find it's one of the top recommendations for runners looking to lose weight.

what dropping meat?

macinalli

dienbienphu wrote: »

what dropping meat?

Reducing portion size! Dropping meat is optional:pac:

rom

Was listening to an interview recently and ir did make a lot of sense. Why is their such depth in Keyan running. It is a combination of factors but one that is often overlooked is that running is their national sport and in a big way. If we were able to have the amount of people in Ireland that play GAA, Rugby, Soccer/football/whatever just run then two things would happen.
1. For a small country we would be at least 10x times more successful because there would be 10x many people doing the sport.
2. As it would be then the country sport then most money would go to it and help development.

Years ago we faired better on the world stage as their was two real choices one being GAA and the other being Athletics. Now people have Martial Arts, tag rugby, tennis etc etc.

I was looking back at the XC results from about 15 years ago from when I was in school (looking for my own name) and I saw a name of one of the best local runners at the moment. Now I am not reading too much into it but he was about 25 position in a schools race. Ignoring all problems with my argument like he could be new to the sport etc where are the 24 people who were faster than him at that age.

In Cork there are about 5000 members of athletics clubs approx out of an approx population of 500k for the county. That is 1 in a 100 people a club member and we are supposed to be in a running boom. Compare this to the big three sports and that is what is wrong.

It was also the case that we bought our wholesome food : fruit and veg in a greengrocers, meat in a butcher, bread fresh from a bakery. We didn't need to make choices about what is in season because they only sold what was locally produced. Now people go to tesco/aldi and buy fruit and veg that has been treated to within an inch of it still being fruit so you can get you kiwi's that have been flown from New Zealand. The same goes for meat, bread etc.

Carrots of today do not resemble home grown veg in any way. Eat better quality food.

Hard Worker

The problem here is the school bus.
Many moons ago, when I was in school, we played in the school yard for an hour or two before walking home. It would normally be kicking a tennis ball around the yard with teams of 20 a side. Nowadays, when the bell goes at 3 o'clock, children hop on to the school bus and go home.
In Kenya, children run into school and home from school. They also eat less processed food than we do.
You then have altitude to factor in.

rom

Hard Worker wrote: »

The problem here is the school bus.
Many moons ago, when I was in school, we played in the school yard for an hour or two before walking home. It would normally be kicking a tennis ball around the yard with teams of 20 a side. Nowadays, when the bell goes at 3 o'clock, children hop on to the school bus and go home.
In Kenya, children run into school and home from school. They also eat less processed food than we do.
You then have altitude to factor in.

Many primary schools will not allow children cycle to school now. I am sorry but I don't see children being kidnapped everyday in this country like. They also get way too much homework. Lets run by repetition rather than letting them get some fresh air and taking in what they learn in quality rather than quantity time.