What do you eat?

ArtieFufkin

Hi,

I've been training for the Connemara Ultra in April and have taken up the Paleo diet as part of my preparation.
I have never felt better as a runner, and it got me thinking about what other runners eat. Basically the Paleo diet eliminates grain based carbs and most processed foods. It makes sense to me as it represents what we probably ate before agriculture and industrialisation came about.

What do you eat when preparing for a race?

Thanks.

Krusty_Clown

Do you also sit at home with the lights out?
I'm assuming you eschew alcohol, toothpaste and any form of non-plant based medicine?

pconn062

I eat whatever I can get my fucking hands on! :pac:

ArtieFufkin

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Do you also sit at home with the lights out?
I'm assuming you eschew alcohol, toothpaste and any form of non-plant based medicine?

Ha, no. I really like a drink or two. In fact my day job is centered around booze, so there is no way Id give that up.

I'm just interested in food after reading about Scott Jurek and his vegan diet. I tried that briefly but really couldn't do it. After three weeks on the Paleo diet I am at my ideal race weight for the first time in 3 years. I'm training like a muther****er though

drquirky

http://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/diet-of-kenyan-runners/

The top Kenyan lads eat mostly sugar and Ugali w/ 76percent or so of their diet made up by carbs.

I get your point about eating non processed food but "Paleo" isn't really conducive to proper running.

ArtieFufkin

drquirky wrote: »

http://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/diet-of-kenyan-runners/

The top Kenyan lads eat mostly sugar and Ugali w/ 76percent or so of their diet made up by carbs.

I get your point about eating non processed food but "Paleo" isn't really conducive to proper running.

Interesting. Especially if you look at the comment with the actual breakdown of exactly where the carbs are coming from.

To be clear, I'm on the paleo diet now as a body conditioning tool. In the week coming up to the race I'll be back on the carbs as usual.

There are other articles that support the paleo as a way of getting better metabolic efficiency, which is beneficial for very long races. That's why I'm giving it a try.

Krusty_Clown

drquirky wrote: »

http://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/diet-of-kenyan-runners/

The top Kenyan lads eat mostly sugar and Ugali w/ 76percent or so of their diet made up by carbs.

I get your point about eating non processed food but "Paleo" isn't really conducive to proper running.

To be fair, the paleo diet isn't necessarily a low-carb diet. It's just a little more selective about where those carbs come from. For example, sweet potato is fair game, and that's a perfect complex high carb foodstuff. I'd say that many of the meals we would eat at home would fall under the paleo classification, we just don't feel the need to give them a trendy label. We just call it 'food'.

ultrapercy

When Im training for a marathon, like I am now, I have a general rule of thumb: If Im hungry I eat and if Im not hungry I eat anyway. Ive a pain in me hole listening to diet talk every which way I turn. Ive said before, my mother had it spot on "if your hungry youl eat it"

PaulieC

I think the name is part of the problem. Call it Paleo and everyone dismisses it as a fad. Call it natural and it's alright.

menoscemo

PaulieC wrote: »

I think the name is part of the problem. Call it Paleo and everyone dismisses it as a fad. Call it natural and it's alright.

Yeah but some of the rules they have are ridiculous. You can eat sweet potaotoes but you cannot eat normal potatoes. What the hell is wrong with Spuds? Are they not natural? Do they not grow in the ground?

average_runner

menoscemo wrote: »

Yeah but some of the rules they have are ridiculous. You can eat sweet potaotoes but you cannot eat normal potatoes. What the hell is wrong with Spuds? Are they not natural? Do they not grow in the ground?

What you need to get is an air fryer!! Sweet potato chips are so good.

Pity about the choc, fizzy drinks, cake and crisps i eat:mad:

menoscemo

average_runner wrote: »

What you need to get is an air fryer!! Sweet potato chips are so good.

Pity about the choc, fizzy drinks, cake and crisps i eat:mad:

First off I am not trying to eat paleo, just pointing out an error I see in it which contradicts it's own thesis IMO

Secondly from what I undestand you can fry in paelo no problem. Just you can't use a vegetable oil. Animal fat or Coconut oil is fine AFAIK.

Krusty_Clown

menoscemo wrote: »

Yeah but some of the rules they have are ridiculous. You can eat sweet potaotoes but you cannot eat normal potatoes. What the hell is wrong with Spuds? Are they not natural? Do they not grow in the ground?

What I don't understand is why stick with the palaeolithic era? Why not go back a couple of evolutionary steps*, like the Pliocene diet, where we were sustained mainly on a diet of foraged foods from the forest. Or why not go back to the Devonian period, where we were all tetrapods and living on a diet of leaves? Or the Silurian diet, which consists mainly of plankton or other microorganisms? Or my personal favourite: the photosynthesis diet.

Or why not just eat a balanced diet of foodstuffs from which you don't have an allergy or intolerance?

<above diets may not be historically accurate and are susceptible to change based on further discoveries>

PaulieC

or does any of it even matter if you are eating enough calories to cover your outgoings ? I would think that fresh and natural is best, but to a certain extent calories are calories

digger2d2

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

What I don't understand is why stick with the palaeolithic era? Why not go back a couple of evolutionary steps*, like the Pliocene diet, where we were sustained mainly on a diet of foraged foods from the forest. Or why not go back to the Devonian period, where we were all tetrapods and living on a diet of leaves? Or the Silurian diet, which consists mainly of plankton or other microorganisms? Or my personal favourite: the photosynthesis diet.

Or why not just eat a balanced diet of foodstuffs from which you don't have an allergy or intolerance?

<above diets may not be historically accurate and are susceptible to change based on further discoveries>

It was all so much easier when I was a fish :D

ThisRegard

pconn062 wrote: »

I eat whatever I can get my fucking hands on! :pac:

Isn't that why we run in the first place ?!

ArtieFufkin

ThisRegard wrote: »

Isn't that why we run in the first place ?!

So true

Sauve

Dya know what's deadly before running?
Ryvita with almond butter. Rocket fuel so it is

Krusty_Clown

ArtieFufkin wrote: »

I have never felt better as a runner, and it got me thinking about what other runners eat. Basically the Paleo diet eliminates grain based carbs and most processed foods. It makes sense to me as it represents what we probably ate before agriculture and industrialisation came about.

Just to get back on subject (and sorry for ribbing on the paleos!), if following the paleo diet achieves the goal of eliminating allergens and removes processed foods from the diet, then it's bound to be a step in the right direction. One of the strange things I've heard repeated a couple of times though (can't remember all the instances but one of the guys on MarathonTalk was one), was people following the paleo diet and losing a shed-load of weight (good), having a really terrible long run (bad) before switching back to a high carb diet and having fantastic long fast runs. I'm wondering if this isn't some form of carb-depletion, particularly if your paleo diet draws you away from typical complex carbs like rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.

pa4

I love food so I seem to be constantly eating when I'm at home. I'd eat fairly healthy anyway so it doesn't matter too much. In fact in the last few weeks I seem to be eating more after I gave up white bread (not because I'm all against bread I just have a gluten intolerance) and I seem to be running much better as a result, I definitely feel better anyway. My weight stayed the same too because I think I wasn't eating enough before and I'd go too long without food which isn't good. The way I look at it is that food is fuel (as long as your eating fairly healthy) so I just stock up whenever I can.