Date: Wed, 8 May 1996 12:21:40 -0500 From: "Karl L. King" Subject: Re: "Real food" The thread on "real food" is missing some key points. First of all, what is "real" food? Are Coke, M&Ms, pretzels and Snickers "real" food? From which tree were they picked? How about condensed milk or Ensure - are those "real"? How about honey - is it "real" or is it from the Bee factory? Is anything from MickeyD's "real"? A mathematician would say that this is a complex issue, so there must be a real part and an imaginary part. Finishing a 100 miler on imaginary food would be difficult indeed. Muscle fibers use Adenosine Tri Phosphate for their energy requirements. Is ATP real food? Mitochondria produce ATP from molecules such as glucose, acetyl coenzyme A, and individual amino acids. Are those real food? At these molecular levels, the body does not know or care where the molecules came from. In the digestive tract, what we eat is ripped apart by hydrochloric acid and a host of enzymes. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich does not ooze unchanged through the walls of the small intestine. For food to be taken up by the blood stream, it must be in very simple forms, which come from digested, or broken down, food. You can input the food as pizza or as a simple mix of carbo, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. Your digestive tract will process as needed, which may be a lot, or it may be very little if the bulk of the work is already done before you eat. The debate of "real" or something else is missing the point. Which is, that for good digestion and energy flow, the body needs a mix of carbo, fat and protein in "normal" proportions. What is "normal"? Studies of Tour de France finishers show a remarkably similar macro nutrient profile despite the fact that different riders make different food choices. What they take is 7-10% protein, about 20% fat, with the rest coming from carbohydrate. One can concoct all the advertising hype and bs about 30-30-40 plans, but when high performance is required, "real" people do not use 30-30-40. My experience and study suggest that 10-15-75 ( protein, fat, carbo ) is a workable choice for 100 mile runs. Very fast, competitive runners may need more carbo than that. Nearly all of the "energy" products on the market do not come close to meeting that kind of profile. Exceed, PowerBar, GU, etc either have insufficient fat, protein or both. The problem isn't that they aren't "real", it is that they are not formulated for being the sole source of energy in a very long event. And, some of them have ingredients such as fructose that will ruin one's digestion during the event. There are a lot of runners out there who had a miserable run or a DNF not because of their training or the course, but because they consumed a poorly designed energy product. Most people run long ultras with too little fat and protein. The stomach and small intestine become overly acid, and nausea is the result, with puking the final chapter. What is "real" food? In this context, it is food that contains fat and protein. Peanut butter, cheese, milk, mayo, hamburgers, hot dogs, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, etc are all effective not because they are in some sense "real" but because they are supplying the fat and protein not found in common energy products. I know from personal experience that if you have an "engineered" food that does supply the proper mix of nutrients, one can run for more than a day with no with no stomach upset. Again, the commonly available energy products are not well designed for long ultras, and may cause a lot of the problems runners experience in these runs. Maybe one of the reasons that Kenyan and Tarahumara runners do so well is that they are unaware of such products and eat the stuff they've learned over the centuries works well for them. I'll bet it isn't loaded with fructose/sucrose and citric acid, but it does contain modest amounts of protein and fat. Anybody out there have some specific information on what the Tarahumara have been eating for the last 100 years? Karl King kking@omnifest.uwm.edu