Rider as Athlete: Diet and Nutrition

BY LISA CHAMPION MSc (Exercise Science)

Last month we started this series with some insights about fitness and its vital role in keeping us strong, healthy and better able to cope with the demands of riding and working around horses. This month, we take a look diet and nutrition and its role in our health and athletic performance.

When we consider horse riders as athletes there are two dietary issues. One is for the rider who does not have a weight problem. This rider needs to look carefully at the nutritional value of the food they are eating and consider whether their diet is promoting good health and sustained energy. Secondly there is the rider who needs to lose weight. Carrying excess weight is not only a health hazard, it may also make you feel more sluggish, making the daily tasks of riding and working around horses harder. These riders need knowledge about healthy nutrition combined with the right information about how to successfully lose weight.

Let’s start with setting out the basic principles of eating well for good health and long lasting energy. If you don’t have any issues with your weight, and you look slim and fit on the outside, it can sometimes be difficult to see the value of improving your eating habits. But more and more good scientific research shows the link between diet and cardiovascular disease (through its effect on your blood cholesterol levels), diabetes, some forms of cancer and other diseases. Eating poorly can also have adverse effects on your liver, kidneys and digestive system. It can make your energy levels low and affect your athletic performance. So, no matter how fit you look on the outside, everyone should be thoughtful about what they eat. An athlete who pays no attention to nutrition is leaving out a vital link in improving their performance.

BALANCING CARBOHYDRATE, FAT AND PROTEIN
Despite the array of popular diets that promote high protein, low carbohydrate food intake, many nutritionists concur that these types of restrictions are not useful for establishing long term healthy eating patterns. The goal should be to eat a varied diet, rich in whole, unprocessed foods and with the right balance of healthy fats, carbohydrates that provide you with lasting energy and lean protein. But to do this, you need a bit of nutrition knowledge. I’ll try to summarise things for you, but if you are interested in an excellent book about getting this balance right, I recommend Reality Food by Joanna McMillan, published by ABC Books in 2003. In the mean time, here’s an overview.

CARBOHYDRATES
Good quality carbohydrates, which by their nature contain fibre, sugars, starch, vitamins and minerals, should make up a good portion of your diet. As much as possible, try to eat minimally-processed carbohydrates. Using bread as an example, white bread has a much lower nutritional value than multi-grain breads. Meusli as a breakfast cereal is far superior to a processed, white flour-based cereal with added sugar. Other good sources of carbohydrate are certain rices, whole grain pastas, vegetables and fruit. Less commonly used, but excellent, are legumes such as chickpeas and lentils and different grains like barley or bulgur wheat. If you’re game and interesting in boosting the quality of carbohydrates in your diet, try adding these ingredients to salads, stews, and casseroles.

GLYCAEMIC INDEX

Nutritionists used to talk about simple vs. complex carbohydrates. But research has progressed significantly and it is now recommended that your focus is not on simple vs.complex, but on the glycaemic index (GI) of the food. GI is the rating of how quickly a carbohydrate food is broken down and absorbed by your body. If a food has a high GI, it is rapidly broken down and absorbed by your body. If a food has a high GI, it is rapidly broken down and absorbed, ultimately leaving you feeling hungry and lacking energy. Interestingly, some foods that you would think would leave you feeling full and satisfied, like potatoes, have a high GI rating. GI is important to consider if you are working around and riding horses all day and need sustained energy. If you tend to fuel yourself with high GI foods, your energy levels will fluctuate greatly. Eating frequent small meals and snacks that are low GI will give you much better sustained energy throughout the day. In just about every food category there are high GI and low GI options – bread, biscuits, fruit, snacks, vegetables, etc. So you need to look up the GI index to find out which foods have the lowest GI. One of the leading GI researchers in the world, Dr. Jennie Brand Miller happens to be Australian. Her book, The New GI Revolution is an international best seller and a new edition has been released for 2005. So, if you are interested in finding out more, get her book or visit www.glycemicindex.com.

GOOD FATS, BAD FATS
Making sure the fats you are eating are the healthy ones is the next important consideration in your diet. Having too much ‘bad’ fat in your diet can lead to elevated blood cholesterol which can cause heart disease. It also tends to be more readily stored as body fat, leading to weight gain. This type of fat is called saturated fat. Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature and primarily comes from animal sources. It’s found in meat and poultry, butter, milk, cheese, biscuits and cakes, pastries, sausages, burgers and many deep-fried foods. There are also two vegetable sources of saturated fat – coconut and palm oil. These oils are widely used in many packaged products likes biscuits and cakes, significantly increasing their fat content. Coconut oil is also widely used in Thai curries. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid these types of fats as much as possible. Read food labels to check for hidden fats and make practical changes like trimming all the visible fat off the meat you eat and taking the skin off chicken before you cook it.

The two other types of fat in the diet are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Polyunsaturated fats contain omega-6 and omega-3 fats which can have a positive effect on your health by reducing heart disease risk. Omega-6 fats come from sunflower oil, seeds, and pine nuts. Omega-3 fats come from many fish sources, linseed oil, and omega-3 enriched eggs. Both these types of fat should be eaten in moderation. Monounsaturated fats come primarily from olive oil, olives, avocado and certain nuts such as almonds, cashews, peanuts and pistachios. Research shows that monounsaturates can be more easily used as fuel by our body and are less likely to be stored as fat.

More recent in the world of nutrition is the sub-category of fats called trans fats. As food manufacturers sought to meet the needs of people wanting poly and monounsaturated fats as their main fat sources, they began to modify these fats to make them more solid. (Hence things like sunflower oil margarine). But, unfortunately, the chemical process they use (call hydrogenation) to make healthy oils more solid creates trans fats that have been shown to raise blood cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. So, try to use margarine-type spreads as sparingly as possible and increase your use of avocado as a spread or olive oil when possible. Also, check food labels for the word hydrogenated. If hydrogenated fat is listed, the food contains trans fats. Some food labels now list trans fats – so paying more attention to food labels is a good way to improve your diet.

PROTEIN
How much protein and the quality of the protein that you eat is the next important consideration. The popularity of the many high-protein diets on the market has added a lot of confusion to the issue of how much protein to eat. Remember, eating well is not about following a ‘diet’. It is about eating a variety of whole, unprocessed foods with a good balance of carbohydrate, protein and fat. In fact, the Victorian government has recently launched a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign warning the public about fad diets, and in particular the low-carbohydrate, high protein Atkin’s diet. The message will be distributed via community health centres, universities and TAFE’s and posters will appear in pubs, clubs and on public transport. The campaign is also backed by the Australian Medical Association. So, what are the facts about protein?

Proteins are a vital part of a healthy diet because they are used to mend damaged tissue, make new cells, grow new muscle tissue and many other important bodily functions. The main sources of proteins in food are meat, fish, dairy foods, legumes, nuts, seeds and grains. One important consideration when choosing your protein source is the amount of fat that may or may not be packaged with the food. A lean piece of steak is an excellent source of protein. Leave all the visible fat on around the outside, grill it on the BBQ till it’s nice and crunchy and then eat it – and you’ve added a lot of saturated fat to your diet.

The Australian recommendation for protein intake is 0.75 g of protein per kilogram of body weight. This means that a 60 kg woman requires about 45 grams of protein and an 80 kg man requires about 60 grams of protein. This is easily consumed if you eat one or two servings of lean meat in a day as well as a bit of yogurt, a few nuts, and some milk or cheese. Balancing your protein intake with low GI carbohydrates and a small quantity of ‘good’ fats is the best way to ensure you are getting the most for your nutrition dollar!

DRINK PLENTY OF FLUID
Finally, it’s essential for all athletes, or busy, active people to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day. The best and most economical one is water! Unfortunately, we often go through a whole day without drinking one full glass of water. We substitute sugar-laden soft drinks, fruit juice, tea, coffee, energy drinks, and alcohol and good ole’ water gets left in the lurch. If you are serious about making positive changes to your diet, you should try to drink a litre or two of water every day and more if you are riding lots of horses and the weather is hot. Avoid soft drinks and excessive intake of caffeine and you’ll be making another positive step towards better health.

Eating well does take a bit more thought and planning. It’s not as easy as just grabbing a can of coke and a packet of chips. I have seen many a competitor with a horse truck or 4WD filled with junk food packages and soft drink cans, coffee cups and fast food wrappers! The cycle becomes a bit vicious – you eat high GI/high fat foods, so you quickly lose energy and feel a bit a tired, so you perk yourself up with a cup of coffee or an energy drink. Soon, you feel a bit hungry and tired again, so you drink another cuppa and eat a few biscuits or a candy bar. When you feel hungry again, you eat some fast food, because you haven’t planned any other options. It’s really easy to fall into this cycle, but it’s not impossible to change. So, the next time you reach for the easy option, consider your health and the athlete within you. If you are serious about making positive changes, think about planning your snack food in advance – choose water, fruit, whole-grain sandwiches with lean meat and salad, nuts, dried fruit, or snack bars or biscuits that are low in ‘bad’ fats and have low GI ratings. Then, extend the same principles to the choices you make for your main meals. Eat nourishing meals, full of fresh and unprocessed food with lots of variety. If you drink, limit your alcohol intake to one or two glasses and have a few alcohol free nights each week. Your body will repay you with better health and more energy, and you’ll feel great. Eating for peak performance does require a bit of knowledge, so consider investing in a good book about nutrition such as Reality Food. All these small changes can make a big difference!

Eating for peak performance
– Choose whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible
– Eat a wide variety of foods with different colours and textures
– Choose Low GI carbohydrates for lasting energy and serious health benefits
– Avoid ‘bad’ fats by steering clear of most pastries, cakes, biscuits, meat pies, sausage rolls, chips, fried foods, visible fats on meat and hydrogenated fats
– Eat the recommended amount of protein for your body weight and choose lean sources
– Drink plenty of fluids – mainly water – and avoid excessive intake of caffeine and alcohol.