This week, read about how eating dairy before training might help prevent bone loss in cyclists, music that enhances exercise adherence, saturated fats and silly questions, why athletes shouldn’t skip breakfast, what to eat before racing, and more.
Eating dairy before training might help cyclists avoid future bone problems
Exercise is generally good for bone health because it stresses bones, which stimulates bones to become denser; but non weight-bearing sports like cycling don’t have this benefit. In fact, a study in professional male cyclists found that two thirds of them had abnormally low bone density. This is a serious health concern, because fragile bones are at greater risk for fracture. Athletes lose calcium through sweat during exercise, which puts them at risk for bone loss if the type of exercise doesn’t benefit bones.
A study in female cyclists published this week found that eating a dairy-rich meal 90 minutes before riding can counter bone loss. Leading sports nutrition expert Louise Burke was involved in the research, and explained that the pre-ride calcium-rich meal keeps blood calcium levels stable, so your body doesn’t borrow calcium from your bones to replace what’s lost in sweat.
The study found that a calcium-rich breakfast before an intense ride lessened exercise-induced changes in bone that results from calcium lost in sweat. The calcium-rich meal contained 1,350 mg calcium (that’s a lot of calcium – 1 cup of milk has 300 mg/calcium). What did the the cyclists eat? The breakfast consisted of rolled-oats cooked in calcium-fortified milk, yogurt, and additional milk (PLOS One May 13, 2015).
If your main activity is cycling, consider adding calcium sources to your pre-ride meals. Good sources of calcium include dairy products, calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, canned fish with soft bones, mackerel, salmon, sardines, leafy greens of the cabbage family, and tofu processed with calcium sulfate. Also, adding weight-bearing exercise and strength training to your routine is a good idea, as these activities can stimulate bone growth.
Music + extra rhythm dramatically increases exercise adherence in cardiac patients
Exercise is important to improve the health of cardiac patients, but generally adherence is poor. Researchers from the University of Toronto studied the impact of prescribing exercise with a personalized music playlist, and found that these patients did a better job following their exercise routine than patients exercising without music. Researchers synchronized the music to approximate an individual’s prescribed exercise pace (tempos within ±10 bpm exercise step-pace prescription). Half of the music group had “tempo-pace synchronization” added to their playlist – this is an embedded rhythmic sonic enhancement that researchers added to explore if these beat-accentuations could further improve exercise adherence. Patients who had this extra rhythm in their music boosted their weekly exercise the most of all (by 70 percent compared to controls). Researchers theorize that this type of exercise adherence could boost life expectancy of cardiac patients by 2 and a half years. (Sports Medicine – Open, May 2015).
Music to Match Your Pace. Spotify just released a new streaming app that finds music to match your running pace. Sound intriguing (or confusing?) here is an early review.
More Links of Interest This Week
Does skipping breakfast affect performance? There’s a good chance it does, according to a study published this week. Even if you eat a big lunch, the effects of skipping breakfast seem to carry over until evening and can hurt your athletic performance and training adaptations. This study found that athletes who ate breakfast completed 4.5% more work in an evening 30-minute bike time trial compared to when they didn’t eat breakfast. (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, May 2015). You’ll find some healthy breakfast options here.
Saturated Fats and Silly Questions. New research on saturated fats has lead to much confusion. Expert David Katz explains what the weight of evidence (and not one study) says about saturated fat and heart disease.
- a high intake of saturated fat over time is generally associated with a correspondingly higher risk of heart disease, and other chronic disease as well.
- a relatively lower intake of saturated fat is not necessarily protective if the saturated fat is replaced with something just as harmful, such as added sugar.
- not all saturated fat is created equal, and some varieties are clearly innocuous.
- most importantly, focusing on nutrients rather than foods tends to get us into trouble, not out of it!
If you focus on a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts & seeds, your diet will likely be low in saturated fats.
Restaurant salads that can be worse than a Big Mac. It likely surprises many diners that some salads have up to 1500 calories and more saturated fat than a burger. (Olga Khazan, The Atlantic)
Simple intervention (lucky iron fish) for iron deficiency. Cooking in cast-iron works too! You’ll find more tips to get your iron in your diet here.
The deathly affects of pure caffeine powder. Caffeine powder is sold as a dietary supplement (virtually unregulated and widely available). Just 1 tablespoon is a lethal dose. (Murray Carpenter, New York Times)
Are you racing in the Ottawa Race Weekend? (I am – the 5km!). Some of the races start at times you may not be used to training at (the 5km starts at 4 PM), and you might be wondering what to eat before. The graphic below is a general guide. You’ll find more tips on what to eat before hard efforts here.
Cool Soups for Hot Weather
In summer we are inundated with a bounty of seasonal produce, but soups aren’t a common menu item. Yet chilled soups are perfect for summer dining. They capture fresh and colorful produce at its peak, and provide a refreshing start to any meal on a hot summer day. These soups pair well with light meals featuring salads and sandwiches, but are also a nice contrast to heartier fare. Find out more about chilled soups, and the surprising health benefits of gazpacho.
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Tour de Bretagne photo: by ludovic from Guissény. (Bretagne, Finistère), France (Marianne Vos) [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons.
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