Building Your Own High-Performance Athletic Body
Carl Lewis, the world’s fastest man, is my biggest claim to fame for an athlete who follows the McDougall Diet. (Not too shabby, huh.) He set the world record for the 100-meter dash, won two gold medals, and had the best long-jump series of his career (29 feet three times – these are considered the best series of jumps of all times) while following the McDougall diet.(1) I met Carl Lewis in 1990 in Minneapolis one morning while we were both appearing on a TV talk show. He told me he was frustrated because all previous eating plans had either caused him to become overweight or left him too weak to compete and win (these were mostly low-calorie, portion-control diets). Shortly afterwards he began eating our recommended low-fat, pure-vegetarian diet and his dilemma was resolved. Yes, he discovered there IS a diet that would allow him to look, feel, function, and perform at his best without ever being hungry – shouldn’t that be the way for all of us?
In the introduction to his new cookbook “Very Vegetarian” (written by Jannequin Bennet – Rutledge Hill Press -- released in 2001), he says, “In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet.” He continued, “Dr. McDougall challenged me to make a commitment to eating a vegetarian diet and then to just do it.” Thousands of other world-class athletes have learned to follow a near-vegetarian diet simply because they have no other choice if they want to join the winners’ circle. By the nature of the foods, a winning athlete must eat mostly plants to obtain high-octane fuel (carbohydrate).
Winning at All Costs
Serious competitors would drink cockroach saliva and eat rat droppings to improve their performance by 0.0001%. Fortunately, the winning edge is not so unappealing. All knowledgeable scientists agree that for the best performance during prolonged exercise the best fuel for the body is carbohydrate. In practical terms, this means eating starches (rice, corn, potatoes, beans, pasta, bread), vegetables, and fruits – all of these plant foods contain 70% to 95+% of their calories as carbohydrate. Winning athletes shun foods devoid of meaningful amounts of carbohydrate – these are meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheeses, and vegetable oils. Therefore, a near-vegetarian diet is necessary for athletes to attain the recommended 60% to 70% of their daily energy as carbohydrate. (2,3)
Except for milk and honey, carbohydrates are found in significant amounts only in plant-derived foods. Even these two foods (milk and honey) obtain their simple sugars originally from plant sources (grasses, grains, and pollen).
Sugar is Energy
There are 3 potential sources of fuel (calories) from our foods – protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Protein is only used as fuel during times of extreme deprivation, such as starvation. Fat is the “metabolic dollar” stored for the day when no food is available (a day which seems to never come). Theoretically, fat can provide fuel for several days of continuous low-intensity activity, and is reserved for use when sufficient carbohydrate is not available. Carbohydrate is the body’s preferred fuel for daily activities and high-intensity exercise performance. Following a low-carbohydrate regime will impair performance. (4,5)
In general, research shows 3 to 4 days of following such a high-fat, high-protein diet is enough to deplete the body of its stores of carbohydrate, clearly impairing short-term performance. (6) The well-known feeling of fatigue results from low carbohydrate reserves in the body. (2) Carbohydrate is another name for sugar. The topic of carbohydrate is so important to human health that there are medical journals, like the Journal of Carbohydrate, and yearly medical symposiums that focus solely on these vital sugars. Some cells in the body, like the red blood cells and filtering cells of the kidneys (glomerular cells), can only use carbohydrate for energy. The brain and other parts of the nervous system have a very strong preference for carbohydrate – burning fat only under extra ordinary circumstances. When sufficient carbohydrate is not available, because of starvation or when someone foolishly follows a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss, the body then makes carbohydrate from protein (for example, from the body’s own muscle protein). This process occurs primarily in the liver, and is called gluconeogenesis . Fatty acids (fats) cannot be converted to carbohydrate (glucose).
Forms of Carbohydrate
Sugars are divided into complex and simple carbohydrates (sugars). Simple sugars are usually thought of as unhealthy foods – for example, white sugar (sucrose) or high- fructose corn syrup. But simple sugars are also plentiful in sweet-tasting fruits – an important part of a healthy diet. Complex carbohydrates are long branching chains of simple sugars connected together – they are often called starches. This kind of sugar is abundant in common starchy plant foods, like corn, potatoes, rice, whole wheat flours, and beans. Green and yellow vegetables also synthesize and store complex carbohydrate. Glycogen is a form of complex sugar (branching chains of glucose) synthesized in the human body and then stored for use during future strenuous activities. The liver and muscles are the primary depots for glycogen storage. Glycogen resynthesis is maximal – twice as rapid – during the first 2 hours after exercise. (7) Running out of glycogen is described by long-distance runners as “hitting the wall.”
Choose High Glycemic Foods
Athletes have learned to choose foods that have a high glycemic index .* (8,9) You eat in order to replenish your energy supplies – the more efficiently a food raises the blood sugar, the better. High glycemic index foods, such as glucose, rice, potatoes, and bread, result in faster and more efficient storage of glycogen, than do low-glycemic foods, like fructose. Winners need their glycogen stores filled to the brim in order to last the long race. To seek foods with a high glycemic index is good advice for every person wanting to be strong and energetic throughout the day – not just athletes.
* The glycemic index is a measure of how high a sugar level rises and how long it stays up in the blood after eating.
You may have learned that you should avoid foods high in this index because these foods cause the blood sugar to rise, which then leads to diabetes. Nothing could be further from the truth. You may even have heard that candy bars are healthier for you than potatoes and carrots because of the candy bars’ lower glycemic index – how silly (I’m sure you didn’t fall for that one). Populations of people worldwide who eat diets centered on high glycemic index carbohydrates, like rice for rural Asians, and potatoes for people in Peru, are essentially free of diabetes. (10,11) People, living like Americans, choosing foods lower in their glycemic index, those foods which are also high in fat and protein, suffer from an epidemic of diabetes – of both types. (For more on type-1 diabetes – see my July 2002 newsletter, and type-2 – see “Common Diseases, Diabetes” on my web site. Type-2 diabetes is soon to be the subject of a newsletter.)