DrClydeWilson's NUTRITION BLOG

What to eat before 2 hrs fighter-jet training

Clyde,
I am in naval aviation and am currently training in jets. I was at one of your NROTC UC berkeley lectures a few years ago and I was wondering how your advice would apply to my line of work. Considering I can't eat or drink in the cockpit, how can I prepare for my 2 hour flight best? Right now I stick with an apple and a cup of coffee. For my flights I want to be as mentally alert as possible, and not get too dehydrated considering how much I sweat in the gear we have to wear.

ANSWER: Dave, You want the slowest digesting starch available, which is either legumes or yam. This has a very real impact on sustained mental and physical focus. In my hardest training sessions, when I eat a small portion of lentils or, to a lesser extent, when I have a microwaved yam (it eats just like an energy bar), my energy is sustained for hard training into a second hour. It is shocking what a difference it makes compared to oatmeal or an apple. What you are currrently doing is fine (the coffee and an apple), but if you ever have a training session that is particularly long and/or important to you, try the slow digesting starch approach I recommend here. Adding an apple as a side snack to the lentils is also a good idea because the apple provides some fructose for liver fueling (the liver stores that fuel and provides it to you as blood sugar starts to fall in the second hour of training or flying). Note that if you use lentil soup intead of plain cooked lentils you will be effectively dehydrating yourself because of the high salt levels in soup.

Breakfast before a 6 hour ride

Clyde, There's at least objective merit to the idea that different individuals have different physiological needs. I think little research has been done on this. For example, take 10 athletes and feed them all pancakes for breakfast before an 8 hour ride. Some (like me) will bloat badly and be pretty unhappy. Others might swear it's better than Mom's milk.

I'd be interested in your feedback on a breakfast I've previously used for all day rides: A large bowl oatmeal with a modest amount of brown sugar, 3 or 4 whole fried eggs and a medium glass orange juice. Seems like it's high in sugar or sugar equivalents. I ride about 30 minutes after eating it. It seems to work quite well for me, giving me energy for 6 hours or so. I'm pretty sure that the eggs are a key part of it. Lloyd

ANSWER: The fibrous starch (oatmeal) fuels muscle, the sucrose in the OJ fuels your liver, the egg whites give you protein and the egg yolks give you dietary fat. That is the "positive" perspective of this breakfast. However, the amount of glucose in a "large" bowl of oatmeal (about 150 Cal / cup dry, or 300 Cal / cup cooked) and sucrose in a glass of OJ (110 Cal / cup) probably amounts to 600-700 Calories, which will without question spike your blood sugar and reduce performance compared to 400 Calories worth of carbohydrate. Eating as much as 400 Calories of carbohydrate all at once will also result in reduced performance if digestion is not slowed by protein and fat, which the whole eggs provide, and the amount of protein in 3-4 egg whites is 90-120 Cal (fine), but the amount of fat in 3-4 egg yolks is 120-160 Cal, half of which is saturated fat along with plenty of cholesterol. I would say toss one or two of the yolks, put avocado into the eggs along with one or two yolks so that the total amount of fat stays the same as what you are doing, reduce the oatmeal and OJ by 1/3, and put just as much oatmeal and OJ along with almond butter and some protein powder into the blender to make a shake for your first rest stop or water station. Alternatively just go with any kind of sandwich that you know works for you and skip the shake altogether later on.

Early morning training

Many people exercise or train (exercise with the goal of competing) very soon after waking up. Blood sugar is 20% below normal and cortisol (which breaks down muscle tissue) is high when you wake up. Whether you realize it not (i.e. even if you do not feel any hunger at all), your body is STARVING when you wake up. This is also true any time you have not eaten for more than a few hours, and is particularly true when you have not eaten for more than 5 or 6 hours. If you are rolling out of bed, putting your shoes on and are running or lifting weights ten minutes later, food is not really an option since it will make you sick to your stomach. However, if you do nothing your training will not only be significantly weaker than it could be, but your hormonal balance will shift so far to muscle breakdown that your ability to recover and exercise well the next day will be reduced as well. WHAT TO DO: Drink 2 cups of water to rehydrate yourself immediately upon waking and consume some calories. These calories could be any maltodextrin-based supplement diluted into the water you are drinking, or, if you have a bit more time before your exercise starts, you can blend together 1/2 cup of oats, 1 banana, 1 Tbsp nut butter and 1 cup soy milk or nonfat regular milk and drink 1/3 of this power-shake before your workout and drink the rest right after your workout during the recovery window. The less you consume before your workout, the more important it becomes to include dilute calories (about 100 Cal / hour in water) during your workout so that your body is not using ITSELF as a fuel source during the workout. KEEP IN MIND that putting too many calories into your body at any one time overshoots blood sugar levels, resutling in insulin levels that drive down blood sugar, reducing performance to even lower levels than if you had not consumed any calories to begin with. This is what happens when you feel tired after lunch when lunch has too much refined carbohydrate or sugar in it. The same reduced energy occurs in athletes that spike their blood sugar right before or during exercise. It is also important to include some protein (such as in the form of powder) in your calories when you wake since the body is not only low in blood sugar but blood amino acids levels as well. There are eight amino acids the body can not make, and by the you wake up your body is breaking down muscle tissue to get those amino acids. No matter how many carbohydrate or fat calories you eat in the morning, your body will continue to break down muscle tissue until you get a little protein into your system. Although protein is not as important as carbohydrate in terms of performance, they are equally important in terms of reducing muscle breakdown. A ratio of 3:1, 4:1 or 5:1 carbohydrate to protein all fall into effective ranges. Scientific studies have NOT been done showing any of these ratios to be better than the others.