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HYDRATION, NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION
There are three Tiers to Nutrition.
1. Hydration
2. Nutrition
3. Supplementation
Hydration, makes up the foundation of the food pyramid, highlighting the importance of water. So you want to make sure hydration is up to par to create that foundation for performance and recovery. Lets talk about the food pyramid starting with hydration.
1. Hydration “Stay hydrated” is a common phrase that we have all heard when playing sports. But, why is it important to hydrate? The brain is made up of eighty five percent water and takes top priority when it comes to blood flow. The human body is composed of sixty-seventy percent water. The benefits are tremendous when it comes to optimal hydration. We’ve all been told to drink eight glasses of water daily. That rule is too generic and doesn’t address the needs of an individual. Everyone's weight is different and therefore a specific amount of water will be required.
A simple formula can be used to determine the amount of water for each person. Simply drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces. For example, if you are a two hundred pound male, you would drink one hundred ounces of water per day. If you are a female that weighs one hundred twenty pounds, you would drink sixty ounces per day. As you can see, water intake varies widely between individuals.
Timing of water intake is important. In the morning when you wake, your body is in a dehydrated state. It’s very critical to drink water immediately upon rising. This begins the hydration process for the day. I recommend twenty five percent of your total intake of water first thing in the morning. This will help you with you energy levels and you’re detoxification process meaning it will help you with your bowel movements and removing toxins. Fifty percent of the total intake should be consumed during training. The remaining 25% should be consumed in and around meals. Not during meals. Sometimes if you drink to much water during your meals you may compromise your digestions. So the timing of fluid intake is important.
Some reasons why you might need more water than the simple formula we presented above are as follows;
- People who are sick and losing water through diarrhea or vomiting will need fluid and electrolyte replenishment.
- If the climate is warmer or drier, you might need more per day than usual.
- If you’re exercising hard, you will require greater amounts per day. Drink about half to 1 liter of water per hour of physical activity and about half to 1 liter of water in the hour or so afterward. Basically we need to match the hydration plan to the person’s needs and nutritional level.
A great research study was performed on strength training and what they found was that when the athlete was dehydrated by 2% before there training session, there strength performance decreased. When they rehydrated back to there 2% there strength returned back to the pre-existing strength levels. What that showed is dehydration will decrease your maximal strength, and thus your power will decrease.
The Benefits of Water
- Increase mental focus and concentration
- Hydrates spinal discs that can minimize low back pain
- Lubricates joints
- Reduce oxidative stress
- Maintains strength and power
- It transports substances
- It catalyzes chemical reactions
- It regulates our temperature. And,
- It provides minerals.
Sport & Energy Drinks
Be very careful with sports drinks. Yes they have electrolytes but they also contain many ingredients that are detrimental to your performance. The first ingredient that is listed on the bottle is a major problem; sugar. Many sport drinks have a tremendous amount of sugar that can destabilize blood sugar during a round of golf. On average, one twelve ounce bottle of sports drink contains fourteen grams of sugar. Besides the sugar, all sports drinks contain other additives such as colour dyes that can be detrimental to performance.
Sports drinks definitely have their place for athletes or other people losing water and electrolytes, but most average people don’t need them.
2. Nutrition (whole foods)
At the big, communal table of nutrition, we see a lot of food fights. It seems like everyone has a strong opinion about the “right” way to eat. It’s a good debate to have! We all want to know what “the best diet” is. We all want to know the specific, magical combination of foods to eat that will cure diseases, keep us young, give us a radiant glow, and alleviate all human suffering. But, well, there isn’t a best diet. That’s mostly because one diet couldn’t possibly suit all 7.5 billion or so people that live on this planet. People are diverse. In reality, the “best diet”... is one you can actually stick to. Research shows: Small differences in diets—such as the exact percentage of macronutrients, specific food choices, or what type of carbohydrate people eat—don’t actually matter. And it turns out, many diets “work” for various goals, but only if people can do them consistently.
A description of the main macronutrients will give you a better understanding of the impact of these macronutrients when eaten as whole foods. The three basic macronutrients are: proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
A. Proteins
Proteins are the major building blocks for skin, organs, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. They are intimately involved in the regulation of:
· Hemoglobin in blood
· Hormones· Enzymes
· Water balance
· Immune system
Really, to meet our nutritional needs, we just need to get protein from a variety of sources. This will give us a range of amino acids, such as:
- Non-essential amino acids, which we make in our body;
- Essential amino acids, which we have to get from our diet; and
- Conditionally essential amino acids, which we can make ourselves, but not always effectively, so it helps to get extra from the diet.
While the average person eating a standard Western diet is probably not protein deficient, they’re also probably not getting the optimal amount of protein.
For sedentary, generally healthy adults, about 0.8 g of protein per kilogram of body mass is enough to cover basic daily requirements. This translates to about:
- 55 g of protein per day for a 68-kilogram, or about 150-pound person; and
- 72 g of protein per day for a 91-kilogram, or about 200-pound person.
But, our protein needs can go up if:
- we’re training hard frequently, or have a job that’s physically demanding;
- we’re injured, sick, or recovering from surgery;
- we’re older, and because we don’t digest protein as well, we need more to meet requirements; and/or
- we’re losing protein for some other reason.
We may also need more protein if we’re trying to lose weight, as protein can help keep us feeling full longer. For most people, the hand-sized portion method for measuring protein works well. The basic measuring unit for protein is the palm.
B. Fat
Fats have been wrongly accused of being the cause of disease and obesity. Fats are very important for our health and performance. Fat has important functions such as:
· Carrier for fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
· Manufactures hormones and bile salts
· Pivotal role in satiation
· Cell membrane health
There are three main types of fats:
Saturated, Monounsaturated, and Polyunsaturated.
Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap. They have been wrongly accused of being the cause of diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity. These fats are solid at room temperature and when used in cooking are very stable at high heat. Saturated fats such as butter, coconut oil, lard and eggs have long been considered taboo fats.
Research has proven that these types of fats have health promoting properties. Butter has been shown to have heart protective properties. Coconut oil helps aid in weight loss. Lard has been shown to be anti-microbial; meaning it helps fight infections! Eggs have been shown to have no detrimental effects on hypertension and cholesterol.
Monounsaturated fats are most talked about in the Mediterranean diet. These fats are liquid at room temperature and are stable for cooking at moderate temperatures. The foods highest in monounsaturated fats are: olive oil, Avocados, Almonds, and Egg yolks.
Polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature but are very unstable. Once a polyunsaturated fat is heated or exposed to light the fat can go rancid. Heat and light can change the chemical structure of the fat, creating a fat can do damage to the body. Since polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable, they should not be using for cooking.
The most often talked about polyunsaturated fats are the essential fatty acids (EFA’s). “Essential” means that the body is not able to manufacture these fatty acids and must be obtained from the diet. The essential fatty acids are omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-6 fatty acids compared to omega-3 fatty acids. Research has shown that the omega 6/3 ratio in the Standard American Diet (SAD) is as high as 25:1.
When the omega 6/3 ratio is skewed, there are many problems that occur in the body. The overconsumption of omega 6 fatty acids and the underconsumption of omega-3 fatty acids has contributed to increasing rates of cancer, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune disease, and diabetes. In contrast, consuming the right amount of omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have beneficial effects:
· Secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease
· Reduced rectal cell proliferation in cancer patients
· Decreased risk of breast cancer in women
· Suppressed inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients
· Beneficial effects on asthma patients
Avoid All Trans Fatty Acids. Avoid all margarines, fried foods and the use of vegetable oils. Cooking vegetable oils is chemically damaging the oils creating trans fatty acids. Instead choose stable oils such as butter, coconut oil, lard, ghee, palm oil and olive oil.
C. Carbohydra
Glucose is the key energy source used by the brain and central nervous system. Glucose is the broken down form of carbohydrates. For this reason, carbohydrates have been emphasized for energy and performance. Carbohydrates can be classified as vegetables, fruit and grains. All carbohydrate sources eventually become converted to glucose. It depends on the rate at which the carbohydrate is broken down into glucose. The faster a carbohydrate breaks down during digestion, the more rapidly blood sugar will rise.
Think of rapidly elevating blood sugar like riding a roller coaster. The steeper the climb, the steeper the drop. In the same way as blood sugar rapidly rises, blood sugar will rapidly crash leaving a player with symptoms of low blood sugar.
Blood Sugar Control
The key to performance on the course is the ability to control blood sugar. Blood sugar control is of primary importance to the body. The body will do anything to maintain blood sugar. If you don’t maintain blood sugar, you can experience symptoms such as:
· Fatigue
· Anxiety
· Mood swings
· Headaches
· Nausea
· Trembling
· Loss of strength
· Lack of concentration
· Loss of power
There are four basic principles to controlling blood sugar
.· Break the Fast
· Eat protein
· Eat fat
· Eat slow digesting carbohydrates
Blood Sugar is key to your health as well as your performance. Blood sugar controls your hormones, mood and strength. In order to help stabilize your blood sugar you must have a good breakfast. It has been shown that eating a proper breakfast will regulate your blood sugar throughout the day regardless of what you eat at lunch. What should you eat for breakfast? You must consume proteins for the foundation to set you up for blood glucose control over the day. You also want to add fats like avocado, nuts and vegetables. You should avoid eating cereal, as this is processed food causing your blood sugar to skyrocket. This is a bad way to start the day. Try to avoid processed carbohydrates.
We recommend measuring your macros using your hand. If measuring and weighing out food isn’t your thing, you don’t want to turn every meal into an advanced algebraic assessment, or you don’t need such detailed record-keeping, consider tracking your intake using hand-size portions.
Here’s how it works:
- PROTEIN - A portion of protein is your palm.
- VEGETABLES - A portion of vegetables is your fist.
- CARBS - A portion of carbs is your cupped hand.
- FATS - A portion of fats is your thumb.
Why do we like hand-based portion tracking? It’s convenient and easy to understand. Customization is simple. It’s precise enough.
3. Supplements
I would recommend high quality supplements. The reason why you would want to use it is because we don’t eat well enough. Research shows that it does prevent chronic disease.
I would also recommend fish oils. They are in all of our cells. Research shows that it helps control blood sugar, helps with brain function, heart, and its anti-inflammatory.
I would also recommend a vitamin D. Especially leaving in Manitoba. There are many people with Vitamin D deficiency. Our ability to manufacture vitamin D decreases, as we get older. But also with the use of sunscreen causing a significant decrease of vitamin D.
The last supplements I would suggest are anti-inflammatory herbs especially if you have chronic joint pain or other chronic types pain. Such herbs as rosemary and boswellia are very helpful to deal with inflammation.
Pre and Post Workout Nutrition
This is where you can take advantage of the workout environment and prepare someone to facilitate the exercise and recovery. With pre-workout nutrition you can increase focus and concentration with some of the supplementations as well as recruit fast twitch fibers.
There is one of two ways to increase power and that’s with speed, with lifting heavier loads or both. With the proper supplementations you can stimulate heavier loads because they have the energy stores. Supplementations will also decrease soreness. This is very important. Another reason is for joint recovery. Not only are you degrading muscle tissue you are degrading joint tissue. The last advantage to supplementations is to maximize the hormone response during and after exercise. One of the hormones that get’s increased with exercise is cortisol. The higher we allow cortisol to be elevated after a workout the longer it will take the body to recover.
A great supplement to use pre and post workout is L-glutamine. Glutamine is an important amino acid with many functions in the body. It is a building block of protein and critical part of the immune system. What's more, glutamine has a special role in intestinal health and stress. Anytime you are under stress or you have a GI issue glutamine will be used to help heal the gut and feed the mucosal cells. The more stress you have the more your body will draw glutamine from your muscles and thus affect your recovery. Your body naturally produces this amino acid, and it is also found in many foods. Glutamine is a raw ingredient for your joints and thus helps with connective tissue. Glutamine also can be converted to glucose and used as energy. The dosage would be .15 grams per kilogram of body weight pre and post workout.
The next supplements are the branch chain amino acids. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are a group of three essential amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine. BCAA supplements are commonly taken in order to boost muscle growth (by increasing testosterone and decrease you cortisol level), and enhance exercise performance. They may also help with weight loss and reduce fatigue after exercise. The dosage recommended is .15 grams per kilogram of body weight pre and post workout.
Whey protein is the next supplement recommended 30 minutes post workout. This is a high amount of branched amino acid that helps with protein synthesis and recovery. This is a great protein to enhance glutathione, which helps reduce anti-oxidant in the body. Recommendation is one scoop per 100lbs of body weight.
The final supplement is creatine monohydrate. There are lots of forms of creatine but this is the one most studied. You should take 5 grams per day before or after the training sessions. You should drink 12 to 16 ounces of water. The only contraindication is if you are taking anti-inflammatory drugs such as Aleve or Aspirin because it could overtax the kidney. Creatine not only helps with recovery but there is a lot of research about helping with brain function and heart health.
SquareONE Rehabilitation offers online nutrition coaching through a software system called ProCoach. This platform delivers a research-proven nutrition and lifestyle coaching curriculum - complete with daily lessons, habit-based coaching, supportive content, reflective questions, and progress check-ins daily, giving you a platform to track your progress. There will be the occasional in office one-on-one visit.
