When talking about nutrition for runners it makes sense starting with carbohydrates. In fact a lot of people who regular run marathons will babble on about complex carbs and pasta feasts given half the chance.
Carbs make up a large proportion of our diet, it's recommended that about a third of our food intake is made up of traditionally carbohydrate based foods, such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and beans, and we should be also taking in another third or our energy as carbohydrates from other types of food (including fruit, vegetables, more sugary foods and even milk)
You see the problem with carbohydrates is that they are difficult to define.
Chemically they are simply groups of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen mixed together in certain ways. At the botom end of the scale is glucose - 6 carbon 12 Hydrogen and 6 Oxygen - which in effect is an immensely simple suger. At the other end is polysaccharides such as starch occuring in the foods we'd most commonly associate with carboydrates.
Ultimately the body needs carbs. It uses them in the immune system, for fertilization(!), blood clotting, developing new cells and most importantly for the storage and transport of energy.
So without carbohydrates the body cannot convert energy into activity. No rice no run.
More complex carbohydrates take longer to break down and therefore the body can use this energy to complete activities over a longer period of time, whereas the simpler carbs are available for the body to use much sooner. So I guess it'll be a Mars bar pasta salad on the morning of the marathon to cover all bases.
Carbs make up a large proportion of our diet, it's recommended that about a third of our food intake is made up of traditionally carbohydrate based foods, such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and beans, and we should be also taking in another third or our energy as carbohydrates from other types of food (including fruit, vegetables, more sugary foods and even milk)
You see the problem with carbohydrates is that they are difficult to define.
Chemically they are simply groups of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen mixed together in certain ways. At the botom end of the scale is glucose - 6 carbon 12 Hydrogen and 6 Oxygen - which in effect is an immensely simple suger. At the other end is polysaccharides such as starch occuring in the foods we'd most commonly associate with carboydrates.
Ultimately the body needs carbs. It uses them in the immune system, for fertilization(!), blood clotting, developing new cells and most importantly for the storage and transport of energy.
So without carbohydrates the body cannot convert energy into activity. No rice no run.
More complex carbohydrates take longer to break down and therefore the body can use this energy to complete activities over a longer period of time, whereas the simpler carbs are available for the body to use much sooner. So I guess it'll be a Mars bar pasta salad on the morning of the marathon to cover all bases.
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