Nutrition

Endurance Food

Posted in Fitness, Nutrition on September 22nd, 2009 by jasondtaylor – 57 Comments

Being an endurance athlete, I’m always looking for new drink and food ideas that I can use during long races or training sessions.   I enjoy eating but can get into a rut pretty easily.  I recently finished the book Born to Run and decided to try out a couple of the food ideas that the author, Chris McDougall writes about.   Chia Fresca and some sort of Pinole.  I thought I’d share what I’ve found and experimented with so far.  

Chia Fresca “Chia Gel #3

Chia Fresca is what you get when you mix the chia seed and water together.   The chia seed is a very small black seed packed with uber goodness for your body; i.e. Omega 3′s and antioxidants and fiber.   Yes, this is the very same chia seed that grows on the chia pet.   When you put the chia seed in water it turns the water into a gel, believed to be a result of the amount of soluble fiber in the seed itself.  Once you have the “gel” let creativity guide you, lime or lemon seem to be a nice and not over the top addition.    I am using it primarily as a recovery drink following long workouts.  For fitness recovery, adding sugar or a low amount of sodium might help.  One recipe I found used coconut water to increase electrolytes as well.   I like things sweet so I used honey to sweeten. chiaseeds1 300x92 Endurance Food

I’m on my third variation now.  I live in New Mexico and found a couple places locally where I could get the seeds but in small, small quantity only.   The best place to get a lb or more is online.  I got mine from Amazon. 

  • 2 servings Chia Seed (56g)
  • 4tbsp Honey (84g)
  • 2 fresh limes
  • 64oz H20

Each 8oz serving has 65calories, 2g Fat, 1g Sodium, 12g Carb, 11g Fiber, 8g Sugar and 1g Protein.  I’ve kept it in the fridge and will go through it in about a week and a half.   What I found online said that it should keep for at least 2 weeks, probably longer.

Why am I trying the Chia Seed?  Ultimately if I could find a recovery drink that is all-natural, good, does the job great and is not expensive, I’d be HAPPY.   Hammer Nutrition’s Recoverite is great but it’s $50 for a container and as much as I train and race, I go through it fairly quickly.  Also, one of the interesting things I read about Chia Seed is it’s ability to slow digestion of sugars/carbs into the body.   

Research believe this same gel-forming phenomenon takes place in the stomach…creates a physical barrier between carbohydrates and the digestive enzymes that break them down, thus slowing the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar.

…this slowing in the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar offers the ability for creating endurance. Carbohydrates are the fuel for energy in our bodies. Prolonging their conversion into sugar stabilizes metabolic changes, diminishing the surges of highs and lows creating a longer duration in their fueling effects.

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html

The only real side effect I’ve noticed is that I’m gaining weight, which I think could be related to the above quote.    I’ve tracked my caloric intake for over a year now and the only change in food or caloric intake has been the Chia Fresca this past couple weeks.   If in fact the chia is causing my body to slow the conversion of carbohydrate into sugar, than I might be storing more in my system as fat.  Not sure yet.  My intake has been 8-12oz every other day or so, I’ve noticed that my weight has begun to climb (for me about 2-3 lb’s in the past two weeks)   I’ll keep an eye on this and post updated info in a few weeks.

Other information on Chia

Pinole

I’m still experimenting with this.  To be honest, the Pinole has been a bit harder to figure out how to use.  Pinole is toasted corn flour.  It’s extremely good and has a strong flavor.   The most obvious use I’ve found so far has been in a drink form.   Atole de Pinole is a mixture of water and/or milk and pinole that’s been heated up on the stove for about 30 minutes and sweetened to taste with syrup or sugar.   It’s awesome!

But, I’m wanting to find a way to eat it as a food not necessarily a drink.  I came up with a crunch mix that I made by throwing some stuff together.   Jury’s still out.  It’s very tasty but still hard to eat in it’s current form.  Anna and I might try a granolish type version next and try baking it into small bars with chocolate.  :)

Pinole Crunch #1

  • 100g of Pinole
  • 1 serv Oatmeal (1/2cup)
  • 1 serv Organic Raisins (40g)
  • 3 serv Honey (3tbsp/63g)
  • 1 serv Walnuts (30g)

I mixed all the ingredients together in a bowl, broke into 4 servings and put in small ziplocks.  Each serving has 267calories, 7g fat, 1g saturated fat, 3g sodium, 49g carb, 2g fiber, 40g sugar and 5g protein.

Before taking any of these recipes to the bank, try them out for yourself and shoot back any thoughts or ideas you have.

What other creative drinks and food do you use to fuel your body?