September Meeting - "A Healthy Outside Starts from the Inside"
Tuesday 13 September 2022
Anne kicked off the session welcoming everyone back to the hall for the first time since the pandemic before reflecting on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. She reminded the members of all of the activities over the summer break, and shared apologies from a number of members who are still on ‘summer holidays’ travelling all over the world!
Anne introduced Irene Riach to talk about Performance Nutrition (more than just bananas!) sharing the work her team does at the Sports Institute. Her background is research and clinical dietetics but with a lifelong passion for sport this role was ideal. Scottish Athletes are supported by her multidisciplinary team.
Nutrition can support our bodies immune system (as 60% of our immunity comes from the microbes in our gut!) or even mental health. There are so many unknowns and research in the topic of nutrition that every days is a school day; for example the recommendation is now to supplement with Vitamin D in Scotland over the winter months.
Performance nutrition is a new discipline. In the 1960s an experiment was done with 2 groups of cyclists who were fed the same fats and proteins but different carbohydrate levels – manipulating one food group dramatically improved performance!
With good nutrition it should not be necessary to take additional supplements but often with busy lives we don’t take time to prepare and chop vegetables just chuck something in the microwave. Slow food, and having conversations together rather than pills and quick fixes, makes a huge difference. High fat and sugar will provide energy but not enough fibre and nutrients - taking time to consider nutritious feed can help with performance and health in general. Irene shared a comparison between a chocolate bar and a small couscous meal to illustrate this. The war time rations demonstrated a brilliant use of nutrition for its time which still is valid now – consider the quantities of food of sugar and fats in 1950as versus nowadays when the portion sizes are four times larger! The narrative on ‘what is good value’ comparing a bigger portion or a better nutrition.
Irene explained the difference between pro-biotics (short lived benefit if you stop taking them) or pre-biotics (longer benefits but difficult to find and to purchase) – it may be worth taking probiotics if you are about to be in a higher risk situation eg a plane journey or if you take a course of anti-biotics. A varied diet will encourage naturally good gut bacteria without adding supplements.
Supplement carry a risk with their use. Iron and vitamin D are ok for specific athletic purposes but caution is needed to ensure that they are not contaminated and would result in a ‘doping’ scandal. Supplements are often seen as a quick fix but education and informed choices for a ‘food first’ approach is better and safer than supplements e.g. eating fruit instead of a vitamin C tablet. This is complicated with fortified and supplemented food eg high protein Weetabix! – it is important to consider the constituent items of a product eg a high protein yogurt – is it added whey or an imported protein powder?!
The institute team work with athletes on their baseline nutrition, training and other snacks in a busy day with working, training, physio and sleeping! They need to be properly fuelled and hydrated for each session. 2% reduction in hydration is a 10% detriment in performance – you will not feel thirsty until you are 8% dehydrated.
Changing behaviour is difficult – we all know what healthy eating looks like but don’t always do it! Irene has found that making informed choices comes from capability, opportunity and motivation. Athletes are often motivated to achieve even 1% performance improvement as it can e the difference between a gold or silver, or even a medal place. Information can come from many places but we should look at the basics and the science for the truth of nutrition.
Irene shared the story of the Tokyo Olympics where she operated a performance centre based in a Japanese Primary School to realise the potential of our talented team which was a challenge in a very restricted city environment. The funding for the Olympics is private or enterprise, not public funding and the team invested in facilities for training, nutrition and relaxing along with performance analysis which operated 24 hours per day. The kitchen and dining facilities were very limited and a challenge to overcome and needed significant investment which the funders agreed to! The building was transformed into an Olympic style environment so the athletes only had to focus on performing. The team used 250kg of ice per day, in specific sized ice cubes prepared in Japan, for cooling drinks and icing sore limbs! Phrases were also difficult to translate – Vegan sweet and sour pork was not a great result! The Japanese chefs were allowed to demonstrate local cuisine to a point but performance dining should allow athletes to choose personal quantities of any combination of constituent items which can all be put together and still be balanced. Ultimately for the Olympic team it is all about winning medals and Team GB had 53 Scots, and 75% were supported by the institute – the Scottish team won 14 medals in 6 sports. At the Paralympics the Scottish team won 21 medals. Although the government want to measure the ‘cost’ of each medal the team believe the question should rather be ‘can we afford NOT to invest in sport for our society health and inspiration. Even when people do not get the result they want then the sports ‘family’ is what supports the athletes.
After Irene spoke the group enjoyed a traditional Ruskie tea – an occasional treat is allowed – before the competitions were judged and the raffle prizes drawn.
Competition winners
Healthy Drink Recipe - 1) Liz Black 2) Allison Smillie 3) Pamela Deans
Step Count - 1) Helen Little 2) Janice Milne 3) Pamela Deans
It was super to be back together for the new series of meetings – look forward to seeing you all again in October!
