Post on 07-Dec-2014
description
Podcast # 98 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/06/episode-
98-a-big-fitness-nutrition-qa-and-can-diabetics-
exercise-hard/
Introduction: In this podcast episode: can you exercise hard if you have
diabetes? How to look good naked, how much sodium is
acceptable for fit people, how fast do multivitamins digest? Is
egg protein okay? Is it better to run after a bike ride or later
in the day? What’s the best swim workout? What happens if
you don’t eat after a workout? How to get dressed during a
triathlon, a drink called Eiro, caffeine capsules, a supplement
called DMSO and what to do about a pear-shaped figure.
Ben: Hey podcast listeners, what’s up? It’s Ben Greenfield coming
at you once again. I am back from Hawaii where I did a half
Ironman down there and am celebrating because I qualified
for the World Championships in Ironman Triathlon. So there
you go. If you’re listening to this podcast you don’t have to be
a professional triathlete or an Ironman triathlete or even a
triathlete at all. This podcast is designed for people who want
to get fit, for people who are interested in sports, sports
science, nutrition, and everything that has to do with all the
above. And of course, me being a triathlete means that I do
get a lot of listener questions about triathlon. Speaking of
listener questions, we have a lot of them today. So I’m going
to fly through the special announcements and then we’re
going to hop right into the Listener Q and A as well as a very
cool interview today. If you personally have diabetes or
there’s a loved one in your life who has diabetes and you
want to learn more about exercise and diabetes, we’ll be
talking about that today. Now the subject in today’s featured
topic is a little bit more focused on competing in events and
doing a little bit harder types of exercise with diabetes rather
than just the basic exercise for diabetes. But regardless, if
you’re interested in doing a marathon or a triathlon or a 5k
and you or someone you know has diabetes, then this would
be a good interview for you to listen in to. So we are going to
be going into that interview after today’s Q and A. Just a few
announcements and then we’re going to jump right into a
jam-packed Listener Q and A.
First special announcement today is for those of you who are
interested in the difference between polyunsaturated fatty
acids and monounsaturated fatty acids and what that
actually has to do with your health. I just recently published
an article about that over at a Web site called
www.hubpages.com. And as a matter of fact, they frequently
run contests over there to let you vote on the best articles
and I received an email just a few minutes ago that my article
was nominated and that if people vote then I could win the
contest. So I’m actually going to throw that right into the
special announcements. I’ll put a link to the Shownotes. If
you want to go vote for my article and read any of the articles
– I have almost 100 articles over there jam-packed with
videos and links and information – then follow the link that
I’m going to put in the Shownotes to this episode. Now in
addition to that, the Marathon Dominator plan that you may
have heard me talk about over the past few weeks – I have
created a video to show you more about what the Marathon
Dominator is all about and why I wrote that program and
how it’s designed for people who want to do a marathon. So
go to www.marathondominator.com or follow the link in the
Shownotes if you’re interested in the Marathon Dominator
and what that’s all about. I also still have the
www.bengreenfieldfitness.com T-shirts. And if you want a T-
shirt, all you got to do is donate to the show. I’ll send you a
T-shirt. I usually throw quite a few extra goodies in there as
well for you. So if you again go to
www.bengreenfieldfitness.com, donate to the show, help to
keep the podcast alive and I will send you a T-shirt. And then
finally for those of you who were wondering what the VIP
Text Club is all about, basically you’ll get an average of about
one text a week from that but it’s always going to include
discounts and inside information that’s not getting released
in my free newsletter and that’s not getting released at
www.bengreenfieldfitness.com. Again the Text Club is
completely free. Your messaging rates apply. I know some
people have the free messaging. Some people have the 10
cents messaging. Even if you’re paying 10 cents or even 20
cents a message and it’s costing you 80 cents a month to be
in the VIP Text Club, it is well worth it. And I will eventually
be giving you more in terms of phone apps for fitness, phone
apps for nutrition. So if you’re part of the VIP Text Club, you
have a phone, you like to use that to manage your fitness and
your diet, you’re going to definitely be on top of the curve if
you just text the word ―fitness‖ to 411247. That being said,
we’re going to move on to this week’s Listener Q and A.
So, remember if you have a question, you can email
ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. You can do as a few people
did in today’s episode, you can leave a voice mail to toll free
number 8772099439. If you’re outside the US and you want
to make a free call to leave a voice mail, just use the free
software at www.skype.com and Skype my user name which
is Pacific Fit. That’s Pacific like the ocean, fit like fitness.
Pacific Fit. Either of those ways would be a great way to leave
your audio question and remember episode 100, coming up
in just two episodes will only be answering audio questions.
So if you have a question that you try to ask for episode 100,
you’ll have to call it in so we can actually hear the listeners in
that episode ask the questions themselves. So great way to
get to know you and your personality a little bit better when
you ask the question. And don’t worry if you get nervous,
hang up the voice mail and call back and record it again. I’ve
done that before myself with radio shows and podcasts. If
you don’t like your voice message sounds, you can always re-
record it and I will know, trust me, which one is the one that
you actually want me to play on the podcast. So the first
question this week comes from listener Mark.
Mark asks: I have traditionally used whey protein concentrate as part of
my post-workout nutrition for harder or longer sessions. As a
paleo nutrition plan eliminates dairy, I’m looking into
alternatives. You’ve mentioned pea protein and hemp
protein in previous podcasts. I’m wondering what your
thoughts are on egg white protein as a acceptable substitute
for protein.
Ben answers: It’s a great question. Whenever you’re looking at the
effectiveness of a protein, basically there are a couple of
things that you look at – what’s called the protein
digestibility score and what’s called the biological value. And
essentially the protein digestibility score measures how
complete a protein is. So 1.0 would be a perfect measure of
protein. That’s usually animal protein. Egg protein gets a 1.
Whey protein gets a 1. Casein protein gets a 1. Soy protein
actually gets a 1 as well. The other value – the biological
value – is how much of that protein actually gets absorbed
and utilized by your body, how much of it is actually useful to
you. Egg actually scores a 100 on that as well which is very
high. And most animal based proteins are always going to
score higher than the vegetable based proteins. I’m not
saying vegetable based proteins are bad but usually you have
to combine them well in a complete diet to really get the
extra value from those. Now as far as the egg protein is
concerned, it has the high biological value, it has the high
protein digestibility value. The only issue with the egg
protein that I would use a little bit of caution with is that
some people do have allergies to egg. It’s more common in
children. The protein albumen in eggs tends to be something
that can cause allergic reaction. You want to be a little bit
careful if you tend to have low energy, if you tend to get sick
a lot and you’re eating eggs as a big part of your diet. I would
eliminate those and see what happens. I would not be
concerned about things like cholesterol in an egg protein
powder. It’s usually an egg white extract and I really
personally wouldn’t be concerned about cholesterol at all
with eggs, unless you have a genetic predisposition to very
high amounts of cholesterol. Just because eggs have large
numbers of the enzymes that actually allows you to digest
cholesterol right there along with the egg. But with egg
powder, it’s kind of a moot point. So yes, you’re getting a
great biological value with the egg powder, great protein. But
just be careful if you have an allergy to protein or to the
protein in eggs. The other thing I would caution you about is
that it can always be good to supplement with extra amino
acids even if you’re getting these whole proteins. If you add
amino acids in, you’re always going to get higher absorption.
You’re always going to get a little bit of an extra kick when it
comes to recovery and having the right amount of essential
amino acids in your body – I have a great protein profile. If
you’re a member, if you listened in to previous episodes, I
did testing with Bioletics and my essential amino acids were
still found to be low. I was deficient in a few of them so what
I do now is I take a whey protein. I also use a hemp and a
pea-based protein and then I take a whole amino acid
powder source. I get my powder from www.bioletics.com.
There’s also capsule based powders out there, but essentially
you can just take those at the same time that you would take
your protein just to give your protein a little bit or extra
added value. So the next question is from listener Heela. And
I apologize if I’m pronouncing your name incorrectly.
Heela asks: I am 25, female and train for aesthetic purposes only. Yes,
I’m that shallow. I run and bike for the calorie burn and
weight lift for the muscle mass. I eat 100% clean. My
questions are regarding my diet. Question 1, since most of
your diet recommendations are geared towards better
performance, what would you recommend differently for
athletes that don’t care about performance, don’t compete
and just want to look good naked?
Ben answers: Heela has a follow up question regarding sodium but what I
would recommend is that I go after more of kind of the
mixed martial arts, high intensity intervals, a lot of body
weight stuff supplemented with a few multi-joint type of
lifting exercises. Going that route, you’re typically going to
always have that very toned, leaned appearance that doesn’t
have the bulked up weight lifting body building vibe to it. So
for example, in a sample workout you might do a series of
pushup and core exercises combined with pulling and pull-
up exercises. Some high intensity training intervals on the
treadmill, some tumbling types of exercises like burpee
pushups and somersault pushups. You can even throw in
some CrossFit style gymnastic type of exercises in there and
all that stuff is always going to be better than doing dumbbell
curls and overhead triceps extensions and cable pushdowns.
Anytime you’re doing a lot of the full body more martial arts
or gymnastics style training, you’re always going to have a
better body when it comes to having that really balanced,
lean, tone athletic appearance. Now of course the benefit to
that is you’re also going to be very athletic. But if you’re not
even concerned about that, you just want to look really,
really great with your clothes on or your clothes off, then I
would recommend the high intensity intervals combined
with the multi-joint type of exercises and a lot more of the
gymnastics mixed martial arts CrossFit style workouts. As far
as anything I have out there, probably the perfect example of
that would be my book Shape21 at www.shape21.com.
There’s a lot of other good books out there. A guy named
Martin Rooney just came out with a great book that’s got a
lot of martial arts type of exercises in it, if you like to do more
the jujitsu type of routines – that’s also a great resource. So,
another question regarding sodium.
Heel asks: I love dairy and eat low fat cottage cheese lately. I noticed it
has 450 milligrams of sodium per 100 grams and I eat a 200
grams container. (Okay so you’re getting 900 grams of
sodium with that.) Is that too much to have on a daily basis
or is it still okay since I train and sweat regularly?
Ben answers: As far as sodium goes, the sodium needs of an exercising
person are always going to increase a little bit. Generally in
most people sodium ranges from needing about 1800
milligrams up to about 2400 milligrams. If you close your
eyes and picture a heaping teaspoon of salt, that’s about how
much salt the average person would need on a daily basis. A
lot of athletes can get a little bit closer to 3000 if they’re
exercising quite frequently and I’m talking about 90 minutes
to two hours of exercise and sweat a day. The average person
exercising 30 to 60 minutes a day, you’d be fine right around
in that 2000 milligram range. So really, you’re pretty good
with the cottage cheese only getting half of that with the
cottage cheese that you’re taking in, but do pay attention to
labels and do pay attention to how much you’re salting your
food if you are concerned about some of the swelling, some
of the water retention, some of the loss of tone that can occur
with that high sodium diet. Because again, you can kind of
get that soft water logged type of appearance if you’re taking
in significantly above that 2000 milligram mark and you’re
not actually exercising enough to be sweating that out, losing
some of the water and the salts that you end up taking in. So,
during hard exercise, it’s a completely different issue. We
don’t even have the time to go into the whole Ironman
triathlon type of sodium intake. I am working on a very
comprehensive article about that, that will be released in a
Triathlon based publication this summer and it’ll be a very
comprehensive article on hydration, heat acclimatization and
sodium intake. But in the meantime, if you’re just wanting to
make sure you hit about the ball park area that you need to
be at, about 2000 milligrams for an active person is going to
be fine.
Chuck asks: What would be more beneficial to my training? After a long
bike ride, going into an immediate run or doing that run
later on in the day and being able to go faster and harder on
the run?
Ben answers: Now, Chuck is asking this question because he is a triathlete.
Anytime that your goal is to combine a bike and run based
workout, you’re always going to be better running after you
finish a bike ride, just because that’s exactly what you’re
going to be doing in a triathlon. You’re correct that if you ran
later on in the day, you’d be able to go faster because you’d
be recovered but in a workout that’s designed specifically to
be a bike-run based workout, always do the run after the bike.
Now, if you have something like track intervals, say you’re
going to go do an 8x400 meter on the track and that’s
supposed to be a high, high quality workout that’s just
focused on run form, it’s focused on overspeed training. You
don’t want to be completely cooked or dehydrated when you
go into it, that would be a case where you do your bike ride, if
you’re going to be doing a bike ride that day, for example, in
the morning and then do your run later on in the day.
Because there are different goals for that run than just
teaching your body how to run off of the bike. But if the goal
of that workout is to teach your body how to run off of the
bike, then run right after you get off that bike.
The next question is, ―If I’m only able to get into a pool once
a week, should I focus on form and drills, harder endurance
workouts or a combination of both?‖
Okay, so let’s say that you can get into the pool once a week.
You’re listening in and that’s all you’re able to do. You want
to get the most bang for the buck, both from a fitness and a
speed perspective from your swimming workout. What I
would recommend is that you do drills, you do tempo work,
you do power work and you do a little bit of hypoxic work
that you can finish up with. So for example, what a workout
would look like is you do a 600 meter warm up where you’re
alternating six times between 50 meters of regular freestyle
swimming and 50 meters of, for example, like a drill. You
can do a side swimming drill, you can do a sculling drill, you
can do a balance drill. There are fist drills, flicker drills, all
sorts of drills. If you go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com,
there are a bunch of swim drills there. www.goswim.tv has a
ton of really good swim drills and there’s no rule that you
have to do the same drills all the time. You can mix it up. In
the coaching that I do, athletes generally – I don’t use more
than about 10 drills just because I like for people to be able to
get really good at the drills that they’re doing and I don’t
want to confuse them too much and have them sitting by the
side of the pool with a big question mark on their head trying
to figure out a new drill. I generally like to use right around
in the range of ten drills, but you warm up with the drills and
then you go into tempo work which I would define as
anywhere from 200 up to 500 meter intervals where you’re
swimming those as a 1x500, 1x400, 1x300, 1x200. You’re
doing about anywhere from a 10 to 20 second rest after each,
just getting your body used to having lots of lactic acid on
board during that swim. Full recovery after that, other than
doing some doggie paddling, some water treading, some
breaststroke, some easy stroke and then you go into some
power efforts. So for example, this could be like a 5x100
meter or a 10x50 meter or a 20x25 meter but it’s swum very
hard, maximum pace, very fast and so you’re laying down
some speed on top of that tempo work that you’ve done.
Then you finish up with some icing on the cake. A little bit of
hypoxic training. Try and swim like a 5x50 meter, breathing
as little as possible. Like trying to swim a 50 on just one or
two breaths. It’s a great way to finish things up. A 10x25
would also be an example of something you could do with
hypoxic breathing. But by doing the drills and the tempo
work and the power work and the hypoxic breathing, you’re
kind of hitting all those variables that you would want to hit
for like a triathlon training or fitness training type of pool
session.
Chuck asks: I’m well aware of the benefits of taking in the right amounts
of fuel and protein and carbs right after a workout. But when
someone does not refuel within that recovery window, are
there negative effects on the body or just a lack of positive
recovery benefits?
Ben answers: Well, if you don’t eat after a workout, it’s all going to be
downhill. Your body is not going to get the carbohydrates on
board that it needs for the next day’s workout. It’s not going
to get the carbohydrates on board that it needs to actually
replenish lost glycogen stores during the workout that you’re
doing or that you’ve just done. You’re not going to get amino
acids from proteins, so your muscles are going to sit there
essentially cannibalizing any other lean tissue in your body
for amino acids because there’s nothing for you to actually
repair muscle tissue with. It would be like driving your car,
red lining your car with no oil, running on gasoline fumes,
not doing any type of tune up work on it. It’s just bad for the
body. You’re going to get high levels of cortisol, a stress
release hormone. You’re going to suppress your immune
system. Essentially there’s a lot of bad things that happen
when you don’t fuel. Now at the same time, I want to warn
those of you who are listening in and doing a 30 minute walk
for your exercise session that your body doesn’t need a big
amount of refueling after a 30 minute walk. I’m talking about
people – and because I know that Chuck is a triathlete, he’s
doing stuff like this – sometimes people are going out and
swimming really hard for a half hour or going for a hard bike
ride, maybe doing a little bit of weightlifting, finishing up 90
minutes later and trying not to eat anything to stay thin or
decrease body fat percentage. That’s about the worst thing
that you can do to your body. You go downhill very quickly.
You’ll get that emaciated, starved marathoner type of look
that doesn’t actually look healthy but just looks like skin on
bones. I would really not recommend that you try and avoid
fueling after a workout as a way to lose weight, especially if
you’re working out hard.
Carmen asks: I received an email about a product called Eiro. A friend of
mine knows health and nutrition and says it’s right up my
alley. I’m trying to lose weight. I eat a very healthy diet, I
exercise regularly. I just want to get your input on whether or
not this is even worth looking into it or is it another juice
hype?
Ben answers: Usually, whenever you get these emails about juice, it’s
always going to be a network marketing company. And here’s
the deal, usually network marketing companies do a really
good job at picking really good ingredients and putting
together a fantastic product. In this case, it’s got five
different juices in it, some green tea extract, lots of good
anti-oxidants – it’s a good little juice for the body if you want
to drink your antioxidants. For example, after a really tough
workout. Now, when you’re looking at juices, low on fiber,
high on glycemic index – it’s going to bump up the blood
sugar levels really quickly. So you’d want to be very careful
with them if you were trying to lose weight. Drinking your
juice – unless you’re actually juicing it yourself, getting all
the fiber in the juice is always going to be not as good for you
nutritionally as getting the whole product or using a lower
calorie, kind of powder-based product. The other issue with
the network marketing juice is they’re very overpriced. I
looked into the price of this stuff and it looked like 12 packets
were running right around $60. So that means you get 12
servings for $60. To put that in perspective, that Solar
Synergy that I talked about at www.bengreenfieldfitness.com
before, that stuff has about twice as many different types of
juices in it. It’s a powder base and you can get a month’s
supply of that for $25. So you’re essentially looking at nearly
a quarter of the cost to go and go outside the network
marketing vibe and just go after a direct source antioxidant
in powder form, and that’s something that I will typically on
a hard workout day add to a glass of water and ice.
Sometimes I’ll throw in an electrolyte capsule in there and it
works out really well. So, just be careful with the juice from
the glycemic index perspective and from the cost perspective.
Yeah, it’s usually going to be pretty good for you especially
the high antioxidants and stuff if you’re exercising a lot, but I
would just be careful not committing to that as the cat’s
meow for your health and longevity.
Ryan asks: I’m a listener with a question about what to wear in my first
triathlon. I wanted to buy a pair of those expensive tri-shorts
or I haven’t wanted to buy a pair of those expensive tri-shorts
since I wanted to go into it with minimal expenses. What I’m
trying to figure out is what can I wear from the swim to the
bike to the run that will dry quickly but be comfortable and
supportive. I will be wearing a wetsuit during the swim. I
thought of buying compression shorts and then pulling the
shorts over them after the swim but I don’t know if the
waistband would stay tight when they’re wet. I’ve also
thought about just wearing a jockstrap under my swim suit.
Any creative ideas for me or am I just going to have to suck it
up and buy the tri-shorts?
Ben answers: Well, the idea behind triathlon shorts is that they have a pad
in them that’s like the pad you’d find in bicycling shorts that
makes it a lot more comfortable to ride a bike, but it’s a thin
pad so it dries out quickly and doesn’t stay wet and soggy
and cause a bunch of friction while you’re riding your bike.
It’s also far more comfortable to run in. I never met anybody
who regretted purchasing triathlon shorts after they had
them, and even just one good pair is enough. Now that being
said, for a short race, I’ve often raced in nothing but a
Speedo. No pad, nothing else. Just a Speedo and Chamois
cream. Chamois cream of Vaseline or something that you
smear into your loin and groin area to keep any friction from
causing some damage down there. So, what I’m saying is it
would be fine for you to wear some tight underwear or
compression shorts that would kind of keep everything in
place as you’re running and moving. Make sure you use some
chamois cream and some Vaseline and you can just wear
those under your wetsuit and if you’re concerned about being
modest, you can pull a pair of running shorts or a pair of
regular sports shorts that aren’t too baggy and don’t have a
lot of loose fabric over your compression shorts or your tight
underwear after you get out of the swim. Now, you’re looking
at a pair of triathlon shorts, if you find them online – you go
to a website like www.trisports.com, another real good
source is www.swimoutlet.com. You can usually find
something on clearance that’s pretty dang affordable. So I
wouldn’t be letting the price hold you back too much. You
should be easily be able to pick up a pair for $25, $30 and
I’ve got triathlon shorts I’ve had for three years and they still
work just fine. You rinse them out with fresh water after
you’ve swum with them in the pool and they do fine in the
pool as well. You just got to make sure you rinse them
afterwards so the chlorine doesn’t degrade them too quickly.
Alright, hope that helps Ryan.
Roxanne asks: I enjoy your show. Although I’m not a triathlete, I find your
show super informative and entertaining. I work out twice a
week with a personal trainer. I do an insanity workout a
couple of times a week. I try and fit in three or so one and a
half to two hour runs a week. Holy cow. That’s a lot of
running. (Holy cow, that’s a lot of running.) My question is
that I’m trying to decrease my body fat in my lower
extremities without much luck. I have very low body fat
percentage in my upper body. Much higher fat body
percentage in my lower body. After listening to your podcast,
I really think it might be that I’m fueling improperly but
unsure. How would you give advice to someone like myself
who is not a competitive athlete as to what I can do
differently to help knock down that fat?
Ben answers: Well, from your description it really sounds like you’re one of
those people who will be classified as what’s called a pear
shape. What that means is that you tend to store more body
fat in your thigh area and your hip area. And before
menopause, it’s very normal for women to store their storage
fat, their excess fat predominantly in this area. And it could
be from an evolutionary perspective and again I’m using
evolutionary in the sense of the word of survival prior to
industrialization that extra fat would help you survive during
drought, during famine. And so the other thing is if you
could easily store fats in your hips and your thighs then you
would be able to take care of a baby much better during
pregnancy, during breastfeeding when you’re carrying an
extra body that needs an extra thousand calories a day, then
that fat stored in the hips and the thighs can be quite handy.
And that is something that can be built into your genetic
blueprint based on your ancestry. So that’s one reason that
the pear shape is so difficult to get rid of. Then also, the fact
that if you happen to have a little bit higher levels of estrogen,
then you’re also going to tend to be more prone to store more
fat in those areas. Now, some of the things in addition to
having high amounts of estrogen that can cause that to
happen would be poor blood circulation to your hips and
your thighs. Fluid retention meaning that you have a really
high sodium intake or you have high levels of stress, high
levels of cortisol causing fluid retention, and that can do that
as well. Then cellulite in that area – just weak tissue. That’s
getting more of the aerobic training versus the lean muscle
kind of weight lifting style training can also do that as well.
I’ve seen lots and lots of pear shapes doing things like
triathlons and marathons. You see the fat in the thighs and
the hips and you want to tell the person that you know what?
You got to get some muscle in the hips and the thighs in
addition to the fat burning that you’re doing if you really
want to slim down that area. And so based on your
description of what you’re doing, I have a few thoughts. The
first is it sounds like you’re working out a lot. It sounds like
based on that, especially with the high amount of running
that you’re doing, you probably do have a fair amount of
cortisol and stress buildup in your body and I would consider
actually removing a little bit of the aerobic exercise, turning
that more into the high intensity intervals that you’re done
with more quickly, making sure that you fuel those intervals
well, using some of the techniques that I’ve already talked
about in this podcast. And, then ensure that you’re doing a
lot of weightlifting and you can even make that medium
weight, medium rep type of weight lifting where you’re doing
side lunges, back lunges, front lunges, squats, dead lifts and
you’re kind of ranging in that 10 to 20 rep range and trying
to add some lean muscle to the lower body so you can
catabolize that fat or metabolize that fat a little bit more
quickly. You can even – if you really want to work your legs
while you’re just sitting and watching TV – you can do pillow
squeezes with your legs. You can push your legs out against
your hands to work the outside of your hips. You can do leg
extensions while you’re sitting on a chair. You can do bridges
while you’re sitting on a chair. There are stuff you can do
while you’re just sitting around to kind of keep the legs
working. But ultimately what it comes down to is reducing
stress. Not doing tons of long long, slow aerobic exercise.
Make sure that you’re adding lean muscle to your lower body.
And then as far as the fueling goes, follow a lot of the fueling
recommendations I’ve talked about on this podcast. If you
want a total introduction to pre, post, during workout
nutrition; listen to a very quick six minute primer that I did
over at the Get Fit Guy podcast. That’s at
www.quickanddirtytips.com. I believe it was podcast episode
number four where all I talked about was how to fuel your
body before, during and after exercise. Very basic rundown
of exactly what you want to do. Again that’s at
www.quickanddirtytips.com. I’ll put a link to that in the
Shownotes.
Brian asks: I have a biking question. I tend to get numb on my right foot
just behind my toes while I’m riding long distances. I’ve tried
adjusting my seat and the clips on the bottom of my shoe but
nothing seemed to help. When I transition to running, it
takes about two miles for my toes to feel normal.
Ben answers: First recommendation is that if you’re not using bicycling
shoes yet, do. Bicycling shoes tend to spread the entire force
of the pedal around the whole foot rather than on focusing
that force on just one area of the foot. If you can afford to get
the type with carbon soles, that helps even more for force
distribution across the entire foot. Make sure that your cleat
on the bottom of those has not moved towards the front of
your foot, and kind of have it more mid-placed right towards
the middle of the shoe actually works really well for the
longer distance riding. So move that cleat back as far as
possible. If you decide you want to go with the real cycling
shoes, make sure that your seat is not too low. That can also
cause excessive force against the foot when you’re riding.
And the other thing that I would recommend is that you look
into a support arch inside your shoe that can spread the
nerves that travel between the toes and essentially it’s called
a metatarsal button – is what an orthopedist would call it
when a shoe has a little bit of an arch in the middle of it that
spreads out the nerves going down to your toes. The best
arch that I found for riding is made by Specialized. It’s called
the Specialized Body Geometry. You can get that at pretty
much any bike show that’s a specialized dealer and that does
a really good job of spreading out your toes while you’re
riding.
Josh asks: I recently began taking a multivitamin in the morning and
the problem is I’ve been taking them with coffee. I had no
idea that was detrimental to the absorption process until
listening to one of your podcasts where you address this. The
thing is I’ve been feeling really good during my workouts
since taking them and I’ve been doing it for quite some time
but I don’t want to be flushing these pricey things down the
toilet. I’ve got to have my morning coffee and don’t know
what to do here.
Ben answers: So, Josh, the first thing that I’m going to do is I’m going to
put a really helpful chart in the Shownotes of this podcast
and the chart goes through all the different types of vitamins,
iron, calcium, coffee, multivitamins – it just tells you what
helps absorption, what inhibits absorption, when to take
what and it breaks it down really easily. Now you’re looking
at liquids only taking about 20 minutes to clear from the
stomach before you kind of reduce a lot of the acids from the
coffee and everything in the stomach. So you can get up at
6am, have a cup of coffee while you’re tooling around and
then around 7, 7:30 have your multivitamin or even at 6:30
would be fine to have your multivitamin. When I’m talking
about the foods, the fiber, trying to avoid taking in fibers
with fats like fish oil – that’s where you’re looking at gastric
emptying taking anywhere from the one to the three hour
range. And if there’s lots of proteins and fats mixed in with
those fibers, sometimes up to four hours. And so in that case,
that’s where you would want to think about that. And if you
don’t get a stomach upset, then take something like a fish oil
anywhere from around 20 to 45 minutes prior to eating or
wait a few hours after you eat to take something like that, if
you’re tending to eat a lot of fiber. So it’s a great question and
gastric emptying for liquids is always going to be pretty short.
20, 30 minutes. Gastric emptying for solids is going to be
two to four hours. If you’re really concerned about getting
that vitamin into the body as quickly as possible, you could
look into a liquid vitamin. If you go to www.pacificfit.net, I
kind of have an option for people who want to do solid
multivitamins and an option for people who want to do
liquid multivitamins. The increased ration of absorption is
one advantage of the liquid multis. So that may be another
way for you to go. Of course the problem with the liquid
multis is I find that they’re less transportable. So, when I’m
traveling as much as I do I find that the capsules to just be
more convenient for the vitamins. But look at the chart that I
put up and then just understand that with coffee, you’re
looking at about 20 minutes of emptying to take place. I
think that’s a really great question Josh. So I’m going to
nominate your question for this week’s podcast question of
the week and give you a free membership to my Body
Transformation Club. We still do have a couple questions
coming up, but I do want to give you access to Josh. Send me
an email. I’ll get you into my Body Transformation Club and
as a part of my body transformation club, that means that
every week I’m going to be sending you a postcard with
recipes, with exercises, with access to a secret video page
where there are videos that I don’t show anywhere else that
you are able to have access to. This week it was an exercise
video. I think the week before, it was a nutrition recipe video.
But either way, great way for you to get mail delivered
straight to your mailbox from me with tips every week. So
check it out.
Next we’re going to move in to a call-in question from
listener Rick.
Rick asks: Hi Ben, this is Rick Simpson. I am wondering is there a
caffeine tablet that does not positive for competition? Or are
all the tablets just fine? Is the for instance No Doze, is that
just fine and it won’t test positive?
Ben answers: Rick, great question. So, first of all I might want to clear up
what might be a little bit of confusion here, but caffeine was
banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency but just until
2004. After that, it’s been approved as a legal performance
enhancing substitute. And one of the ideas behind that is
because caffeine metabolism differs so much from person to
person, it was hard to actually understand who had caffeine
from a cup of coffee and who was taking illegal amounts of
performance enhancing supplements. The idea behind
caffeine is that it amps up your central nervous system,
decreases the amount of pain that you perceive that you’re
having and possibly even for endurance, could even spare the
use of carbohydrate and enhance the use of fatty acids as a
fuel which can be quite helpful for long endurance sessions
and also for fat loss. Of course the effective dosage is pretty
high. Most people don’t use enough of it to be effective.
Effective dosage is 3 to 6 milligrams per kilogram of body
mass. So if you’re the average sized guy, maybe you’re at
about 70 kilograms, you’re looking at a minimum of 210
milligrams of actual caffeine. That would be like a No Doze
tab has 100 milligrams in it. So you’d be looking at 2 and a
half No Doze tabs. For anybody who’s done that on an empty
stomach, that is a good little dose of caffeine. So the idea
behind the caffeine is that it’s going to appear in your
bloodstream regardless. If you take the tablet you’re looking
at pretty quick absorption so the rate of absorption is going
to show up in your bloodstream a lot more quickly. It’s not
necessarily going to metabolize more quickly. Caffeine,
you’re looking at still pretty quick absorption. Either way
you’re looking at a few minutes up to about 20 minutes for
the caffeine to appear and you’ll start to feel the effects
within 30 to 45 minutes. So as far as the window before
exercise, that’s when you’d want to take it. But be careful of
the caffeine not because of testing or World Anti-Doping
Association regulations, but be more careful because if you’re
using it during a long session of training like anything over
two to three hours, regular use can cause a lot of GI distress,
jitteriness and you want to really limit how much you take in.
I wouldn’t recommend that you do more than 50 milligrams
per hour during an endurance event after you’ve already
loaded with that 200 to 300 milligrams prior to actually
getting out there. But the ultimate answer to your question is
that it’s going to appear in your bloodstream regardless.
There’s no way to mask the fact that you’re taking caffeine
but it’s something you really don’t have to worry about too
much either. So we also have a question from another call-in
listener.
Edwin Lutz asks: Ben, I have a question for you for the podcast. I was
wondering if you’ve ever used DMSO and if you’ve used it – I
know a lot of people use it. It’s not really regulated for
human consumption or the FDA was approving it at one
point, they’re not anymore. I was wondering – I know a lot of
college athletes that put me on to it, it seems to work but it’s
hard to find any actual information on it that’s not filtered
through people selling it. So I was wondering if you have any
experience with it. My name is Edwin Lutz in St. Charles,
Missouri.
Ben answers: So basically DMSO is an anti-inflammatory. It’s dimethyl
sulfoxin I think is what DMSO stands for. It might be
dimethyl sulfoxide, not positive. But DMSO is an anti-
inflammatory. It’s usually something that you’d fine in a
cream. You’d put it over a joint, over the skin. It gets
absorbed and helps the joint to feel better. In the same way
that a glucosamine chondroitin supplement would be used;
DMSO would be used for arthritis, some issues with allergic
reactions. There’s been deaths related to allergic reactions.
That’s why it’s not approved by the FDA. Taking DMSO as a
straight up supplement. But DMSO is metabolized when you
take it through something called MSM. Methyl sulfonyl
methane—something along those lines. But MSM is a pretty
potent anti-inflammatory again, it works at the joint level to
help with joint pain. MSM is legal. It’s fine and you’ll find it
in a lot of pain relief creams. One that comes to mind would
be like Hammer Nutrition which is a great sports
supplement company. They have something like tissue
rejuvenator and that’s got MSM in it. And essentially it’s
well-absorbed through the skin. It’s just an organic form of
sulfur and it helps with joint pain. It can also help with
wound healing as well. So, as far as DMSO goes there is good
research that shows that it can help with inflammation. Most
of the sulfur containing compounds can, but because there’s
been some adverse reactions to it, not really legal to use or
not approved for sale in the US. However, MSM is going to
get you a lot of the similar benefits and I haven’t seen any
research that indicates that MSM is actually dangerous. So
your answer is to look into the MSM as an alternative to the
DMSO, and if you do get DMSO then just be careful with it.
If you start to feel or see any types of rash, start to feel any
types of adverse effects, just be careful. So I believe that
wraps up all the questions for the podcast for this week.
Remember, if you have a question you can email
ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. You can call toll free to
8772099438 or you can Skype to Pacific Fit.
Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and I know
from the questions that I’ve been getting from many of you
and also from just being around sports for a while that
diabetes and sports – diabetes and competition and athletic
events is something that isn’t discussed too much. But it’s
something that is highly relevant and important to hundreds
of thousands of people across this country and around the
world. I’ve recently learned about an organization called
Triabetes which is the world’s largest triathlon club for
people with diabetes. While today’s interview isn’t
necessarily going to be limited to a discussion of triathlon
and diabetes, one of the team captains for Triabetes has
agreed to come on to the call and talk about how diabetics
can manage their conditions during sports, compete at a
higher level, do triathlons, marathons and other sports that
they’re interested in and be able to succeed and enjoy those
sports. So I have team captain from Triabetes, Daniel
Vincent on the call. David how are you?
Daniel Vincent: I’m doing good. I’m good, thanks.
Ben: Well, thank you for coming on the call today. And I know
that the listeners who are listening in to this call may have a
fairly decent idea of what diabetes is, but maybe not a good
idea of diabetes and sports and whether diabetics can
actually compete in sports at the recreational or professional
level. So, my question for you is , is it possible for a diabetic
to be competitive in a sport and if so, are there some diabetic
athletes or teams that listeners might be familiar with?
Daniel Vincent: Absolutely. That’s a great question. One of which not too
many people are familiar with. When I was first diagnosed
with diabetes, my doctors at the time said that I would never
compete nor be as active as I once was. And after some
research and finding that there are quite a few diabetics out
there that are very active in the community, not only just
recreationally speaking but competitively speaking, they’re
out there making it happen and not letting diabetes slow
them down. If you had looked at the Olympics this last year,
Chris Freeman, cross country skier was a big diabetic
candidate here. And granted he didn’t do as well as we would
have hoped, he was a great representation of the diabetic
community. For cycling events, you’ve got Team Type 1
which consists of all diabetics. It’s basically a professional
cycling team and they’ve taken a number of first place
finishes at numerous events throughout the world.
Ben: Interesting, and the entire team is made up of type 1
diabetics? Or just diabetics?
Daniel Vincent: The entire team for Team Type 1 is type 1 diabetics. There is
a Team Type 2 but it’s not as aggressive.
Ben: Okay, well that kind of leads into a question that I have for
you and that is the difference between diabetes type 1 and
type 2 when it comes to sports and the management of sports.
Can you give the listeners a quick summary of type 1 and
type 2 but more importantly the difference between the two
when it comes to competition and management during
exercise and athletic events?
Daniel Vincent: Absolutely. Basically, type 1 diabetes, your body generally
just doesn’t produce insulin anymore. There is either some
environmental or genetic condition that makes it so your
body just doesn’t produce that insulin that’s needed for your
body to break down sugars. Whereas type 2, type 2 your body
produces insulin but it doesn’t regulate that insulin and so it
doesn’t use it efficiently and effectively. That’s most
commonly associated with overweight and various
environment factors that control that. As far as – one of the
big problems we have had as athletes in controlling our
diabetes is insulin management. For me, being out on –
going out on a six, seven hour training ride or training ride
and run – you’ve got insulin on board there and you’re trying
to keep your sugar levels where they need to be in order to
continue that momentum, continue that pace and that
endurance that you’re going with but at the same time make
it so that you’re not spiking out, you’re not three or four
times where your levels are or where your levels should be.
Ben: Okay, interesting. So, as far as the actual management of the
two different types of diabetes, when people are out there
competing, what kinds of tools are used? I know that non-
athlete diabetics will use a blood sugar stick to measure their
blood glucose levels, but what do you do when you’re out
competing? Do you use the same types of tools?
Daniel Vincent: I do actually. Myself I use an insulin pump. My insulin pump
also connects with what’s called a CGMS. It’s continuous
glucose monitoring system, which is a little transmitter that
sits around my stomach. And it emits my blood sugars. It
takes my blood sugars every five minutes. And it then pushes
over to my insulin pump and tells me exactly what my blood
sugar level is and where it’s going and what it’s been doing
for the last hour or so.
Ben: So for you it’s a matter of as a Type 1 diabetic having that
insulin pump constantly monitoring your blood sugar levels
and you maintaining that balance of insulin and intake of
nutrition. Now, for a type 2 diabetic, would it simply be a
matter of measuring blood glucose levels and fueling
accordingly?
Daniel Vincent: You know, that’s a great question. It depends on the type 2.
There are many type 2 diabetics that are able to get through
the day without having to take insulin. A lot of them can take
medications that allow them to monitor or oral pills that
allow them to kind of break those sugars down. So there are
several type 2 diabetics that do need to have that insulin on
board, just because their body is not utilizing their insulin
and so they have to closely monitor their levels.
Ben: So how frequently should people be monitoring their levels
during athletic competition?
Daniel Vincent: I’m constantly looking down at my pump I’d say every 20
minutes or so. I generally have to get a good… if I go down
into a low blood sugar range and I’m competing in longer
events, longer distance events – if I end up having low blood
sugar, it ends up adding another 20, 30 minutes to my time
just because it takes me that much longer to get my sugar
levels back up to where they need to be to be able to finish
the event.
Ben: Now, I’m not a diabetic by when my blood sugar level starts
to drop during competition I begin to have a negative
attitude. I start to generate a little bit less power on the
bicycle. Usually I’ll feel a little slower, legs get a little heavier
on the run. Is it pretty much the same for a diabetic when
their blood sugar drops or are there other things that occur
as well?
Daniel Vincent: It’s very similar. Your body starts shutting down. For me, I
start to become kind of incoherent. You start getting the cold
sweats. Very uncomfortable. Some people get nauseous with
it. So what you’re describing is kind of the beginning phases
of hypoglycemia, but overtime it does progressionally get to a
worse – I don’t know if that’s the right word to use – but a
four stop state.
Ben: Interesting. So as far as nutrition goes for a diabetic athlete.
Are there special nutrition considerations. I know that some
athletes will follow a strict percentage of carbohydrates,
proteins and fat but for diabetics, do you have certain
percentages that you use or certain nutritional
considerations that are important for success in sport?
Daniel Vincent: Absolutely. I’m probably not the best person to ask that
question, but for me, every diabetic is different. But I usually
stick to the 75, 25 ratio. With my carbohydrates I stick more
to the complex carbohydrates trying to make sure that my
body is able to utilize that. Granted, I work out just about
every eight hours and so my body functions off of that
consistency and that ratio.
Ben: What do you mean when you say 75:25 ratio?
Daniel Vincent: Well 75% carbohydrates, 25% protein.
Ben: What about fats? Are you taking in any fats?
Daniel Vincent: Excuse me, I do take a little bit of fats but not as frequent.
Ben: Okay I see. So as far as your actual carbohydrate intake you
take up to 75% carbohydrates?
Daniel Vincent: Yes.
Ben: Okay, gotcha. Interesting.
Daniel Vincent: I’m not a dietician or a nutritionist. If I had somebody advise
me, I’d be more than happy to oblige but that’s worked for
me so far.
Ben: Do you also take nutrition supplements or is that something
that diabetics take in terms of any type of special nutrition
supplements?
Daniel Vincent: There is a lot of rumors going about as to what works best for
everybody. One thing that I particularly like is the Hammer
Nutrition products. I take a lot of their multivitamins. I use
their gel series. I just find that it really works for me. Their
gels don’t cause my blood sugars to spike. It does what it’s
intended to do. And I find good results with it.
Ben: Okay, cool. So basically in terms of any type of glucose
management type of supplements or things of that nature,
you really don’t worry too much about that?
Daniel Vincent: I don’t. I don’t.
Ben: Okay, so what about as far as your training schedule? Like
for diabetes, is there some special attention that’s given to
the type of training plan that is used – the frequency of the
training sessions, anything of that nature?
Daniel Vincent: You know, the key thing with that is just being mindful of
where your sugars are at. I try and not to let diabetes be an
excuse for me to not do what everybody else can do. So I just
have to keep a close eye on what I’m doing, where I’m at,
how I’m doing things and where I’m going I guess.
Ben: Now, what’s the biggest threat to you when you’re swimming
or cycling or running, would you say?
Daniel Vincent: The biggest threat is low blood sugar. I don’t so much worry
about the high blood sugar just because it very seldom
happens. But being out in the middle of the water and having
your blood sugars drop down to 50, you become just
incoherent and unable to respond really effectively. It can be
a challenge.
Ben: And how quickly can you turn something like that around by
getting in the right type of blood sugar?
Daniel Vincent: Usually it’ll take me about maybe five to 10 minutes if it’s not
too bad, not too far off. I’m able to kind of turn things
around and get back into my groove.
Ben: Now in my case when I bonk, I don’t have any issues with
insulin, but I have to eat a lot of glucose. A lot of high
glycemic index glucose very quickly. For a diabetic, when
that spikes your blood sugar, do you need to adjust your
insulin levels directly after you have made that adjustment
on the blood sugar levels?
Daniel Vincent: You know, it depends on the athlete. For me, my body is
super sensitive to insulin. In all honesty, doctors feel that my
body is still producing insulin but it’s not producing enough
to run on its own. So, I find that when I take products such
as what you’re describing, it’s not so much that I have to give
myself insulin if I have to be out running or if I’m out doing
something of that nature. So, I myself don’t have to worry
about that but I do have friends that do have to keep that
baseline or give themselves a little push of insulin as they’re
running and eating.
Ben: Interesting. So I’m curious about Triabetes, about Team
Triabetes and about other opportunities not just for
triathletes but for diabetic athletes in general who can find
support. So as far as some of the organizations that are out
there, I know that as we were scheduling this talk, you
mentioned Insulin Dependents as far an organization. What
is that?
Daniel Vincent: Well Insulin Dependents is the mother company for
Triabetes. It’s a non-profit organization that focuses on
inspiring athletes, educating them and helping them explore
their goals. One of the big problems we have with the
community – and the community meaning everybody – is
nobody knows too much about diabetes. They feel it’s a
roadblock for us. And a lot of people feel that that’s kind of
the way are bodies are… we just slow down. I guess I’m
trying to find the right words for it, but it’s… basically with
Insulin Independents and Triabetes, they – Peter Nerothin
and John Moore have set this organization up to help
encourage people such as myself to not only go out and
achieve my goals but to help and encourage others to go out
and do the same. With the Triabetes program and being a
team captain, one of the privileges that we have is we get to
work with youth. We get to work and identify a youth that we
mentor for about a year or a year and a half. We get to work
with them, bring them to events and actually this November,
we will get a chance to support our tri-buddy – is what we
call them – and help them compete in their triathlete event.
And then as we turn around and we do our event next May
there in St. George, we’ll be able to have our tri-buddies go
across the finish line with us at the end of the race. So it’s a
great program for individuals but it’s also a great mentoring
program to help inspire everybody with diabetes.
Ben: Interesting. Well, it sounds like what this boils down to is
that if somebody loves the sport that they compete in, that if
they have the correct tools like the insulin pump that you
talked about and the glucose monitoring tools and they also
have access to some of these supportive organizations such
as this Insulin Dependents and Triabetes – and I’ll be sure to
put a link to those in the interview Shownotes – then they
can absolutely continue to find success. And from what it
sounds like this cycling team you mentioned – Team Type 1
– I’ve seen them pop up every now and again in cycling
results and they’re just as good as any cycling team out there.
Daniel Vincent: Absolutely.
Ben: I think for any of you listeners out there who have diabetes
or who have a loved one who has diabetes who likes to
compete, don’t let something like diabetes get in the way of
achieving your dream in sports and competition. It sounds
like there’s quite enough out there to enable you to do it.
David, you’re one example and I really like what you guys are
doing with the Team Triabetes and the tri-buddy program
and Insulin Dependents, so thank you for coming on the call
today.
Daniel Vincent: You bet, you bet. One quick note, I’m actually a Daniel.
Ben: Oh did I say David? My apologies. We’ll make sure that we
get that right in the Shownotes too and I’ll put a link over to
the Web site for which Daniel is team captain. So, until next
time this is Ben Greenfield and Daniel Vincent signing out
from www.bengreenfieldfitness.com.
Folks, I will put a link to Insulin Independence on the Web
site Shownotes for this episode, episode number 98. I will
also put a link to everything else that I talked about including
the www.quickanddirtytips.com podcast, the Marathon
Dominator as well as other things I haven’t talked about – a
trip to Thailand that I’m organizing for people listening in
and other thing like the VIP Text Club and basically tons of
stuff is always in the Shownotes. You’re missing out if you
don’t look at the Shownotes after each episode. Definitely
missing out. So if you have comments, if you have questions
about the episode itself, go leave them in the comments
section for this episode number 98 and until next time, this
is Ben Greenfield signing out from
www.bengreenfieldfitness.com.
For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s
from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at
http://www.pacificfit.net