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