It’s a pain in the neck, but nutrition does not work in generic terms, in theory or in the short term . In fact, it’s full of “hangs” too long to fit in headlines or cereal boxes. So if you are looking for advice like “after running recover with egg protein” this post will taste like a tablespoon of expired ginger. Find a nutritionist who will design a personalized diet for you, because the only diet that works is yours.
The little certainty that there is in nutrition is that it is a science that acts on the human body (almost nothing) and that, therefore, it is inaccurate due to the animated variables that come into play and the ignorance of many. Nutrition works well when applied to the needs of each person at all times and by acquiring good habits (not with one-month diets).
Trust us. If we put here a protein diet, a paleo diet, a vegan diet for athletes, a diet for runners, a diet to gain muscle mass, a diet to lose weight or a list of the 10 fundamental foods for a Marathon, simply you we would be lying .
Don’t take it the wrong way. We don’t know you inside.
We don’t know how your weight is distributed in fat, muscle, bone and scraps; We do not know if you tend to lack iron, if you have problems with histamine, or with insulin; if your anaerobic threshold is at 171 or 190 beats, if today you have trained 1 hour in zone 2 or 30 minutes in zone 5, if the inside of your cells is well hydrated, if your intestine is trained to eat or drink at high pulsations , if you have protein in your urine or elevated CK and why.
If we do not know you a little inside, it is difficult for us to know what processes that breakfast or that dinner will cause in your body. If we don’t know you inside, we don’t know what nutritional deficiencies or excesses you have. In other words, we do not know what can help you replace what you have taken from the body in your last workout, or what to give you so that your body has what it needs to face the next. It would be a bit of thumb sucking and blurting out something totally theoretical. It might or might not work, or it might work well one day and another badly, or it might have little influence one day but after several weeks. We honestly don’t know.
We don’t know you on the outside either.
We don’t know what your sporting challenge is. We do not know if you know how to make a tuna tartare, if you tolerate seafood well, if you feel bad having breakfast before doing weights, if you need to drink coffee after eating, if saying no to chocolate is too much for you, if you always eat out, yes you usually sleep little, if you live stressed, if when you go out you drink a beer or 6 rums, if you eat quickly or slowly, if you have an allergy to tropical fruit, if you like hummus, if you have a heart rate monitor and know how to use it to eat better, if the Monday you have time to make yourself a baked sea bass with cassava, if you have problems at home, if you know where to buy the fresh whipped cheese. We do not know if you are vegetarian, vegan or if you do not want to take lactose or processed foods from a documentary you saw. We do not know if you wake up at 08:00 to sit in an office, to stand all day in a store, to play with your children or to go for a run. And why is this important? Because if you do not have a personalized diet and your nutritional needs are not adapted to your life, you will not fulfill it, you simply will not be able to adapt your life to that role.
We know that you would have preferred some specific recommendations to apply now, maybe something like … remove the yolk from the egg and the oil from the tuna, have organic oatmeal for breakfast, take this fish that has more protein than this other, do not eat carbohydrates change the cheesecake for fruit, the mussels are good for the brain because they have phosphorus, fat from salmon, avocado and walnuts yes, but pork fat and cheese not; do not take lactose, eat blueberries that are good because they have antioxidants, drink more water before the race, avoid fried foods, pastries and sugary soft drinks …
It is very tempting and very selling to make headlines like “the beet, the secret for the runners” but the reality is much more complex and the most honest answer is almost always “it depends”. So let us be honest with you even if it’s weird. Let us not give you advice.
