Nutritional Tips for Runners
Sara Cook, CMRS Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach

Nutrition is an important, but often misunderstood, part of the running equation. By making small dietary changes, staying away from fad diets, and understanding what our bodies need, we can successfully build our own eating styles that provide each of us personally with what we need to reach our goals.

Carbohydrates have always been the most popular foods for athletes.  Even though carbohydrates are important, protein and fat is also important for your diet.  Some people perform their best on carbohydrates and others perform their best on more protein.  Here is why…

Diet Typing
Food is fuel.  It is especially important that athletes fuel their bodies with the best food for his or her Metabolic Type.  As the distance or intensity increases, this factor can help determine who will triumph and who will not.  Eating the right foods will help your body perform the best, increase energy levels, lose extra weight and gain muscle faster, help cure disease, and improve overall health.  This test is great for athletes who want to take his or her sport to the next level.  Diet Typing tests your blood pH levels and oxidation rate.  Knowing your blood pH and oxidation rate will tell us which foods your body needs more of and which foods it needs less of – IE do you need a high protein diet or a high carbohydrate diet? There’s a big difference and eating the wrong diet could be fatal for your running performance! 

Oxidation Rate
Your oxidative rate is how fast your body processes foods.  This also determines what foods you need to eat.  Eating the right foods is vital for great performance if you are an athlete of any kind.  At Caring Medical we do a 90 minute glucose tolerance test to gather this information.  For those who oxidize foods fast, they typically need more protein and fat in their diet because those foods are oxidized slower than carbohydrates.  If this person were to only eat carbohydrates, their energy level would fluctuate throughout the day because their body uses up that energy source too fast.  For those who oxidize foods slower, they typically need more carbohydrates in their diet.  So, despite the popular myth that all athletes need more carbs, we determine that often it is just the opposite.

Blood pH
This is the second half of Metabolic Typing.  The blood pH test shows if your blood is balanced, alkaline, or acidic.  If your blood pH is high you have alkaline blood.  If your blood pH is low you have acidic blood.  Blood pH is affected by numerous factors, including weather and foods you eat.  Warm weather makes blood more alkaline, while cold weather makes blood more acidic.  Protein and fat make the blood more alkaline, while carbohydrates make the blood more acidic.  As you can see, this can become a balancing act.  It is best to visit with a nutrition coach who can explain what this means for YOU!  Once we know your blood pH, we will want to try to make your blood pH balanced by having you eat certain foods.  This can affect how well you perform.

A recent study conducted by Caring Medical tested five Ironman athletes to determine how heat effects blood pH in athletes.  As their body temperatures increased, their blood pH levels increased.  They also experienced symptoms of nausea, cramping, and pain.  This can drastically affect the performance of athletes, as overheating, nausea, and cramping are very common in long distance and hot weather races.  To counter this effect of rising blood pH and keeping optimal performance, an athlete needs more carbohydrates during a race to balance the blood pH. 

Athletes will perform their best in warm climates if their blood pH is low (acidic blood). This is because the warm weather will help to balance their blood pH.  Athletes whose blood pH is high (alkaline blood) will perform their best in colder weather, because the cold weather will help balance their blood pH.  However, since we cannot control the weather, we can adjust our diet to help us keep our pH in balance.  Being in pH balance, will help increase an athlete’s performance. 


Foods for Alkaline blood or high pH levels
If you have alkaline blood you will want to eat more carbohydrates in order to perform greater and build energy levels.  This would be for people who are on our Hauser diets #4 and #5, the monkey and giraffe diets.

Breakfast
Whole grain cereal, whole grain toast, bananas, coffee, juice, tea, oatmeal, or a bagel.

Lunch
Salad with nuts or beans, lentil soup, sandwich with lots of vegetables or a tuna or chicken sandwich.

Dinner
Pasta of any kind, stir-fry, tofu and brown rice, beans, vegetable casserole, vegetarian tacos.

Snacks
Pita bread with hummus, trail mix, fresh or dried fruit, vegetable slices, and peanut butter with banana or celery. 

Food for Acidic Blood or low pH levels
If you have acidic blood you will want to eat more protein and good fats.  This would be for people who are on our diets Hauser #1 and Hauser #2, the Lion or the Bear diets.

Breakfast
Eggs, scrambled tofu, meat from last night’s dinner rolled up in a corn tortilla, or bacon and sausage.

Lunch
Salad with chicken, fish or tuna sandwich, and any kind of lean meat.

Dinner
Stir fry with meat or tofu, meat and veggies cooked in the crock pot, baked chicken with a salad, fish and vegetables, bean, meat loaf.

Snacks
Died turkey sticks, hard boiled eggs, slices of your favorite meat, trail mix, protein shake, and nuts.

Once you get Metabolic Typing and know which diet to follow, our recipe section at www.caringnutrition.com can help you find recipes for your particular diet.  Our nutrition and lifestyle coach will also be happy to go over your diet with you, show you portion sizes, and give you more food ideas for you diet in order for you to perform your best. 

Plan Your Diet
1.  Devise a sensible eating plan that you can stick to, which will suit your lifestyle.

2.  Eat throughout the day.  Very hungry people tend to make poor food choices like fast food and vending machine foods.  Stick with fruits, vegetables, salads, lean protein, organic nuts, and soy products instead.  Stay away from sugary snacks, soda’s, and desserts!!  They will only weaken your system.

3.  Try to eat as close to your Metabolic Type with every main meal.

4.  Always eat breakfast.  You body burns energy while you are sleeping, so when you wake up you will want to refuel your body for the long day ahead.

5.  Making a food diary will be helpful to get you started.  Write down what you eat, the time, and how you felt afterwards.  This way, you will be able to tell which foods help your body performs best.

Protein for Repair
After running, eating a meal with protein will help with the recovery process.  Protein helps to build muscle and tendons and repair broken down muscles.  Repair of damaged muscle proteins begins immediately after exercise.  Insulin stimulates muscle repair by increasing amino acid transport into the muscle. Glutamine may be the most important amino acid in the recovery process. You can find high doses of glutamine in high protein foods.  Glutamine stimulates muscle protein synthesis and preserves skeletal muscle mass.

Stay Hydrated
It is so important to stay hydrated.  Water regulates the core temperature of your body.  As you run, your working muscles produce large amounts of heat that must be released in order to prevent core temperature from rising to dangerously high levels.  To get rid of this heat, your body perspires causing water loss and potential dehydration.  As a runner, you should consistently hydrate yourself during both warm and cold weather.  By the time you are thirsty, your body is already suffering.  So drink water even if you are not thirsty.  You are drinking enough water if you urinate about once an hour and it is clear.  To make sure you are drinking enough water, drink several glasses of water first thing in the morning.  Drink water through out your day at work.  Keep a water bottle at your desk or in your car.  Drink 8-16 ounce fluids of water 30 minutes before you run.  Drink 6-8 ounces of fluid for each 15 minutes of exercise.  Athletic stores sell mini water bottle holders that you can put on your wrist so that you stay hydrated though out your run.  The rule of thumb is to drink 75% in ounces of your body weight.  So if you weigh 150 pounds, you will want to drink about 113 ounces of water a day.  That’s 14, 8 oz glasses per day.

Electrolytes
Electrolytes, now usually added to sports drinks, can accelerate re-hydration by speeding intestinal re-absorption of fluids and improve fluid retention.  Electrolytes are used to create electrical energy necessary for many body functions including transmission of nerves impulses and muscle contractions.  Many normal bodily functions are dependent on these substances.  The fuel you consume and the water you drink during exercise is a consistent replenishment of electrolytes. Normal body functions, especially running and performance, are severely compromised if certain levels of electrolytes are not present, especially in the heat and/or when exercise for long periods of time.  This is another reason why you need to drink plenty of water and eat the right foods.