Amount of Protein Needed to Ingest a Good Dose of Leucine

In our previous article about post exercise protein we mentioned the importance of leucine as one of the amino acids that must be included in your post exercise meal. Leucine is a key component of skeletal muscle synthesis and current evidence suggests that with amounts of 20-45 mg leucine per kg of body weight muscle protein synthesis is optimised (1,2). Remember don't fall into the common sports nutrition trap of thinking even more leucine will turn you into Arnie. There appears to be a ceiling when it comes to protein ingestion and protein synthesis, therefore amounts larger than 45mg/kg don't appear to be beneficial (3). 

Below is a table (3) taken from the work done by Moore et al. (1) and Pasiakos et al. (2) that offers practical advice on how much total protein you would need to achieve 45mg of leucine per kg of body weight.

Use this table as a guideline when planning your post work out meal to ensure you achieve the optimum post work out leucine dose. 

For any further questions regarding nutrition and performance please get in touch 

www.gabinetederueda.es 

References 
1.Moore, D. R., M. J. Robinson, J. L. Fry, J. E. Tang, E. I. Glover, S. B. Wilkinson, T. Prior, M. A. Tarnopolsky, and S. M. Phillips. 2009. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 89 (1): 161–168.

2.Pasiakos, S. M., H. L. McClung, J. P. McClung, L. M. Margolis, N. E. Andersen, G. J. Cloutier, M. A. Pikosky, J. C. Rood, R. A. Fielding, and A. J. Young. 2011. Leucine-enriched essen­tial amino acid supplementation during moderate steady state exercise enhances postex­ercise muscle protein synthesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 94 (3): 809–818.

3.B.I Campbell 2014, Sports Nutrition: Enhancing exercise performance. CRC Press

Cómo evitar la trampas del markenting

Una vez más queremos abordar el tema del etiquetado. 

Los reclamos de salud son cada vez más llamativos en los supermercados y muchas veces nos guiamos por ellos a la hora de elegir un producto. ¿Por qué voy a elegir un yogur normal, si puedo comprar Actimel, que ayuda a mis defensas? O como las galletas de Germen de Trigo Gerblé, que contribuyen al funcionamiento normal del sistema inmunitario y ayudan a disminuir el cansancio y la fatiga, ya que contienen hierro y magnesio. O como los cereales Special K, que ayudan al cuidado del cabello, las uñas o los huesos.

¿Por qué es tan importante leer el etiquetado?
Muy sencillo, porque el marketing del paquete está diseñado para entrarnos por los ojos y decirnos lo que queremos ver. Y tristemente nuestra legislación no nos protege. 

Es decir, con que un producto tenga un 15% de la ingesta recomendada de un determinado nutriente ya nos puede vender la moto: por ejemplo en el caso de la Vitamina B6 (como lo que ha hecho Actimel), con poner 0,3mg de esta vitamina, podemos decir con todo el apoyo de la ley (REGLAMENTO (UE) No 432/2012 DE LA COMISIÓN de 16 de mayo de 2012) :

• Contribuye al metabolismo energético normal
• Contribuye al funcionamiento normal del sistema nervioso.
• Contribuye al metabolismo normal de las proteínas y del glucógeno.
• Contribuye a la función psicológica normal.
• Contribuye al funcionamiento normal del sistema inmunitario.
• Ayuda a disminuir el cansancio y la fatiga (etc)

Pongamos otro ejemplo: con 45 mg de magnesio podemos decir: 

• Ayuda a disminuir el cansancio y la fatiga.
• Contribuye al equilibrio electrolítico.
• Contribuye al funcionamiento normal del sistema nervioso.
• Contribuye a la función psicológica normal.
• Contribuye al mantenimiento de los huesos en condiciones normales.
• Contribuye al funcionamiento normal de los músculos (etc)

O Zinc, como los cereales de Special K, 2,25mg:

• Contribuye a la función cognitiva normal.
• Contribuye a la fertilidad y reproducción normales.
• Contribuye al metabolismo normal de los ácidos grasos.
• Contribuye al mantenimiento del cabello en condiciones normales.
• Contribuye al mantenimiento de la piel en condiciones normales.
• Contribuye al mantenimiento de la visión en condiciones normales (etc).

¿Qué sacamos con esto?

Pues que esta información nos distrae y no nos deja ver la realidad, por ejemplo, en las galletas que mencionaba antes, Gerblé, se nos dice: "Las Galletas Sésamo son ricas en Calcio, mineral que contribuye al mantenimiento de los huesos y los dientes en condiciones normales. También son ricas en hierro y magnesio. El hierro contribuye al funcionamiento normal del sistema inmunitario. Además junto con el magnesio, ayuda a disminuir el cansancio y la fatiga". ¿Y qué no nos cuentan? Pues que llevan azúcar como segundo ingrediente (20g por cada 100g) y además grasa de palma. Porque, ¿qué iban a poner? "Las galletas Gerblé contribuyen al aumento de la diabetes y obesidad y gracias al uso de grasa saturada barata, además contribuyen a la aterosclerosis y a la deforestación en países del Sur".

¿Y Actimel? "Hacemos lo que podemos para que no te enteres de que lo del L.Casei era una patraña y trabajamos duro para que no te des cuenta de que en realidad te estamos vendiendo12gr de azúcar en un bote minúsculo y caro"

¿Qué hacemos?

Volver a la alimentación natural, con materias primas. 

Informarnos. 

Un plátano nos proporciona 0,4mg de B6; 100gr de pollo, 0,5mg; una patata mediana 0,6mg; éstos ya pueden decir todo lo que dice el Actimel. 

Las espinacas nos dan 79mg/100gr de magnesio, un puñado de almendras 80mg, 50gr de judías pintas, 85,5mg, el 28%!

No es necesario recurrir a estos productos ultra procesados para llevar una alimentación saludable y sin carencias, incluso mejor, cuanto más los evitemos mejor. 

Caso práctico:

Desayuno Special K con frutos rojos: 13gr de azúcar en 50gr.

Además luego me tomo un yogur Activia Muesli, porque lleva frutos secos y bifidus y además en el envase pone fibra. 16gr de azúcar.

No he pasado del desayuno y ya he llegado a mi límite diario de azúcares añadidos recomendado por la Organización Mundial de la Salud para evitar enfermedades como la diabetes tipo 2 y la obesidad.

Como me he puesto en lo peorcito, vamos a imaginar que mi día continua

A media mañana me voy a tomar 3 galletas de Gerblé de sésamo (las venden en bolsitas de 5 galletas, así que al final me tomo las 5) = 10,6g de azúcar.

Y luego además, a lo mejor me tomo un actimel.

¡¡CHAN!! 50gr azúcar! ¡El doble de lo que puedo tomar como máximo!

Y eso que solo he tomado cosas publicitadas como aconsejables para la salud o que son para cuidarme. 

¡Así que cuidado! Que muchas veces nos fiamos y no debería ser...

Y sí, un día al año no hace daño, pero es que luego no es un día. Y si lo tenemos en casa, lo comemos. ¿Y por qué no cambiarlo por otros alimentos más nutritivos que nos sienten mejor? Frutos secos, fruta, yogur natural sin azucarar, verdura cruda, aguacate...

When Paleo isn't Paleo

The world of health and fitness is often very similar to the world of fashion. Each year there is a must have food and/or diet and then eventually they will fade into obscurity, replaced by another diet, sometimes to reemerge a few years later. I often wonder what happened to the Metabolic Typing Diet. When I first left university and ventured into the world of fitness training this was THE diet to follow according to certain fitness "experts". Of course, it came and went, it was replaced by the Alkaline Diet, Zone Diet, Blood Type diet, the Fasting Diet, and the reemergence of the Atkins Diet, tweaked and now called LCHF, so on and so on. As I've said before in our Alkaline Diet post, a lot, if not the majority of these diets can be dismissed as nonsense, the Blood Type Diet being a good example, however, there are some of these diets that are actually OK. A good example of these is the Alkaline diet, in terms of the actual content of the diet anyway, not the reasons they give for following it.

Another good example is the Paleo diet. Taken at first glance, the Paleo diet consists of everything that the human would eat in their natural environment, so, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. This is a sound base for any diet and we also recommend that the majority of our patients' diets are made up of fresh produce and to try and limit man made or processed products as much as possible. The idea behind Paleo is that we humans made a mistake by starting agriculture, that is farming grains, making breads etc. and that we should have stuck to our "natural" diet. There are arguments both for and against this and as I've said before the actual content of the Paleo diet or at least the idea behind it isn't too bad, if a little impractical. I always think that there must have been a reason why we went from hunter-gatherer to farmer, less chance of starving to death was probably a major factor. However, now food is abundant (in the western world at least) maybe going "back to the primitive" is a good idea.

The problem I have with the Paleo diet and to be honest nearly all diets, is not the actual diets themselves but the tsunami of products that are targeted at followers of that particular diet. By it's very nature the Paleo diet should be fairly simple to follow. Putting aside the issue of organic for one moment, you should be able to go to the supermarket and buy your food from the fresh produce aisles only. Obviously things become a little more difficult and not to mention expensive when you factor in organic produce. Of course, we promote organic, local and seasonal where possible but we have to be aware that not everyone has the budget  for that.

The question followers of the Paleo diet have to ask is, is my diet really Paleo?

If we are to be strict about it, the Paleo diet will not have any of the following

• Tea and Coffee
• Alcohol 
• Oils
• Sugar 
• Flours and breads (all types)
• Salt and therefore 
• Processed and/or cured meats
• Dairy 
• Dairy alternatives such as almond milk, soy milk etc. 
• Chocolate
• Sauces 
• Sports nutrition products 
• Any liquid that isn't water 

All of the above have come about from the human moving away from hunter-gatherer and towards agriculture. Paleo human would have only eaten what they dug up from the earth, picked from a tree, hunted or scavenged. However, after a quick google search for Paleo products, top of the list is a  website that recommends 23 "paleo products" you have to try and they include,

• Bacon (not Paleo)
• Prosciutto (basically bacon so not Paleo)
• Coconut oil (not Paleo)
• Coconut and almond flours (not Paleo) 
• Butter and Ghee (not Paleo) 
• Sparkling water (not Paleo) 
• Tea (not Paleo) 

Things get really amusing when you browse through the enormous list of Paleo protein bars and Paleo protein powders! Maybe I'm wrong but I'm fairly certain that archaeologists are yet to find any fossilised protein shakers from the Paleolithic period. Just because a bar contains dried fruit instead of sugar or a powder is using hemp protein instead of whey, the fact it is a processed man made product means it is NOT Paleo. The same can be said for flours and oils, almond flour is still a flour, it's processed, as is coconut or any other oil. 

So What?

Who cares right? Maybe I am just being pedantic but this where my issue with "diets" comes from. The food and supplement companies are not stupid and they can spot a gold mine when they see one. They know that if they slap the word Paleo on the wrapper of a product they can hike the price up and people will pay it, especially as the Paleo diet is known for not being cheap and so people already expect to pay a bit more. But if you are buying any of those products you are not following a Paleo diet you are paying over the odds for products that you could buy ordinarily at a fraction of the price.  

It boils down to the question of why are you following the Paleo diet? If you really want to eat like a cave man/woman then unfortunately anything off that list above is out of bounds. Or if you simply want to decrease the amount of processed or man made foods in your diet you can do so without having to buy overpriced products. 

Our advice is, buy local, buy seasonal and avoid anything that has Paleo on the wrapper!  

If you want any help or advice regarding Paleo or any diet, drop a comment below or contact us on Facebook/Twitter or info@gabinetederueda.es 

References 

http://wickedspatula.com/23-paleo-items-you-have-to-buy-at-trader-joes/ 

Caffeine & Endurance Exercise

1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, although you may not have heard it called that before, I can almost guarantee that it is your favourite stimulant. For most of us not a day goes by without a dose of caffeine, usually in the form of tea, coffee, chocolate, coca cola and the seemingly ever increasing number of energy drinks. Ever since caffeine was taken off WADA’s banned list in 2004 you have been able to find more and more sports nutrition products that contain caffeine, in fact, it’s actually quite difficult to find gels and tablets that don’t contain caffeine.

The efficacy of caffeine for the use in sport, especially endurance sport is well established and widely used by athletes, so much so that WADA have placed caffeine on to their “watch list” for 2016. Which means they are concerned that it may be being overused or abused during competition and so they want to keep an eye on it. The Australian Institute of Sport place caffeine in category A of their supplement list¹ which means that there is sound evidence for a performance improvement. This post will not be concerned with whether caffeine works or not because we know it does. With this post I hope to clear up some of the other questions that surround the use of caffeine as a sports supplement.

How much to take and when to take it

As with many supplements there is always a trend towards the thinking of “more is better”, however in reality there is always a point where more no longer becomes better and soon becomes unpleasant. The earlier caffeine studies showed that a dose of around 6mg/kg of body weight had a positive effect on an 1hrs cycling performance. That is the equivalent of around 300-500mg of caffeine (a lot!), however, it soon became apparent that equally positive results were found with smaller doses of caffeine, ~200mg. And so it was concluded that caffeine does in fact improve performance but it appears only to be dose dependant up to a point, and then further ingestion of caffeine does not result in further improvements^2,3.

Recently on his website⁴ Asker Jeukendrup reviewed a paper that looked at caffeine and longer duration cycling. Subjects rode for 2 and a half hours and then performed a time trial. Subjects either ingested 100mg caffeine, 200mg caffeine or a placebo 40 minutes before the time trial. Subjects who ingested the 200mg performed the TT quickest followed by 100mg.  

So the take home message is that if you have an event/training session that will last around an hour then around 200mg of caffeine an hour before your event will do the trick. Or if you are going on a longer ride and want a pick me up for the final climb or last hour of riding then take your 200mg caffeine either 40mins – hour before that climb or last bit of riding.

Source of caffeine

I’ve said this before but a classic error of dietitians and exercise coaches is to talk in terms of weights and nutrients but not in a way that most people understand. What does 200mg of caffeine look like? One coffee? Ten? Below is a table ^2,3,5 with the caffeine content of several drinks and sports nutrition products to give you an idea of what 200mg would look like.

Product	Serving size	Amount of caffeine mg
Coffee percolated (Italian coffee maker)	150mls (about halfway up of a normal coffee mug without milk)	65-125
Coffee espresso	1 espresso	~100
Coffee instant	150mls	40-100
Tea	150mls (black)	10 -50 depending on length of time you leave the bag in the cup
Chocolate bar	100g	15
Coca Cola	Can (330mls)	46
Red Bull	Can (250mls)	80
Monster	Can (553mls)	176 (plus a bucket load of sugar)
Science in Sport GO Hydro+caffeine tablets	One tablet (4.5g)	75
Science in Sport GO Caffiene Gels	One gel 60mls	75
Overstims Cafein’Gel	One gel (29g)	75

There is also the question of whether coffee is as effective as a specific caffeine containing sport product. Sports nutrition companies would obviously argue that it is not and would encourage you to use their products instead. However, coffee has been shown to be as effective⁷ as a caffeine containing sports drink in a cycling time trial. Obviously coffee during a ride or run is not particularly practical, unless you don’t mind stopping at a café. So I would recommend gels or drinks during the event but if you want and early caffeine boost during your training session than it appears a strong coffee will not only be a lot nicer than a gel or sports drink but will also be as effective.

How does it work

In the early studies involving caffeine the benefits were thought to be because caffeine increased fat utilisation during exercise and thus reduced glycogen utilisation enhancing endurance performance². However due to more recent evidence the current explanation is that caffeine reduces perception of fatigue and allows people to maintain a higher intensity for a longer period of time⁶

Caffeine and recovery 

When thinking about caffeine and recovery an obvious issue is sleep. Sleep is essential to performance and poor sleep can lead to several problems, most importantly for sports people are, reduced training capacity and impaired immune function. This may sound like an obvious point but as most of us amateur athletes have to fit our training around our lives, (jobs, family etc.) a lot of us train in the evening. As caffeine can take from 3 – 6 hours to clear the blood stream⁸ it is not recommended that you use caffeine for a training session in the evening.

Interestingly there is some data that suggests that post exercise caffeine ingestion may reduce perceived leg pain after a long cycling event⁹. I would say we need more research before we can confidently recommend caffeine after exercise, however, if you are anything like me then a cup of tea or coffee is part of the post ride ritual anyway. 

Does it dehydrate you

The belief that coffee dehydrates you is as old as the hills but is there really any truth in it? As pointed out by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition in their position stand on caffeine⁸ it is important to separate caffeine consumption at rest (in the office for example) and caffeine consumption during exercise. While there may be some evidence that caffeine can increase urinary output at rest, this is not the case for during exercise⁸.

The bottom line is if you maintain appropriate hydration levels both at rest and during exercise then caffeine consumption will not lead to you being dehydrated.   

So in conclusion

• Around 200mg of caffeine taken 45-60mins before the effects are needed
• Can be in the form of coffee/drinks/gel/tablet
• Does not hinder recovery but caution is needed when taking before planning to sleep
• Does not dehydrate you 

For more information on caffeine, supplements or our sports nutrition packages please contact us on info@gabinetederueda.es or via Twitter @DieteticodRB and Facebook @GabinetedeRuedaBradley

References 

1.  http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/supplements/groupa
2.  Burke, L, 2007. Practical Sports Nutrition, Human Kinetics
3.  Jeukendrup, A; Gleeson, M; 2004. Sport Nutrition, Human Kinetics
4.   http://www.mysportscience.com/single-post/2016/08/02/Timing-of-caffeine-intake-in-long-races
5.  http://energydrink-es.redbull.com/cafeina-en-red-bull , http://www.scienceinsport.com/ , https://www.overstims.com/int_index.php?lang=eng
6.  American College of Sports Medicine, 2016, Nutrition and Athletic Performance, available at http://www.acsm.org/public-information/position-stands
7.  Hodgson, A, B et al. 2013, The metabolic and performance effects of caffeine compared to coffee during endurance exercise, PlosONE , 8, 4
8.  Goldstein et al. 2010, International society of sports nutrition position stand: Caffeine and performance, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 7, 5  
9.  Caldwell, A; et al. (2015) "EFFECT OF CAFFEINE ON RECOVERY FROM AN ENDURANCE CYCLING EVENT," International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 11: Iss. 3, Article 39.