- Most nutritionists recommend a balanced
diet for the general population,
but intense exercise is likely to increase
the demand for certain nutrients.
Here, we explain some of the best nutrients,
and supplements, that you might wish to
consider to help boost your performance.
Totally legally, I would like to add.
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- Number one has to be iron.
Iron is one of the most important
micronutrients for endurance cyclists.
It's a crucial part of hemoglobin,
which transports oxygen around the body.
Low iron levels are detrimental to performance.
Now, iron comes in two forms, heme and non-heme.
Now, heme iron comes from animal sources,
whereas non-heme comes from plants.
And it's actually slightly less well-absorbed.
It's important to be aware of the use of the high-iron
and the techniques to help increase absorption.
Because the iron story is not just about
how much you consume, but also how well you absorb it.
For example, if you have vitamin C with iron,
that will help you to increase your absorption,
whereas, dietary fiber and the tannins in tea
and coffee inhibit iron absorption.
Another piece of the puzzle is that because
hepcidin, which is released by the liver,
to inhibit iron absorption, is elevated after
stress and exercise, iron will not be absorbed
very well after you've been training.
Foods rich in iron include some
red meats, like beef, ostrich,
kangaroo, oysters, and chicken liver.
For those who don't eat meat there's also iron in
legumes, like lentils, soybeans, tofu, and grains,
for example, brown rice, and other things like
dried apricots, black-strap molasses and
some fortified breakfast cereals.
And it may be worth considering a supplement.
I still take an iron tablet every second day.
And I know for a fact that some sports doctors
recommend that all racing cyclists,
especially women, take an iron supplement
because they found that it helps
almost everyone to perform better.
That could be because the base levels for normal
were set too low for the average population.
Or, it could be that greater availability
of iron in the body helps performance.
Either way, still take my iron supplement
just so I can ride to work a little bit faster.
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- Vitamin B12 has many functions in the body.
But is predominantly for the natural, normal
functioning of the brain and central nervous system.
And, for making red blood cells.
Therefore, as with iron, it is a pretty
essential part of a cyclist's diet.
A lack of B12 in the diet can cause anemia,
although it's not quite the same as
the anemia caused by lack of iron.
If you're deficient in B12, then that anemia
causes the body to produce abnormally large
red blood cells, which lose
their oxygen-carrying capacity.
Not ideal.
B12-rich foods include fish, meat,
eggs, and dairy products, but there are no
reliable sources of B12 in plant-based foods,
except those that have been fortified,
such as some plant milks and breakfast cereals.
So, if you follow a plant-based diet,
you should consider taking a supplement,
if you don't have these fortified alternatives.
A simple blood test can be used
to determine the folate deficiency.
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Also known as the sunshine vitamin, it is needed
for the absorption of calcium and therefore
needed to maintain healthy bone mass.
So if you have a deficiency, that can cause
brittle bones, which is something, that as
a cyclist, if you don't do weight-bearing sport,
you might be susceptible to anyway.
It is also been shown to play a vital role
in the immune system, as well as improving
muscular strength, which all sounds pretty good.
Now the best source of vitamin D is
making it in your own cells using sunlight
and you also need to consume things like
fish, eggs and fortified food.
But even with a well-balanced diet,
you probably won't get enough vitamin D.
Uh, if you live in a country that has
long, dark winters, like the U.K., or
you don't get much sunshine, or
in fact, if you live in a very sunny country,
but you wear super-high-factor sunscreen.
And yes, vitamin D deficiency is
a thing in Australia, too.
And in that case, you might like
to consider supplementing with vitamin D,
up to 10 milligrams per day.
Uh, I still do, every though I get
plenty of sunshine riding my bike.
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Omega-3 oils are a type of essential poly-unsaturated
fatty acid, which we must obtain from the diet,
and we cannot make in our own bodies.
Now, Omega-3's are made up from
two constituent fatty acids.
You've got DHA and EPA, and please don't ever
ask me to pronounce those names in full.
EPA, in particular, has been shown to
dampen the inflammatory response in your cells,
unless it can help to aid recover and immunity.
Another interesting fact of Omega-3 oils
is that they impact on your red blood cells,
making them slightly more pliable so they
can pass through smaller capillaries.
Now, if you choose to supplement with Omega-3 oils,
it is important to ensure that you get
good-quality capsules, and that you have the
correct ratio of EPA to DHA.
Or even choose a pure EPA supplement,
if it's inflammation you're trying to reduce.
That's what I take.
Pure EPA.
Once a day.
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Creatine is a chemical naturally found in the body.
Which helps to release energy in anaerobic efforts.
Because of that, it's really popular
among sprint-based sports.
But for certain endurance cyclists
it can also be beneficial.
Road events, of course, include repeated sprints.
Just when you're attacking or covering a tack.
But the trade-off is that it promotes a storage of
water, and therefore you might put on a kilo or two
of weight in water, if you take creatine.
However, taking creatine in the off-season
whilst doing a strength-training program
has been shown to increase muscle mass,
making the training more effective.
If you don't mind having extra muscle mass.
And of course, it gives you plenty of time
to covert that strength into cycling boon
before the season starts.
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Antioxidants are basically substances that delay
cell damage caused by free radicals.
So when we exercise we put stress on the body.
This increases the production of free radicals,
such as radioactive oxygen species or ROX,
which can cause harmful effects within the body.
Now we need a balance between these free radicals
and the antioxidants for normal physiological function.
And, in fact, you need those free radicals,
for the stress, to stimulate a response to training.
So you don't want to dampen the stress straight away.
However, it is unarguable that antioxidants, such
as vitamin C and vitamin A, play a role in
supporting the immune system.
Although we know this, interestingly, studies
looking at antioxidants in isolation, tend not to have
a positive effect at reducing disease risk.
However, we do know, that consuming a diet rich in
fruit and vegetables can have a protective affect.
Whether it's down to the antioxidant content,
we can't be sure.
But either way, when you put stress on your body
through cycling, eating more fruit, and especially
vegetables, can only be beneficial.
And one popular very antioxidant supplement is
maraschino cherry juice, which is also delicious.
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Beetroot juice has been noted to have
a positive effect on exercise performance,
and more specifically, may benefit a cyclist
by helping to boost aerobic capacity.
Now, not only are beetroots full of vitamins,
minerals, and vital nutrients, but they
are also packed with nitrates, which are
naturally present in a variety of vegetables,
but particularly concentrated in beet roots,
which can then be pressed and
concentrated into a juice.
When we consume the nitrate in juice, it gets
gets converted in the body into nitrate oxide.
This nitrate oxide has been shown to lower
blood pressure and because of this,
it's considered a potential aid to improve performance.
The main affect of nitrate oxide is that it
dilates our blood vessels, which means
they increase in diameter.
The wider the vessels, the more oxygenated blood
can flow to the muscles, which is needed
during aerobic respiration.
And the more oxygen you have in your muscles, the more
ATP, or energy, can be produced.
Now beetroot juice also has some affect at the
molecular level, although that gets a littLe
too complicated for me.
And beetroot juice definitely has some very
interesting affects on the color of your feces
and urine, making them quite reddish,
and it's a bit of a shock the first time you try it.
Ah, you'll see what I mean,
if you ever try beetroot juice.
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Coffee is a staple in any cyclist's diet,
whether it's cappuccino or espresso or even a flat-white
or a Piccolo, many of us rely on it
before we head out on a ride.
But, does it actually have any effect
on our cycling performance?
Well, yes actually, caffeine has been shown to improve
performance in almost all types of exercise.
From sprints to ultra-endurance events.
We actually thought we would put it to the test
in our very own GCN experiment.
For example, maybe to attempt a five kilometer,
all-out time trial.
Test on different days.
One with a measured amount of coffee.
The difference being that one would be caffeinated coffee
and the other would be decaf coffee.
Unfortunately, up to now, we could not get a single
GCN presenter to agree to ride a bike after decaf coffee.
So, we haven't been able to do this experiment,
but we're still working on it, so watch this space.
I'd like to repeat, that the most important
thing for staying healthy and strong on
the bike is to eat a balanced diet,
and you should try to get your nutrients that way.
Supplements should kind of be seen as the last resort.
Not the first thing you reach for.
They are there to supplement your diet,
after all, if you need it.
With all of the nutrients we've mentioned,
more is actually not better, in fact,
too much can be really harmful,
so if you're getting what you need from your diet,
then you don't need to spend money on expensive pills.
Another thing that's worth mentioning is that
nutritional supplements are not regulated
in the same way as medicines.
There are good-quality supplements and
and bad-quality supplements,
and you can't always trust the label.
Neither to contain the good stuff that you want,
nor to not contain contaminants that you don't want.
You might think that supplemental contamination,
and the risk of testing positive,
is only a concern for pro-athletes.
But actually, nobody wants to be putting
unknown substances into their body.
So, if you do buy supplements, then get them
from a reputable source, and in fact, consider
buying from a company that is Informed Sport certified.
I do hope this video helps you to find that
extra five percent or maybe
one percent to reach your goals,
If you have any more questions about supplements,
please leave them down in the comments.
Don't forget to give us a thumbs-up, share this with
your friends, and if you want to see more about why
it's so important to buy clean supplements,
click down here for a video that Cy made
with Informed Sport.