Food choices that can drive your fitness and health outcomes beyond their calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein content.
There’s an interesting discussion regarding food that is beyond calorie intakes and macronutrients.
This is less important if you don’t have general health and fitness behaviours in order first (like being able to manage your calorie intake), but the food choices you make and their functional components can play a considerable role in the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.
Glycogen replenishment (eating carbohydrates) is important for your recovery, regulation of your immune system post-training and your physical performance, especially if you're training hard! (read more)
Choosing your carbohydrate source beyond its macronutrients may assist further.
For example, choosing a good honey can contain an impressive makeup of various minerals, vitamins, trace elements, enzymes, amino acids, polyphenols and more. It has antioxidant effects (further enhancing exercise recovery), immune system regulating, anti-inflammatory effects and even assists with digestive health/being a source of prebiotics (great for your gut health – further enhancing recovery). (1)
What’s an oil we’re confident in having significant positive health benefits?
Olive oil.
Olive oil has an impressive polyphenol content (especially when fresh and harvested recently!), which beyond its macronutrients (fat content) may even be the component powering all the health benefits you see with mediterranean diets as explored in a recent narrative review (2). Polyphenols have impressive effects on a number of health markers such as blood pressure and glycemic control, all which contribute positively to the health, fitness and performance outcomes you’re after.
As discussed in my blog post on coffee, there are performance- and health-enhancing effects of coffee (thanks to its caffeine and antioxidant content).
Could we use 'whole food drinks'? (if you can call them that) like coffee and matcha in place of the various pre-workout concoctions (or caffeine on its own) to get better outcomes for muscle and mental health?
For example, the Theanine content in matcha can play a role in experiencing lower levels of fatigue and stress which in turn helpa recovery. The high catechin content has also been shown to positively impact areas of muscle health like assisting with oxidative stress, metabolism, the creation of capillaries and positively impacting your gut environment which further influences muscle health. (3)
Instead of comparing the calorie content of different breads and foods (albeit important for calorie intake), could we select foods that are more easily digested and have greater amounts of nutrients thanks to the fermentation process?
For example, something like sourdough?
There’s a reduction in the content of ‘anti-nutritional’ factors making it more digestible, B vitamin content is increased and there’s even enhanced delivery of beneficial live bacteria thanks to the foods 'food matrix'. (4)
Food is an incredible medium we get to use to communicate and interact with our bodily processes. It's unfortunate that food is often reduced down to its macronutrient and calorie content without further discussion of how we can make food choices to further benefit our health, fitness or performance pursuits.
1) Bogdanov, Stefan et al. “Honey for nutrition and health: a review.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition vol. 27,6 (2008): 677-89. doi:10.1080/07315724.2008.10719745
2) Flynn, Mary M et al. “Is Extra Virgin Olive Oil the Critical Ingredient Driving the Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet? A Narrative Review.” Nutrients vol. 15,13 2916. 27 Jun. 2023, doi:10.3390/nu15132916
3) Li, Penghui et al. “Catechins enhance skeletal muscle performance.” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 60 (2020): 515 - 528.
4) Melini, Francesca et al. “Health-Promoting Components in Fermented Foods: An Up-to-Date Systematic Review.” Nutrients vol. 11,5 1189. 27 May. 2019, doi:10.3390/nu11051189
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