Hill Nutrition With The Butcher's Dog

What To Eat On The Hill...

Stumped by nutritonal attrition, confused by carbohydrates - here's some handy advice to keep your guts turning over and your motor running smoothly.

Eat In Advance

If you're off on a big day out, it's too late once you've already started. Initially you're actually walking or climbing on the food you've tucked away the night before and for breakfast. Your best option is a load of complex carbohydrates like pasta or rice - hence marathon 'pasta parties' the night before the event.

For breakfast, something like porridge or oatmeal along with a banana is ideal or, if you can face it, pasta or rice maybe with an egg on top. Yum... You'll be keeping your glycogen reserves topped up and making sure you start with a full tank. Avoid alcohol, it may have carbs in it, but it's also diuretic and the way the body processes it isn't useful.

Drink Carefully - Avoid Soft Drinks

We've run a lot of articles about hydration - see below - but the key is to drink little and often. If you start feeling thirsty, you're already dehydrated and quite low levels of dehydration will have a serious impact on your physical performance. We like, wait for it, water. Avoid soft drinks, they contain huge amounts of sugar and the concentration means they're absorbed slower than pure water.

If you use an energy drink, keep the mix levels relatively dilute, possibly less than the manufacturer suggests. If it's really hot and you're working hard, losing a lot of sweat, consider an electrolyte replacement drink. Losing key minerals like potassium, sodium and magnesium can have a big impact on your performance.

Snack On Carbohydrate

You need to replenish your glycogen reserves as you exercise, so snack as you go. The ideal recipe, surprisingly enough, is the one used in many energy bars. Low fat, lots of complex, slowly absorbed carbohydrates and a small amount of protein. Unfortunately energy bars aren't cheap.

As an alternative, look at things like cereal bars and, our favourite fig rolls. Fruit, fresh or dry, is also good. Ditto trail mix with some nuts thrown in as well, also a good source of electrolytes. Watch out for high fat stuff - fat takes ages to process and slows down your absorption of other foods at the same time. Flapjacks may look healthy, but many have a really high 20 per-cent plus fat content. Try and keep fat levels at around 10 per-cent or less.

If you don't fancy those, sandwiches with honey and banana work well, or try peanut butter and jam...

Sweets and chocolate and some biscuits are packed with simple carbohydrates which means they'll give you a rapid sugar rush followed by a corresponding sugar low and your body's insulin levels kick in. Not good for steady progress but useful if you're 30 minutes from the end of your trek and dead on your feet...

Lunch Tactics

Again with lunch, avoid large helpings of fatty food and lots of protein. That burger and chips may look great, but it'll take ages to digest, so if you must eat them, eat them once you've finished. If you've done the high fat lunch thing, you'll be familiar with the feeling of it sitting in your stomach for the rest of the day. And hey, that's what it's doing.

You're better off with a sandwich or roll, preferably wholemeal, with, say ham, cheese, chicken, or some other source of protein. Alternatively, pre-made pasta salad works well. Top off with some fruit or an energy bar and it'll help fuel you all afternoon.

The Fat Phenomenon.

You have enough stored fat to keep you going for several days and, over long, low level endurance days, the body will burn some of it. Strangely though, at a certain point, the body stops the fat burning mechanism, despite there being loads left. Oddly, taking some fat on board at this point will kick start the mechanism again, despite the fat taking ages to digest. If you're an alpine mountaineer, it's worth necking a couple of spoons of, say, olive oil if you've been going all day and feel exhausted. Strange but true. Less applicable for a Sunday afternoon trudge across Kinder though...

Afterwards

If you've been gunning it, there's a window of around 30 minutes after you stop exercising, when your body is gagging for carbohydrates. Feed it quick and your crucial liver and muscle glycogen levels will recover more quickly. You don't need to eat a full meal at this point, but mixing some protein in with the carbohydrate will speed up the rate at which it's absorbed. Four Jaffa cakes should do the trick, a baked potato with cheese maybe or a chicken bagel. Try it, it works.

Get some fluid down your neck as well. Later, it's important to eat some protein, think about ten per-cent of your diet, to help muscle rebuilding, so it's off down the pub for a nice juicy steak...

So, next time you're out, try following some of the above guidelines. It really does make a difference and'll help you enjoy your day a little more.

Yours with canine wisdom

The Butcher's Dog