Climbing the Food Pyramid - Colorado Runner

Nutrition Advantage...
Climbing the Food Pyramid
by Nancy Clark, MS RD
The New Food Pyramid
The new Food Pyramid has been unveiled
for more than a year now. When
I first saw it, my reaction was: “a
missed opportunity.” Since then, I’ve
been waiting for the Pyramid’s hidden messages
to become clearer to me, but no such luck.
Certainly, the government could have created a
better tool to teach us how to make dietary improvements
and promote healthful eating.
I’ve heard the Pyramid was designed to be
simple. But it is so simple it seems meaningless!
One reason for this simplicity (a.k.a. vagueness)
relates to behind-the-scenes politics. The Pyramid
was shaped not only by a team of scientists,
nutrition experts and health professionals,
but also by lobbyists from the sugar, soft drink,
red meat, dairy and other food industries who
fought to protect their turf. They know a small
shift in dietary recommendations can mean billions
of dollars of lost money. Hence, no hierarchy
of food images appears in the new Pyramid.
That is, an image with one food placed above
another could get interpreted as that food being
preferable and superior to another food.
Hidden Messages
To find out more about the Pyramid’s hidden
messages, I logged on to www.MyPyramid.
gov. This website, in contrast to the icon, offers
an impressive amount of helpful information.
Surfing to this treasure chest of information is
a worthwhile use of time. Here is some of what
16 coloradorunnermag.com September/October 2006
The Old Food Pyramid
I learned:
• Each wedge in the Pyramid represents
a different food group. The orange stands
for grains; green, for vegetables; red, for fruit;
yellow, for oil; blue, for dairy; and purple, for
meat and protein-rich foods.
• The variety of colorful wedges symbolizes
the variety of foods that we need to form
a balanced diet.
• The wedges have a broad base and a
narrow top. This symbolizes we should choose
portion sizes that vary according to our calorie
needs. No longer is the message “one size fits
all.”
• The wedges also suggest we should
eat a big base of nutrient dense foods and taper
off our intake of foods with less nutritional value,
including foods with fats and sugars. (That
is, eat more apples, less apple pie; enjoy more
baked potato, fewer potato chips.)
• The stairs symbolize the message of
taking small steps to a healthier lifestyle.
• The person running up the stairs
symbolizes the importance of daily exercise.
(The one clear message)
• The person also symbolizes the
Pyramid can be personalized. That is, at www.
MyPyramid.gov, you can get a food plan based
on your estimated calorie needs. (Mind you,
these calorie suggestions do not take into account
your height or weight; just your age and
level of activity.) The website offers excellent
information including tips to help you eat more
of the foods that will invest in good health.
Eating According To The Pyramid
With your personalized on-line food plan,
you can learn how much to eat of each type of
food. The guidelines for an 1,800 calorie food
plan (a minimal amount for most athletes) are:
• Fruit: 1.5 cups of fruit and or juice
per day. This is easy for athletes: A smoothie
with a banana, berries and orange juice will do
that job!
• Vegetables: 2.5 cups per day, with a
variety of colors. A salad tossed with tomato,
peppers, carrots and baby spinach fulfills the
veggie requirement, no sweat.
• Grains: Six ounces of grain foods, of
which at least half are whole grain. (Look for
whole before the grain name on the ingredient
list.) One ounce = 1 slice bread or 1/2 cup pasta,
rice. Eating whole grain Wheaties at breakfast
and a lunchtime sandwich on rye bread can balance
the dinner’s white pasta.
• Dairy: 3 cups lowfat or fat-free milk
or yogurt. Two ounces of cheese equates to one
cup of milk.
• Meat and alternatives: 5 ounce
equivalents. One ounce of meat = 1 egg = 1
Tbsp peanut butter = 1/2 oz. nuts. This translates
into a small portion of a protein-rich food at two
meals per day.
The Bottom Line
Take mealtimes seriously; enjoy a variety of
colorful foods; eat moderately & stay active.
Sports dietitian Nancy Clark MS, RD counsels
casual and competitive athletes. Nancy Clark’s
Sports Nutrition Guidebook ($23), Food Guide
for Marathoners ($20) and Cyclists’s Food
Guide ($20) offer more information about
healthful eating and are available via www.nancyclarkrd.com
or by sending a check to Sports
Nutrition Services, PO Box 650124, Newton
MA 02465.
Additional reading:
Ward, Elizabeth: The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to the
New Food Pyramid
News from the American College of Sports Medicine
Want to fuel smarter, train better and
improve your sports nutrition knowledge
Then keep reading! Here’s some
of the research presented by exercise physiologists,
nutritionists and other health professionals
at the American College of Sports Medicine’s
annual meeting (Denver, May, 2006).
Fueling For Exercise
• If you are doing all-day exercise, plan
to routinely snack more than eat meals. Forest
firefighters who snacked all day consumed more
calories, hence were able to be more active, than
those who ate standard meals.
• Does it matter if you fuel yourself
pre-exercise with carbs that are slowly or rapidly
available (oatmeal vs white toast) Two studies
suggest no. Your best bet is to eat what settles
comfortably and helps you perform well.
Fluids
• Being dehydrated can not only
change your mood but also hurt your performance.
For example, basketball players who
got progressively dehydrated performed progressively
worse with shooting and sprinting
drills. Drink well!
• Cyclists who replaced only one-third
of their sweat losses during an 80-kilometer
time trial were four minutes slower than when
they drank ad lib, according to thirst. Don’t restrict
fluids.
• Even swimmers need fluids; elite
swimmers might lose about .85 liter/hour but
generally fail to replace that loss.
• Cyclists who drank enough plain water
to replace 90% of the sweat losses incurred
while riding for two hours in the heat developed
lower blood sodium levels - and a higher risk for
hyponatremia. Better choice: a sports drink with
sodium.
• Should your sports drink contain
protein Debatable. Protein changes the flavor,

so athletes tend to drink less; sub-optimal hydration
could hinder performance.
Protein For Recovery
• The jury is out whether protein (or
amino acids, the building blocks of protein)
added to a sports drink enhances performance.
But consuming a carb plus a protein beverage
before or right after a muscle damaging workout
does reduce post-exercise muscle soreness.
Runners who took branch-chain amino acids
(that readily convert into glucose for fuel) before
and after each of three daily bouts of hard
exercise reported less muscle soreness and fatigue.
The researchers attributed this to having
less muscle damage and inflammation.
• Does the amino acid taurine enhance
energy Doubtful. When cyclists consumed
2,000 mg of taurine (double the amount
in a can of Red Bull) one hour before a 90 minute
bike ride followed by a time trial, the taurine
offered no benefits compared to the same
beverage without taurine.
Protein For Building Muscles
Some body builders wonder if a very
high protein intake will affect their long-term
health. An 8-week study with strength athletes
who consumed 3 grams protein/kg (~1.5 grams
protein/lb) showed no signs of damage to liver
and kidney function. This equates to 210 grams
of protein for a 154 pound athlete. That’s 35
eggs!
Aging And Exercise
Without a doubt, exercise protects
and improves our mental function (to say nothing
of our overall health). The question arises:
How long will it be before doctors routinely
prescribe exercise
• In a study of seniors who were at
least 65 years old who completed a 20-week
exercise program, some of the subjects actually
moved from the category “demented” to “normal.”
Now that’s incentive to keep moving!
• While we assume that exercise
is good for our health, we may overlook the
impact of injuries. A survey of 375 former Division-I
athletes (of whom 41% had played
football) indicates 36% of the former athletes
vs 6% of non-athlete alums had limitations in
exercise due to old injuries. Exercise wisely!!
Childhood Obesity
The rapid increase in childhood obesity
is worrisome because so many obese kids
are developing diabetes and heart disease - conditions
associated with old age. One solution is
to add exercise back into daily life. A safe and
socially accepted way to do this is to organize
a Walking School Bus in your neighborhood; a
parent or hired college student chaperones the
group of children.
Exercise can also be added into the
school curriculum, but many schools are reluctant
to do so. The assumption is less class time
will contribute to lower test scores. Not the
case. When students ate a free school breakfast,
participated in 15 minutes of teacher-led activity
each morning, and had mid-day recess before
lunch, their test scores improved plus the
teachers had 58% fewer discipline referrals.
Weight
• Two contributors to undesired fat
gain are sugar-sweetened soft drinks and a sedentary
lifestyle. Contributors to successful fat
loss include weekly weigh-ins, at least 30 minutes
per day of (ideally, supervised) exercise,
and daily food records. Standing more often
also helps with weight management. That is,
obese people - who tend to sit 2.5 hours more
per day than their lean counterparts - can potentially
save 350 calories per day. Get rid of
the chairs!
• Yes, achieving a healthy weight is
important. But the desire to get too thin can
lead to health problems. Among 80 varsity high
school athletes at an all-girls school, 74% had
at least one component of the Female Athlete
Triad - a syndrome with loss of menstrual periods,
disordered eating, and stress fractures.
Fifty-five percent ate inadequate calories, 30%
had a history of amenorrhea, and 19% a history
of stress fractures. Is “thin at any price” worth
the cost..
Body Image
While you are exercycling at the
gym, be forewarned: If you look at magazine
ads with ultra-fit bodies, you may experience
increased anxiety and depression and a change
of mood. Choose your magazines carefully!
September/October 2006 coloradorunnermag.com 17
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