At first glance- top triathletes are seen as these super athletes. They can swim, bike and run far distances- usually quite quickly in comparison to the average person. In order to sustain this- nutrition is an essential part of a triathletes success.
Without the right monitoring- triathletes can quite easily become deficient in some essential vitamins and minerals.
The top three vitamins and minerals endurance athletes become deficient in are:
- Vitamin D- the best source comes from the UV Rays from the sun itself- so this is quite a shocking finding, as it is typical for endurance athletes to train outdoors. It plays an essential role in bone health, muscle functioning, recovery and nerve transmission, so undoubtedly we see adverse effects without the right amount of it in our bodies. Without the right amount of exposure or the right about of calcium to metabolise and utilise the vitamin D, we fall deficient. Supplementing, exposure to UC rays, and some food such as oily fish or egg yolks can help support this vitamin in our bodies and improve performance.
- Vitamin B12– Essential for energy production and muscle tissue building and repair. Commonly found in animal products such as red meats, vegetarian athletes are prone to being deficient in B12, which is why you hear about many athletes getting periodic injected supplementation of this vitamin. This vitamin is typically only low with restrictive eating patterns, so it’s not a mass concern amongst most exercisers.
- Iron- Essential for aerobic functioning: haemoglobin and myoglobin production and mobilising oxygen- no doubt iron is essential for an endurance athlete. This results in performance deficits, depleting your ability to “go hard” during a race, which means a struggle to sprint, or even to proceed. Feelings of fatigue, shortness of breath and lactic acid build up may kick in, debilitating your performance. Found in foods such as red meat, spinach, lentils and seafood, try to stay on top of it to combat the fatigue.
Taking notice of these deficiencies, I started to merge away from my once vegetarian diet and incorporate some more poultry an seafood into my diet. Last month, I then decided to test out my childhood favourite food again- a rack of ribs. I have no regrets with adding red meat slowly back into my diet. Within the last month I’ve tried it 4 times now, and have no intention to cut it out again. Hello Christmas honey baked ham! Below is my gluten free BBQ sauce recipe that has made this transition easy!!
Homemade, gluten free BBQ sauce
I started out using it on eggplants, but decided yesterday that I really wanted to start slowly adding red meat into my diet again. So I used this recipe on top of a half-rack of ribs. No regrets.
Mix together:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Tamari sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
References:
Constantini, N.W., Arieli, R., Chodick, G. and Dubnov-Raz, G., 2010. High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in athletes and dancers. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 20(5), pp.368-371.
Haymes, E.M., 1991. Vitamin and mineral supplementation to athletes. International journal of sport nutrition, 1(2), pp.146-169.
Knez, W.L. and Peake, J.M., 2010. The prevalence of vitamin supplementation in ultraendurance triathletes. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 20(6), pp.507-514.
KMS Health 