I don’t eat or drink during my runs. It’s funny, back in the old days (I’m 40) they used to tell people not to eat or drink because it will cause cramping. I used to cramp until I followed that advice! Even postrace, I have to drink slowly and even let some time pass before I drink a lot or I get nausea. On a zero-carb diet, you become acutely aware of your electrolyte level and you don’t want to dilute those levels with excessive drinking.

The George Mateljan foundation maintains a site that provides what is in their opinion, the world’s healthiest foods. There, they provide:

“While most animals thrive on diets consisting almost exclusively of raw, uncooked food, few human cultures have evolved or been sustained without incorporating some cooked foods, including cooked vegetables, into their eating practices. (The Inuit, for example, always ate their food cooked, according to Stefansson’s book.)

In the case of some vegetables, cooking can actually increase the variety of nutrients that get released inside our digestive tract. The cooking of onions or the roasting of garlic are good examples. Onions and garlic are both members of the Allium family of vegetables. Most vegetables in this family have unusual amounts of sulfur-containing compounds that help protect our health. Heat actually increases the variety of sulfur-containing substances found in onions and garlic since it triggers some chemical reactions that create variations in those sulfur compounds. “

Ketosis is good and desireable but we’re not talking about the kind that appears on the testing strips. The strips indicate when our bodies are wasting ketones; i.e. they have not adapted to using them in tissues that use glucose. Therefore, this is not a state that you want to stay in. It’s not harmful for the short term. Staying in this state for long periods indicates a low-fat problem because the body continues to waste ketones as opposed to using them for energy. A fully fat-adapted individual will usually show negative on testing strips because their bodies fully utilize the ketones.

Regards,

Charles

Couple questions though:
1) Any suggestions for good snacks to eat during rides? Must be able to take some heat and be eaten while riding. Does Charles not eat anything during his runs?

2) “Neither does the advice recommend that the fruit and vegetables be cooked. As we know any minerals and vitamins these may contain (and there are actually precious few to begin with) are not released from uncooked fruit and vegetables.” I hadn’t seen anything like this before. Are there some studies to back this up?

3) “…it leads to nausea in as little as three days, symptoms of starvation and ketosis in a week to ten days…” Is ketosis correct? I believe and you espouse all the time that ketosis is safe and natural. Does he mean ketoacidosous or can ketosis be bad if there is actually too much protein and not enough fat?

Thanks,
Joe

I’m feeling inspired, thanks Charles!

-fbdave