Healthbolt

The Meal You Should Eat When You Need to Be Ready For Absolutely Anything

by Wade Meredith on October 4th, 2006

As humans we all have certain small periods of time (I’m talking hours, here) in our lives that are more demanding of our minds and body: ourselves as a whole. These situations are different in everyone’s lives, depending on an enormous variety of factors, but they include such things as job interviews, triathlons, first dates, combat situations, college/professional school entrance and exit exams or public speaking/performance situations.

Whether you’re a soldier, an entertainer or the world’s greatest mom you will have periods of time in your life that you may see as much more critical in the grand scheme of things than what you would consider “normal activity”.

Whether these situations demand your brain to think fast or your body to respond well to a physical task you’re asking of it, you should keep this in mind: You are what you eat. (You can write that down, it’s going to be HUGE.)

It’s broken up into 3 easy to swallow chunks for your reading pleasure:

1) Brain Power
2) Below the Neck
3) Big Finish

Brain-Power:

So we definitely want our brain firing on all cylinders if we’re in a high-stress situation whether it involves physical (and therefore mental) endurance, or if it’s a think-on-your-toes situation such as a debate or a tough interview. And you especially want all your brain power along if it’s a combination of mental endurance and agility, such as an improvised stage performance, a James Bond-undercover mission or a competition of some sort involving athletics and strategy (adventure racing and martial arts competitions come to mind.)

Short term and long term recall, providing quick reaction times to outside stimuli and general keeping of the sanity under stressfull conditions can all be deciding factors in any of the situations we’re talking about. So what helps our brains do all these brainy things?

-B Vitamins: Our mental performance is influenced heavliy by the presence of B-Vitamins in our body. The group of B-Complex vitamins aid in the production of important neurotransmitters (more on this below). They also protect nerve tissue against oxidation, enhancing memory and insulating nerve cells.

-Fatty Acids: Nutrition gurus have been singing from the hill tops about Omega-3 fatty acids for years now and it’s for good reason. There are actually two fatty acids that are considered essential fatty acids because our body cannot manufacture them from other ingredients; they must be consumed. These are n-6 (linoleic) and n-3 (linolenic) acids. Most people get enough of the n-6, but n-3 (a.k.a. Omega-3) acids are sorely lacking in most modernized human diets.

Psychology Today:

N-3 fatty acids–popularly called omega-3s–are known to be particularly crucial for proper development of the human brain, both before birth and in infancy it is through the lipid-rich cell membrane of neurons that all nerve signals must pass. In addition, as learning and memory forge new connections between nerve cells, new membranes are formed to sheath them. All brain cell membranes continuously need to refresh themselves with a new supply of fatty acids. Preliminary research suggests that EFAs–particularly n-3s–are best suited for optimal brain function.

In a key animal study soon to be published, Carol E. Greenwood, Ph.D., and colleagues fed rats various amounts and types of fat for a three-month period and then measured their performance on memory tests. Fat content ranged from 40 percent of calories–approximating that of the average American–to 10 percent of calories. Rats fed the high-fat diet that was highest in saturated fat (from lard) performed the worst. Those on the diet lowest in saturated and total fat did the best.

STAY AWAY from trans fats. These actually inhibit your brain’s normal functioning process, as well as being nasty for you in the long-term.

-Neurotransmitter precursor components: Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron and another cell. They are at the foundation of the basic functions our brain has to carry out in order to do much of anything, much less tackle a mentally demanding task. Certain foods you can eat contain nutrients that will aid in the production of these fundamental building blocks of brain function. Such foods include animal products, eggs, and milk, which contain proteins that can be broken down into amino acids. Other great neurotransmitter boosters are legumes, dark-green leafy veggies, nuts and seeds.

-Glucose: Your brain uses sugar to think, like a car uses gas to go. It’s the fuel that gets you where you need to go, but it’s also explosive… What I’m saying is it’s important to get what we need (sugars), but it’s just as important to avoid blood sugar spikes which can leave you sluggish and depressed in their wake. These primarily come from consuming large amounts of carbohydrates by themselves. Carbs are fine (actually, they’re essential) as long as they’re eaten WITH something else. Preferably some of that protein we mentioned above. (Have some yogurt with your toast, etc…)

Below the neck:

Our brain won’t do us much good in any of these siutuations if our body will not repond to its commands or if it wants to do one thing, while you want it to do another…

-K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid.) I’ve heard some fantastic racing (triathlon) advice that I think applies to the hours before many a stressful situation.

Just before a big event, there are few things you can do to drastically improve your performance; that ship has sailed. But there are a million things you can do to sink yourself.

Basically, keep it simple. Don’t try some wierd new sports drink or an exotic dip the night before a make-or-break business meeting or sporting event. Stick with what you know, at least somewhat. G.I. trouble is a monster confidence killer, and it can be very physically debillitating.

Also falling under the K.I.S.S. philosophy is the eating of easily digestable foods. You need protein for your brain, as mentioned above, but don’t eat an 18 oz. steak. Mass amounts of protein (as well as saturated fats and mass quantities of fiber) are hard to digest. They take a long time to get through your system, and they use up a lot of your body’s resources while doing so. So eat in moderation.

-Timing is everything. Don’t let the last meal you ate be the first nail in the coffin. If you’re looking to be in top performance for a day of strenuous mental and physical activity, try to give yourself 12 hours between the last real meal you eat and the start of that activity. After that you should just be sustaining with snacks; avoid heavy meals during the event as blood spikes effect your mind and body adversly.

-Balance: Make sure your meal is balanced. I’ll say it again: to avoid a blood sugar spike that will, at best, leave you hungry, and, at worst, leave you sleepy, sluggish and depressed, you have to eat a balanced meal with carbs, fat and protein. It does a body good.

-And one for my homies: Drink. Stay hydrated. This is sooo much easier than many athletes try and make it. Here’s the key. (Ba-dah-baaah!) Drink when you’re thirsty! It’s seriously that simple. Don’t force liquids on yourself; don’t put off drinking because liquids aren’t close at hand. Just drink when you’re thristy.

If you’re doing a strenuous physical activity for longer than 40 minutes, you may also need to start seriously considering replacing salts and electrolytes being lost through sweat and general consumption of resources in the body. The quickest way to do this is with something like Gatorade or another sports drink, but remember: K.I.S.S. Make sure you drink something you’ve had before and know your stomach can handle. Some of those sports drinks can be tough on your digestive system, so proceed with caution.

Big Finish:

With my pick of anything at all, here’s what I would eat in order to be ready for anything:

4 oz. salmon steak
Sweet potato fries (Baked)
A spinach/romaine salad with almonds and sunflower kernels
Olive oil vinagrette
Banana
Water
A Handful of blueberries on (full fat) yogurt for dessert

Most important tip: All right, so now you know the general guidelines that you can use to formulate something that works for YOU. Now go out there and BE SOMEBODY!Post your ready-for-anything-meal in the comments section… References/Resources:
BeginnerTriathlete.com
The Human Brain - The Franklin Institute Online
Science News Online
Psychology Today - WebMD
Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia

Share This

Related Stories

The 5 Foods You Should Be Eating When You Have to Snack
Be Prepared. Really Prepared. No, REALLY Prepared.
5 Things I learned During My First Triathlon
Easy health Tip #12: Cut Prep
Sexbolt Saturday: Mother’s Day Style

POSTED IN: Cycling, Drink, Endurance, Food, Greatest Hits, How To, Running, Triathlon, Your Body, Your Mind