Q. How does food and drink affect my performance?
Q. So what is a healthy diet?
Q. What do you mean group?
Q. What about fluids?
Q. What should I drink?
Q. Should I drink only when I'm thirsty?
Q. How much should I drink?
Q. Do I need extra salt if I sweat a lot?
Q. Is alcohol a fuel for exercising muscles?
Q. Does this mean no alcohol at all?
Q. What should I eat to increase my strength?
Q. Should I eat more protein to build up muscles?

Q. How does food and drink affect my performance?

In the short term a good diet helps you to feel good physically and mentally. You will feel active, alert and able to concentrate. If your mind and body are healthy you will train harder and recover quicker which means better performances in the long-term.

Nutrition does not work overnight miracles, healthy eating for rowing should be considered all year round to keep you in peak condition.

Q. So what is a healthy diet?

Healthy eating is not just avoiding less healthy foods - it is eating foods that are positively good for your health. No one food is either healthy or unhealthy, bad for you or good for you. It is what you eat and drink overall that is important. There is no such thing as 'the perfect diet'. The best healthy diet however is one that provides enough water, adequate energy (calories) and supplies the many nutrients needed by the body and in the right amounts. No single food can do this. Fitting meals into a busy schedule of work and training may be difficult, but a healthy diet does not have to be a rigid 3 meals a day pattern, it can be, and usually is for rowers, 3 meals plus 3-4 snacks. The way to achieve nutritional balance is by eating a wide variety of foods from each food group, the timing of meals will depend on when your working and training schedule but you should not go long times without food, and try to eat as soon after training as possible – either a snack before your main meal, or a ‘proper’ meal.

Q. What do you mean group?

Foods can be placed into a group depending on what nutrients it mostly provides. Refer to the Pyramid on the front page and to the 5 Food Group Table.

Q. What about fluids?

The human body is 60% water. During exercise some of this essential water is lost as sweat, therefore extra fluids must be drunk to replace it. If you fail to replace the losses, the body may overheat - like a car with a broken radiator!

Dehydration is your worst enemy! Even mild dehydration reduces strength and stamina. Severe dehydration can even be life threatening. Water should be considered an essential part of healthy eating for performance.

If I train without drinking, will I adapt to being dehydrated and therefore need less fluid?

No, there is no evidence to prove this theory. A well-hydrated rower will always have the advantage over the one who is dehydrated.

Q. What should I drink?

Cool water is probably the best replacement fluid for a day-to-day drink. However, if you are exercising in a hot environment or for longer than 90 minutes you will benefit from a sugar and salt drink. Controversy still exists over the 'perfect recipe’ for such drinks. If a drink is too concentrated (too much sugar) it will sit in your stomach for too long and may cause sickness during exercise.

Experts suggest that an 'isotonic' 4-8% carbohydrate solution (usually a mixture of sugars) with a pinch of salt may be the fastest way of replacing fluids and maintaining blood sugar levels during lengthy exercise.

Make your own 4-8% carbohydrate drink:

• 150-200 ml ordinary diluted squash concentrate or High Juice (any flavour)
• 800-850 ml tap water
• small pinch salt (1/3 teaspoon per 1000ml ideally)
• (NB the precise amounts will vary depending on the carbohydrate content of the various brands of squash - aim to achieve a drink containing 4-8 g carbohydrate per 100 ml of added water)

• 50 g glucose polymer e.g. 'Maxim'
• 1000 ml tap water
• small pinch salt (1/3 teaspoon)
• sugar free squash to flavour

• 500 ml fruit juice drink (the word drink is important as it means it has added sucrose as well as fructose – this is good)
• 500 ml tap water
• small pinch salt (1/3 teaspoon)

Sports drinks e.g. 'Lucozade Sport', 'Gatorade', Maxim Electrolyte, High5 Isotonic and 'SiS, Go' can be convenient as they may be ready-to-drink and are used to provide energy and water. Some have been scientifically tested on athletes to prove that they do work. If you have to make up the drink from the powdered form, read the instructions carefully.

Lightweight rowers may wish to use a 1/2 strength drink to ‘save calories’ therefore allowing more food to be eaten. This will dilute the electrolytes such as sodium which will be important when training or competing in hot or humid climates. Discuss this with your dietitian or exercise physiologist.

Q. Should I drink only when I'm thirsty?

No. Thirst is not a good indicator of hydration state so by the time you are thirsty you are already dehydrated! Drink water or sports drinks (see above) before, during and after exercise. If the weather is hot, the gymnasium warm, or you are doing strenuous exercise you will need to drink more.

Q. How much should I drink?

This is very much down to the temperature of the environment, your individual body chemistry and fitness. It is not unusual for to sweat more than 1 litre an hour. Find out your nude weight before exercise and then your nude weight after training (wipe yourself dry of any sweat first). For every kilo that you have lost during training, you need to replace 1.5 litres of fluid. Try and keep bodyweight losses to 2% or less by drinking more during training.

Q. Do I need extra salt if I sweat a lot?

No, unless you are training or competing in a very hot climate. When you sweat your body loses mostly water not salt. Your priority is therefore to replace lost water. A normal healthy diet would adequately cover your body's salt needs after exercise.

NB. The pinch of salt added to sports drink is not to replace lost salt. It is to help the fast absorption of sugar and water into the bloodstream. A mixture of sugar and salt has also been shown to encourage athletes to drink more.

Q. Is alcohol a fuel for exercising muscles?

Yes, alcohol does provide energy, 1g of alcohol provides 7 kcal. Unfortunately the liver must first break down alcohol before it can be used as energy by your body. This process is too slow for exercising muscles and therefore alcohol is not considered to be a fuel. Alcohol also has a dehydrating effect - a drinking binge the night before training means you will start dehydrated and at a disadvantage. If taken immediately after exercise, alcohol will further dehydrate you causing a headache and an inability to concentrate! Alcohol will also mean that your liver may struggle to replete stored carbohydrate and your recovery will be impaired. This may be particularly important if injured.

For the weight conscious, alcohol is almost as high in calories as fat and has little nutritional value (1 pint beer = 160-200 kcal). In excess, alcohol is stored as fat. It also prevents fat being mobilised to be burnt off – you therefore burn off precious carbohydrate instead.

The bottom line is that excess alcohol will impair your performance.

Q. Does this mean no alcohol at all?

Realistically total abstinence is unlikely. The occasional glass of wine or beer with meals

Q. What should I eat to increase my strength?

Strength can be gained only from a period of progressive resistance weight training. The intensity and type of weight training will determine how much strength is gained. A well balanced diet will provide all the nutrients for muscle growth (it is not just protein needed for muscles - there are over 50 other nutrients that may be involved!)

However, if you are training hard your muscles will need fuel to support this extra work. Your diet should still be high in carbohydrates i.e. from the important bread, cereal and potato group.

Q. Should I eat more protein to build up muscles?

Yes, but only if you are lifting heavy weights, and this does not mean you will need to eat more protein. For heavy weight training, eating 1.2-2.0g of protein per kg of body weight per day is frequently recommended, plus enough calories (energy) to prevent protein being used as a fuel. The upper end of 2g protein per kilo of bodyweight is for extreme exercise loads (as seen if training 3 times a day). Unless enough food is eaten to supply energy, any protein eaten will be burned as fuel instead of being made into muscle.

Editorial by Jacqueline Boorman

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