A Budo's Diet...

[rainingclaw]

As I sit here eating my Pizza Hut breadsticks I can't help but wonder, "will this kill me"? I think one of the hardest things for anyone to do is change their eating habits. It is especially difficult in the states where grease-filled junk food composes most of our diets. Does anyone out there have any websites, or and personal experience, on healthy eating related to martial arts?

[NoMan]

Originally posted by rainingclaw
As I sit here eating my Pizza Hut breadsticks I can't help but wonder, "will this kill me"? I think one of the hardest things for anyone to do is change their eating habits. It is especially difficult in the states where grease-filled junk food composes most of our diets. Does anyone out there have any websites, or and personal experience, on healthy eating related to martial arts?

Good question, and not really an easy one to answer. Nutrition, psychology, weight lifting, all these are pseudo-sciences that don't have 100% concrete evidence. However, there are certain guidelines and principles that will help you. For good eating habits, I recommend a 75/25 approach. Your body actually has incredibly amazing abilities to digest anything you put into it, but, at the same time, the better fuel you put in, the better performance you'll get out.

If you eat healthy 75% of the time, your body will be able to process and eliminate 25% of the garbage. It's when you constantly eat unhealthy that the body begins to suffer the detrimental effects of a diet lacking in fiber, low water, lack of nutrients, etc.

You can visit my website and the related information on dieting at

http://www.martialartsreview.com/noframes/diet/dietmain.html

I hope you find the website informative.

[rainingclaw]

It was very informative, thank you Mike. Regarding the diet drinks you talk about on your site, do these include protein shakes? I have one every time I work out, it’s the only artificial form of nutrients I eat. What is your opinion on these?

[NoMan]

Glad you liked the site. I actually do recommend protein shakes, and am working with a bodybuilding nutritional supplement company called propowerone. You can visit their website at propowerone.com Their webmaster told me he wasn't ready to begin working with me yet, as they still had lots to do to get ready, but you can still visit there and see some of the stuff they sell.

Basically, protein shakes fall into one of three categories:

"Lean Mass" shakes: Shakes that are high in protein, low carbs, low fat. Usually taste the worst. The worst tasting ones I've found are usually soy.

"Meal Replacement" shakes: These are usually the best all-around ones. They combine carbohydrates and protein in good ratio's, and usually have supplemental vitamins and minerals. Also taste better than Lean Mass shakes usually.

"Hard Gainer" shakes. These are the ones that I like the least. They are hard to digest, and are usually loaded with more fat/carbohydrate's than protein. They are the cheapest per pound because the protein is usually from low quality sources, the carbohydrate's are from sugar, and fat from various sources. On the upside, they taste absolutely fabulous. (Sugar, fat, and chocolate, come on, what's not to like?)

I used to take meal replacement shakes before work, because I am a constant procrastinator (one of many character flaws). I wouldn't take the time to fix a real meal, so a quick shake would do the trick. I also recommend them after about fifteen minutes after you are finished working out. Before that, you have too much blood in the muscles to effectively digest anything. Wait too long, and your depleted glycogen stores will start looking to catabolize (break down) muscle mass. Whilst this effect may not be too grand if you are just a normal Joe, for a hardcore lifter, any and all muscle mass is to be preserved no matter what.

[rainingclaw]

I'm using one of those meal replacement shakes now and it tastes like play-doh! LOL!

[NoMan]

Try going to

http://www.bodybuilding.com

They give excellent discounts on tons of bodybuilding supplements. The heavier tasting protein shakes are usually soy. Soy protein has a tendancy to "clump" together, and this makes it feel very gritty when you drink it. I recommend adding more milk/water to the drink, throwing in a banana or two, adding some honey, and if the taste is beyond hope, throwing in some ice cream and sugar.

If you want to take a slightly more healthy route, you can also get some of slimfast's products, their powders, and add that to the drink. Slimfast uses sugar to make their products taste better, (can't have millions using it if it tastes bad now can you?), and as such, will enhance the drink (slightly). Also adds more vitamins/minerals to the mix.

For better tasting ones, try whey and egg protein sources. Also, the better known supplement companies, (Next Nutrition, Twinlab, Champion Nutrition, Weider, Met-rx, etc.) make better tasting powders. The other, unknown companies tend to release worse tasting formula's for cheaper, which is why I recommend the website to get some discounts.

Also, be forewarned that there are NO regulatory bodies on supplements, so what you THINK is in your shake may not be it. The reason I recommend propowerone to my website viewers is because

1.) Dr. Fredrick Hatfield is the founder. For those new to bodybuilding, his name may not be familiar, but for me, he's a living legend. You can visit his website at http://www.drsquat.com to find out more info.

2.) They can provide PPB (Parts per billion) lab reports on all their supplements, along with the results from three Universities they sent their products too. (The federal government also did studies with their products, they wanted to test the effects of creatine on athlete's for the Olympics, and they found the product to be 99.9% creatine.) You can also send it to your local community college and get a breakdown of it as well in case you don't trust the sources listed. (You really shouldn't, there SHOULD be a regulatory body in supplement distribution, so that con artist and manufacturer's can't rip off consumers.)

3. The types of supplements they offer are scientifically sound ones. None of the new "fad" supplements that have come and gone in bodybuilding days.

So, I personally recommend that company, because of the principles of Dr. Hatfield and the ISSA organization he is associated with. However, some may find other companies more to their suitings and needs, which is okay. Best of luck to you.

[Jerry Johnson]

Mike Ryan answered the diet question very well. I am not a nutritionist, Doctor, or bodybuilder etc. But I will offer my experiences.

Between the ages of 3 - 25 years old I could eat anything bad and good. In my teens I was a vacuum, I eat both good and snacking allot of bad foods. High sweet and fat content I was very active and what every I ate was used. As I got older into my 20's I eat less, mostly beer and pizza diet, and high sugar and fast food too. I didn't snack. I did eat healthy meals as well but many meals skipped was the healthily ones, and I was still active. All and all I didn't know how to eat or have a taste for better food. When I hit my thirties with job, wife and kids, I started to be less active, I trained my it was less. I gained weight and stored it. I guess the body changes how it uses food at my age.

Diet hasn't effected by performance per se. Junk food gave me as much energy as healthy food. The factor is how my body processes it. I can't eat as much as I use to unless I double my exercise routine that is it seem harder to burn it off and have it not become fat. So I look at food differently, and yes it was hard but not impossible.

Instead of looking at food in terms of favorite dishes and what it tastes like I look at volume. Portion size = amt. of exercise to burn off. large portion size= more time in the gym which I don't have. Also, realizing that my tastes have changed as a result of my body needs. I like onions now, I like hot and spicy foods and sweet junk foods like doughnuts are getting too sweet to taste. I can't have more than a half of a doughnut before I get wheezy.

The biggest fault I have was going to college where I should have been learning to eat correctly for adulthood. I didn't. That was the biggest factor that I regret. Beer and pizza, is good but it shouldn't replace a healthy diet. I had a roommate who was a body builder and I ran into to him a few years ago, he has stopped lifting seriously and still is eats good and you can tell the effect on him has been good. He admonishes me for not learning to eat correctly. He would say, beer and pizza once a month was enough and we would say, "on eating grass, we'll pass." Well, at that time we where both right, now he is right. He as made the transition from young adult to mature adult diet and is healthy. Where I am struggling now to make the change and it is a lot harder.

Moral, learn to eat right while eating pizza and drinking beer, because your not going to be 20 something for ever. :)

[DavidMasaki]

After I eat Pizza Hut breadsticks and their other greasy stuff, I usually feel like crap. Just thinking about feeling like crap and how they have almost no nutritional value is incentive enough for me to not eat them unless I have to. I don't know if bread sticks make you feel like crap after eating them, but if they do, then maybe try thinking about how you'll feel after you eat them will help. If you don't feel like crap, maybe eating a ton of them at once will help you in this endeavor of feeling like crap after eating breadsticks to avoid them in the future. Unfortunately, this trick doesn't work with beer for me.

[sean bonner]

Let me throw out another idea here... Anyone thought of, considered vegitarianism/veganism on their quest for a healthier diet? I've been vegitarian for 14 years, and vegan for 8 years now and I'm positive it's one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

[NoMan]

Originally posted by sean bonner
Let me throw out another idea here... Anyone thought of, considered vegitarianism/veganism on their quest for a healthier diet? I've been vegitarian for 14 years, and vegan for 8 years now and I'm positive it's one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

I talk about that on my website a bit. The thing about a diet is that it is NOT just a calorie restriction, it's a way of changing your eating habits to become more healthy. Vegetarian diets are healthy, and that's all good and well. But, some people can't maintain a vegetarian diet for very long. I know lot's of people who are ex-vegans. From what I've seen, the people who are vegans didn't really enjoy meat much anyway, and don't eat it for moral/religious/reason (x) beliefs.

My cousin dumped a guy because he was a vegan. She couldn't stand listening to him whine about every meal. :D

Anyway, back to the subject, the most important factor within a diet is the ability to maintain it for an indefinite period of time. If you can do that with vegetarian/vegan, then rock on with your bad self. ;)

However, for those of us who eat meat, :nin: try cutting back on high fat meats, switch to the leaner versions, eat more fruits and vegetables, get good rest and exercise regularly.

[koshoT]

I have a question for Mr. Bonner. My roomate for next year is a Vegan. Although I haven't really had the chance to ask him a lot about being Vegan there are several things that I have noticed. He looks incredibly underfeed. I am a skinny guy I'm about 140 and I'm 5'10, I look big next to my roommate. I also know that he turned Vegan as a personal protest to the meat and dairy industries. I was wondering why you turned Vegan? I thought Vegans believed that the sun was the primary source of energy and that for each layer of the food chain that energy passes through there is less of it. So logically eating the plants that create the energy directly fromt eh sun would produce the most healthy diet. I was wondering what you thought of this.

Thank you,
Tom Berkery

[sean bonner]

Tom-
While there's no universal reason why people become vegan, or anything for that matter, and each person has their own reason, I can tell you that in all my years of veganism, and vegitarianism, I've never heard that "energy from the sun" thing. I wouldn't put much faith in it if I were you. As for my reasoning, it has a lot to do with the meat/dairy industry but basically comes down to the feeling that if I can get by just as well, if not better, without hurting other things (animals etc...) I should probably do it. As for your roommate looking skinny and underfed, I would suspect he's one of the people who jumped on the vegan bandwagon for political reasons and never did his homework on how to get proper nutrition without animal products. I'm 6'2" and weigh over 180 and *rarely* get sick so that should speak for itself. Hope that helps.
-s

[NoMan]

" I thought Vegans believed that the sun was the primary source of energy and that for each layer of the food chain that energy passes through there is less of it. So logically eating the plants that create the energy directly fromt eh sun would produce the most healthy diet. I was wondering what you thought of this."

Here's a really pathetic oversimplification of what they say.

Within each food chain, you have to start off with sunlight, as the source of food/fuel. These types of plants that use the sun for food are producers, and every food chain begins with one.

Your next step up would be the primary consumer. (I'm not one hundred percent certain of my terminology on this matter, so please don't quote me on any of this. It's just used as a reference example, it's been a few years since I studied this in college, and I didn't remember it then.)

In this case, let's say it is a cow. It takes roughly 10 kg of food per kg of bodyweight to sustain an animal. Each kg of meat on a cow is equivalent to 10 kg of grain. (According to some of them.) This is a principle of ecology. Within each environment, it holds only a limited capacity for each animal. You can only have so many consumers of a certain plant, and so many consumers of an animal that eats that plant. Within each set, you roughly get 10% of what you started with. For instance, let's say you have 1000 plants. That would mean this environment could support 100 rabbits. That would mean it could support 10 coyotes. Then, at best, it could support 1 eater of a coyote.

This is the reason that whale's eat plankton, elephants eat leaves, etc. The abundancy of a food source. If elephants ate lions, there wouldn't be any elephants around. Lions are too high up on the food chain to allow existence off of.

While that's all gravy, what isn't being addressed is that whether you are eating a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, etc., you are getting the same amount of nutrients/calories. In all actuality, animals are more healthy than plants. You just have to eat the right parts. Try the liver, eyes, heart, kidneys, intestines, etc. You'll find a wealth of vitamins and minerals.

Theis is all (poorly) misguided information on my part, but I wanted to give a brief clarification of what you were saying.

[koshoT]

Thanks Sean, and Micheal

As you can tell I don't know anything about this subject. See I have a very high metabolism so no matter what I eat I stay skinny so eating healthy hasn't been a main area of focus for me, yet. I do eat healthy for the most part, but that's mainly from being a swimmer... during swim season I would actually have cravings for vegtables, and pasta, and healthy food. Fast food just made me sick. So just so I know, what is a proper diet to have when being a Vegan or Vegetarian.

Thank you,
Tom Berkery

By the way, you were right, I'm pretty sure my roommate just jumped on the bandwagon to becoming Vegan. He tried to get his girlfriend to do it, and she tried it for a while, but she was always sick... probably because they weren't using a proper diet.