Farewell French Fries

If you run 80 miles a week, your body requires a certain care that the average jogger doesn’t have to worry about.

Here’s a question from an HSI member named Robbi: “My 17 yr old son runs up to 80 miles a week and I would love to see an article on what type of supplements he should be taking and how to avoid injuries. Nobody seems to be interested in helping these kids not run themselves into the ground.”

Robbi came to the right place with this question, because our resident Nutrition Physician, HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., also happens to be a diving coach with many years of experience (he was Head Coach of the 1996 U.S. National Team, and was a coach at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta).

Here’s Dr. Spreen’s response to Robbi’s question:

“Teen athletes are a totally unique subject by themselves, not to mention that each individual sport in question has different demands (distance/stamina, sprint/power, need to lose weight, need to gain weight, etc.).

“Anyway, there are some basics true to everyone:

“1. Do NOT stretch until AFTER you have raised the body’s core temperature (WHAT? Everyone stretches first!). Rope jumping or jumping jacks should be done for a full two minutes before any stretching (or anything else, in my opinion) is begun. It’s vital to let the muscles know you’re going to be asking more of them in the next little while, especially since the previous meal caused shunting of blood to the vessels surrounding the intestines for nutrient absorption (that, of course, assumes a teenager eats anything remotely associated with nutrients).

“2. Proteins and simple carbs should be eaten separately as much as possible, and the high-protein meals should be after the last daily workout so they can be utilized during sleep.

“3. Refined sugar and flour products are OUT. If you must continue that carbo-loading routine, make sure it’s with whole grain pastas (and NO sugar).

“4. Vitamin C is the major component of collagen (the number one repair protein in the body) the minimum amount (IMHO) for an athlete is 1000 milligrams 3x/day.

“5. Vitamins are a team sport it doesn’t matter how good your quarterback is if you don’t have 10 other players. Therefore, a GOOD multi-vitamin/mineral supplement is a must. A 100% RDA type is NOT acceptable, as dosages are far too low (except for iron, where it’s too high). Consider a multi’s quality by looking for capsules (not hard pills), and checking out the numbered B’s (B-1, B-2, B-6) – if each of those is 50 milligrams or higher you’re pretty much guaranteed to be looking at a winner.

“That’s where I’d start, other than to say to an aspiring athlete: If you fuel up with junk, your engine won’t run well (and that means a real jock has had his or her last French fry).”