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Performance is not determined on the day of the race, but is dependent on training and the consistency of the diet prior to the race. Nor is the performance dependent on some "energy" bar or drink. More importantly a high carbohydrate diet when consumed for more than five days has no enhancement on athletic performance. Nothing in the published scientific literature supports the current thinking that long-term consumption of a high carbohydrate diet improves athletic performance.1-4 All sports nutrition is currently based on the belief that greater muscle glycogen levels will improve performance. However, if that statement is not true, then consuming more carbohydrates to increase muscle glycogen levels will not be of any benefit to an athlete, and may even impair their maximum performance potential.2 All athletic performance is ultimately dependent on adaptation. At the molecular level, this requires the complex orchestration of various hormonal systems that enable an athlete to perform at higher work loads.5 It's best to visualize these hormonal systems as the biological equivalent of AT&T coordinating all physiological actions. Understanding how training and diet effects these hormonal systems is the real key to achieving maximum athletic performance. Once you understand the adverse hormonal effects (i.e. increased insulin secretion) associated with consuming a high carbohydrate diet, it should become readily apparent why it is physiologically impossible for a high carbohydrate diet to generate maximum performance. Why do elevated insulin levels decrease athletic performance for the endurance athlete? The answer requires understanding how insulin negatively effects hormones. The hormones I'm talking about is eicosanoids. If you have never heard of eicosanoids, don't be too concerned because most physicians, let alone exercise physiologists, have never heard of them either. This ignorance is in spite of the fact that the 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for understanding their importance in human physiology, and more importantly in controlling the cardiovascular system. Yet as powerful as they are, eicosanoids, are totally controlled by the diet.6 If an athlete ever hopes to achieve maximum performance, then he or she must understand how to orchestrate eicosanoid production by virtue of the foods they eat. Eicosanoids control the rate of oxygen transfer to muscle cells,7 determine the ability of the athlete to use stored body fat as an energy source during exercise8 and also reduce elevated insulin levels.9 These are all critical molecular events essential for maximum aerobic performance. Why is there so much ignorance concerning the importance of eicosanoids? The answer is their complexity. 1. There are currently more than 100 known eicosanoids and more are being discovered all the time.10 2. Their lifetimes in the body are measured in seconds. 3. They function as cell to cell regulators that rarely appear in the bloodstream. 4. They work at low concentrations. These facts have limited the understanding of eicosanoid biochemistry to the highest levels of medical research. This data simply has not yet filtered down to the exercise physiologist, let alone the athlete. To understand how diet controls eicosanoids you must begin to view food as a hormonal modulator as opposed to simply a source of calories. The balance of protein, carbohydrate, and fat at every meal will determine the resulting eicosanoid balance for the next four to six hours and thereby determine whether you will preferentially use stored body fat versus stored carbohydrate for energy during that time period. If you eat the appropriate composition of protein, carbohydrate and fat, you will make more "good" eicosanoids and fewer "bad" eicosanoid during that time frame6. But the door swings both ways, you can also make more "bad" eicosanoids and fewer "good" eicosanoids by virtue of the meal composition every time you eat. This overproduction of "bad" eicosanoids (caused by elevated insulin levels) is the primary negative hormonal effect associated with a high carbohydrate diet. But how does an athlete reach this eicosanoid favorable Breakthrough 40-30-30 Nutrition Master Plan to maximize performance? Rule I The foremost dietary rule necessary to reach it is to control the protein to carbohydrate ratio at every meal with drug-like precision. Precise hormonal control becomes possible within specific ranges of protein to carbohydrate ratios (the protein to carbohydrate ratio of .75 being considered ideal). Between these upper and lower limits of protein to carbohydrate ratios, insulin secretion (caused by carbohydrates) and glucagon secretion (the counter regulatory hormone released in response to protein) is optimally balanced to effect the key rate limiting enzyme controlling the generation of the appropriate balance of hormone formation.6 Controlling the protein to carbohydrate ratio generates a transient biochemical situation lasting only four to six hours in which you can now generate more "good" and fewer "bad" eicosanoids. This is not unlike a training zone, except that it is entirely controlled by the macronutrient composition of a meal. The concept of a Hormoneous Zone, is really discussing the dynamic balance of "good" and "bad" eicosanoids necessary to optimize physiological performance. Rule II The second dietary rule for reaching peak performance is that an athlete (or for that matter anyone) should never consume more protein than they require to maintain their lean body mass. But likewise they should never consume less, which is equivalent to protein malnutrition. The amount of protein an athlete requires is genetically unique for that athlete, and depends on their lean body mass and their activity factor. Anyone who describes an "ideal" performance diet by using percentages of protein, carbohydrate, and fat simply has no understanding of eicosanoid control. Calories don't count, but protein does. By that I mean, while percentages of calories don't matter, the absolute intake of macronutrients, their ratios, and most importantly the amount of protein consumed does. The ideal performance diet is one that (1) supplies adequate protein (which is unique for each athlete) for that athlete, and (2) also maintains a relatively constant protein to carbohydrate ratio at each meal. The amount of fat at each meal is then used as a caloric "ballast" to provide calories without effecting hormonal fluxes caused by the protein and carbohydrate intakes. If it sounds complicated compared to eating all the pasta you can stuff in your mouth, it is. However, the resulting effects on hormone control will determine whether or not an athlete utilizes stored carbohydrate or stored body fat as an energy source during exercise, and the effectiveness of oxygen transfer to the muscle cells. But these same biochemical facts are also true during times of rest! An athlete (or any individual for that matter) can now access stored body fat with greater ease and increase oxygen transfer rates. These hormonal responses to food are universal, and their resulting impact on eicosanoid synthesis was the reason this technology was initially developed for treating of cardiovascular patients, especially those with elevated insulin levels. The same hormonal responses (reduction of insulin levels and the increased production of "good" hormones) desirable for a cardiovascular patient are exactly the same for an athlete who is trying to optimize them through training and diet. Studies have been conducted with Type II diabetic patients that has confirmed the "good" and "bad" hormone hypothesis that an eicosanoid favorable diet lowers insulin levels compared to a higher carbohydrate diet (the American Diabetes Association diet) which elevated insulin levels in matched patients during an eight week study.11 What are some of the radical conclusions confirmed in these studies? First, there is no relationship between muscle glycogen levels and performance in trained athletes1. Second, a high fat diet improves endurance and VO2 max compared to a high carbohydrate diet2. Third, high carbohydrate diets increase lactic acid build-up3. Since athletes tend to eat in consistent patterns during the course of a season, they should only be interested in long-term (i.e. greater than five days) studies conducted on the effect of diet on performance. Since all endurance performance depends on the efficiency of the cardiovascular system, it should be apparent that optimizing eicosanoid balance should be the goal of every athlete. However, to successfully achieve that goal, carbohydrates must be consumed in moderation and in relatively strict ratios to protein intake at every meal.
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