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Nutrition for Triathlon Success – Part I
by Dr. Alex Mroszczyk-McDonald, MAP Team Member and Winner of IM Lake Placid 2007. 
One of the greatest aspects of triathlon is that it is truly a lifestyle. As a result it touches all aspects of our lives and in the process makes us healthier. Nutrition (including hydration) is a vital component of this “lifestyle”. Good nutrition is required to achieve our triathlon goals, to reach our genetic racing potential as well as to achieve optimal health. Everything that a person puts into their body affects their health, recovery and ultimately their triathlon performance. Nutrition for an athlete includes everyday nutrition, not only nutrition during training and racing. This article will touch on daily nutrition and hydration with a part II to follow which will focus on training and race day nutrition, including leading up to a race, pre-race and race day fueling.
Hydration is a vital component of triathlon nutrition, not only during training, but before and after as well. The body is 60-70% water and muscle is 70-75% water and as a result improper hydration can lead to numerous problem, the least of which being athletic under performance. A loss of just 2% of body weight will result in impaired athletic performance. The average person looses 8-10 cups of water a day which at minimum must be replaced. A good rule of thumb is to have your daily calorie consumption equal your daily water intake in milliliters (i.e. a person on a 4000 calorie diet should drink 4000ml of water daily, 1 cup is approximately 240ml). Another good rule of thumb is to check the color and frequency of your urine. At minimum a person should have to void (urinate) four full bladders daily and urine should be a pale yellow color. Lastly the thirst instinct is closely regulated by the hypothalamic region of the brain. To simplify a very complex human regulatory system; when the body detects there is not enough water in the system it triggers the thirst mechanism. The only problem with this is that by the time a person becomes thirsty they are already under-hydrated. As a result, particularly during training, racing and recovery, an athlete must, ideally, constantly drink fluids so that they never actually feel thirsty. 
An athlete's daily nutrition should emphasize nutrient dense food consisting of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats and protein. An important decision to understand is the definition and difference between nutrient dense food and caloric dense food. Nutrient dense food is often minimally processed, consists of a higher calorie to volume ratio and contains not only macronutrients, but also many micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and fiber (more on these later). While caloric dense food is often more processed, higher in calorie to volume ratio and contains few or less micronutrients. For example an apple is low in calories, has virtually no processing and contains a plethora of micronutrients, while a twinkee is high in calories for its volume, is highly processed, contains many additives and few micronutrients. Clearly an extreme example, but you understand the concept.
While emphasizing nutrient dense food an athlete's daily diet, he/she should also focus on foods with a low to moderate Glycemic Index (GI). GI is a standardized measure of how fast your blood glucose levels rise after eating a particular food. The GI is, for most part, a result of the speed of nutrient breakdown and absorption in the gut. However, the GI is measured for foods individually yet often when eating there are a variety of different foods being consumed, all of which interact to effect the overall GI of a meal. Both fiber and protein, when consumed with high GI foods, tend to slow the rate of digestions and absorption resulting in a lower GI for the overall meal.
For ideal body composition, glycogen restoration, recovery and top athletic performance an athlete should eat a variety of macronutrients in specific percentages of their daily caloric needs. Macronutrients consist of carbohydrates, fats, protein and dairy. Each macronutrient could have an entire book dedicated to it, as a result there is a short blurb about each and some highlights.
Carbohydrates are the foundation of an athlete's diet and should consist of 55-60% of your daily caloric intake. Of this percentage at least 20% should come in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. The remaining carbohydrates should be whole wheat and whole grain whenever possible. White bread, flour and pasta should be avoided due to the fact that a lot of the nutrients and fiber has been removed.
Fat should compose 20-25% of an athlete's daily caloric intake. Many endurance athletes shun fat, however, it is a vital component of the diet particularly when the body is under high training stress. The key is to eat the majority of your daily fat requirements as mono and poly-unsaturated fats, i.e. “healthy fats” from nuts and vegetable oils. Avoiding saturated fats can be difficult as they are ubiquitous throughout our society, however, cheese, cream sauces, butter and full fat dairy products are some of the worst offenders. Hydrogenated oils/Trans fats have recently been acknowledged as the unhealthy additive that they are and should be avoided. Reading nutrition information can help you steer clear of saturated fats.
Lean proteins should account for 15-20% of caloric intake. Lean poultry, fish, eggs, beans, and soy are all excellent sources of protein. The average American consumes significantly more protein than their body actually requires. As an endurance athlete protein is important, however, excess can impair performance goals, body composition and take the place of other needed macronutrients.
The last macronutrient that is am important part of an athlete's diet is dairy and should make up approximately 5% of caloric intake. The major benefit s to eating dairy are the calcium, protein as well as the probiotics/active cultures which can help keep the GI system healthy. There are many low fat or no fat options when it comes to dairy which are a good fit for athlete's dietary needs.
Daily nutrition is just as important, if not more important than training/race day nutrition, the problem is that there is no set plan that will help everyone achieve their athletic goals. Each athlete has unique needs and demands which can be accomplished thru diligent planning and goal setting. Some good general rules of thumb are 1) Read labels, 2) the less processed and packaged the better, 3) eat small frequent meals throughout the day. This is some basic information to help you get started on the road to fine tuning your nutrition to achieve your triathlon goals. Some of my favorite resources are:
www.dietdetective.com
Nutrition for Endurance Athletes by Monique Ryan
Mount Sinai School of Medicine Complete Book of Nutrition
Stay tuned for Nutrition for Triathlon Success - Part II, which will focus on training and race day nutrition
Alex M. McDonald, MD is a professional triathlete, coach and a member of Team BodyHealth. His interests lie in coaching triathletes, sports medicine and exercise physiology. Prior to medical school, Alex graduated from Connecticut College in 2003 with an emphasis on both the biological and social sciences, and obtained his MD degree from the University of Vermont . He currently lives in Durham , NC .
P.S. Editors note: Good nutrition alone is not enough. All people should be taking a multivit-multimin-antioxidant and an amino acid supplement. BodyHealth Complete and MAP. The combo will supercharge your body and your workouts.
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