22718 Eating and Drinking

Heavy Day// How are your shoulders? We’re going overhead again!

Thruster

3-3-3-3-3 @ 1 Weight

For the most part, eat your fuel. The benefits are numerous. Chewing and enjoying whole or minimally processed food takes time and the result is more satisfaction for a couple reasons. Digestion and ultimately metabolism begins in the mouth and chewing introduces important enzymes to start the process. Having the food in your mouth can be and is very comforting. I personally feel effected by food even before swallowing. Meats that haven't been ground or smoked or cured (processed) take longer to digest and have a higher TEF (thermogenic effect of food) or the energy it takes to digest the food. Eating vegetables and fruits in their whole form, cooked even, comes with a lot of fiber. Fiber is actually a type of carbohydrate, but you can't digest it, it's still important though, but I appreciate it most for it's filling effect and again it's TEF. I recently heard of a study showing that the calories absorbed in whole nuts vs nut butters and oils is much different. A lot of the fat in a nut is passed fully through into your poop as opposed to nut butter where basically all of the calories are absorbed, so while I don't recommend calorie counting, I would prefer to eat a hand full of nuts as opposed to a tablespoon of nut butter for the same amount of sustenance. 

What happens when we drink our calories then? In our society, the caloric beverages are basically all concentrated. Looking at the Dutch Bro's or Starbucks menus, the basic flavored Lattes, without adding or subtracting pumps of sugar range from 30-45g of carbohydrate. I don't know about you, but I've never been halfway through a latte or smoothie and thought, "Man I don't know if I'm gonna make it."  My thought might actually be, "what a tasty drink, but I sure could use something substantial though." Liquid calories get straight to the source basically because a lot of the digestion (processing or concentrating) has already been done for you. Liquid calories have substantially less TEF. They typically lack the fiber and staying power of solid foods, even processed foods. 

So never drink calories? It really just depends! Don't you hate that answer? If burning fat is your highest of priorities, don't drink your fuel... at all. You aren't allowed to say loosing weight is so hard because I'm hungry all the time if you're also practicing something that works directly against making you satiated. That's like being a smoker and complaining about how hard it is to breath and not knowing why. 

There are times when drinking calories is not only ok, but actually beneficial. For some of us, we have a goal of eating a minimum amount of calories to fuel our training or recovery. In some cases, your appetite won't match your nutritional needs. I love broccoli, but I just can't justify eating 1.5lbs of it to get 45g of carbohydrate, 6 times a day. I'd rather add a couple scoops of carbs to my protein shake, or drink a FitAid, if not eat the carbs. Another application might be if you’re ill and could use a higher concentration of micronutrients and fast. Choking down a bag of spinach and 3 oranges to battle your cold would be hard enough if you were healthy. Sometimes we just need the fuelbor micronutrients, but lack the appetite, drinking is an easy way to get it in. The difference is my expectations. I know it's not going to be nearly as filling. If you're going to drink your calories, you just need to know the purpose for it and have the expectations that match. A good example of that is alcohol. Sure drink it because you enjoy it or to be social or want the head change, but don't think a daily beer is helping those abs show up. A Progenex shake is a quick and tasty source of protein, but won’t satiate like a piece of chicken some eggs or yogurt.