Eating to Grow

Your body is only capable of absorbing so many nutrients in one meal.

This first sentence appears to me be ambiguous and poorly writen.
There may be a limit to the quantity of stuff which can be absorbed, but surely not the number of nutrients??? Which is by my reading the implication.
Maybe I'm wrong but I'd have thought the body quite capable of absorbing every possible type of nutrient (unless there are two which react together in some way) at the same time, within the confines of a small but well balanced meal.

Otherwise it makes sense.

Del (pedantic moi?)

Studies have shown that our ability to absorb nutrients from the food we eat and supplements we take may decrease as much as 70-90% between the ages of 40 to 60 years of age.

When you can't completely digest your food or nutritional supplements your body cannot absorb the nutrients they contain.

For example high protein foods require a highly acidic environment while starchy foods require a mildly alkaline environment for digestion to take place. An over abundance of nutrient loaded proteins and carbohydrates within one meal can wreak havoc on the digestion system. The acidic and alkaline environment that is needed for digestion to take place actually neutralizes and proper digestion cannot occur, thus valuable nutrients pass through the body unabsorbed.

Our biochem prof had done some research on endurance training: he recommended a high-carbohydrate meal - such as pasta - immediately after a workout. This combination of conditions would drive metabolic pathways in the direction of storing all that extra carb as glycogen in the muscles. Result = increased endurance on the next workout. This seemed to work well for me.

Wrong.

That is a big mistake a lot of people make after working out.

When you workout your body requires protein. If you eat pasta you are cheating your body of the protein that it craves for and will start digesting your own musle mass to obtain it. That is why you see people that workout and never seem to bulk up.

I must admit, I can't imagine eating pasta without some protein thrown on.. so I can't say pure carbs worked.

Still the points about carbohydrate metabolism are worth understanding. It's like a switch that gets thrown, where major metabolic pathways are not mutually exclusive but there are amplifying effects in an either/or kind of way: either burning fat or burning carbs is one that's easily tested. Have a high carb breakfast, you will be starving in a couple hours. That's because the major metabolism has been breakdown of carbs to burn sugars for direct use. When they run out, the transition to burning fat is not a quick switch. The carbs to glycogen trick seems perfectly reasonable to me. After a workout, the glycogen in your muscles is depleted. With sugars available to process, they will go to fill that need first, before anything is converted to fats because you 'don't need it just now'.... ??? As I say, it worked for me...

You can't cut out carbohydrates all together. Even if you're trying to loose weight.

If you were to try and eliminate it your body will crave that and you'll end up going on a high carbohydrate binge eating episode.

The body does some things that are interesting.

One is that if your workout is a long and extensive repetition like running, your body will shut down and store energy. It's part of the fight or flight mechanism of your body. This is why long distance runners have a higher body fat percentage then weightlifters, even if they do look skinnier.

Short burst exercises like weight lifting, will trigger your muscles to burn calories even after you've stopped working out. Eating carbohydrates after working out will defeat that purpose.

You can't cut out carbohydrates all together

Yeh you can say the same for fat. I had to go on the low fat diet some years ago to bring down the cholesterol. I wasn't overweight and the amount of fat in that diet was definitely not enough for my needs. Whatever 'template' they have for height/weight and calories/grams of fat per day was not up to my metabolism. It was brutal and I learned my lesson (and the meaning of the word "devour").

ok I see where you're coming from with the short burst exercises. I didn't know about that.

the workout I was talking about is more like the long distance runner: working all day cutting down firewood with a bucksaw, hauling it back to the house on my shoulder etc etc. Plenty lifting but major workout with endurance required. Maybe that's why I like fat too (thank goodness, an excuse )

for recovery, try chocolate milk.

inexpensive and available.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524370