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Athletes and Oils
Many athletes are junk food addicts who suffer more than necessary from bone, ligament, disc, joint, neck, shoulder and spinal injuries. Those who practice nutrition at all believe in proteins because proteins build muscle and ‘lean’ body mass. They tend to avoid fats. But here, as in all aspects of fats and oils nutrition, a distinction must be made between the fats that heal and the fats that kill. The fats that heal are required for health, oxidation, energy production, regulation of cell functions, and healing of tissue injuries, sprains, and bruises. The fats that kill interfere with health and slow down athletic performance.
Fats as Hormones Regulating Energy Production
It would be fair to say that all fats act like hormones. This is not a widely accepted view, so let me explain. Fats do not act like steroids, which build muscle mass (and have negative side effects), but they regulate oxidation rate, metabolic rate, and energy production in all our cells. Whether they speed up or slow down these important cell functions depends on two aspects of their personality: how long are they, and how many double bonds they have.
Chain Length. The chain length continuum is best illustrated by saturated fatty acids. The shorter the saturated fatty acid, the less it inhibits energy production. Our body easily metabolizes short-chain fatty acids (such as butyric in butter, and caprylic and capric in medium-chain triglycerides [MCTs]) to produce energy.
The longer a saturated fatty acid is, the more it inhibits energy production. Long-chain saturated fatty acids (such as palmitic and stearic acids in tropical fats, land animals, butter, and margarines, and arachidic acid in vegetable oils like peanut) slow down energy production.
Degree of unsaturation. The fewer double bonds there are in a fatty acid, the less it speeds up oxidation and matabolic rate, and the less it stimulates energy production. The more double bonds a fatty acid contains, the more it increases oxidation, metabolic rate, and energy production.
A saturated fatty acid of a particular chain length is 'slower’ than an unsaturated fatty acid with the same number of carbons in its chain. Thus, among fatty acids with 18-carbon chains, stearic acid (18:2) is ‘slower’ than oleic acid (18:1), which in turn is ‘slower’ than linoleic acid (18:2), which in turn is ‘slower’ than alpha-linolenic acid (18:3).
Conversely, the more double bonds are present in a fatty acid, the more it increases oxidation rate, metabolic rate, and energy production. Obviously, this is important for athletes who want to increase their energy output in order to stay ahead of their competition. Alpha-linolenic acid is the best 18-carbon fatty acid for enhancing energy production, followed by linoleic acid, followed by oleic acid, followed by stearic acid.
As a ballpark estimate, monounsaturated oleic acid occupies a neutral position, neither speeding up nor slowing down oxidation, metabolic rate or energy production.
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Maximizing Energy Production
Athletes should make sure they get optimum amounts of both essential fatty acids (EFAs) in their foods. Generally speaking, diets contain enough w3s, although part of this is found in refined, rancid, or altered, toxic form. Most athletes get too little w3 EFA, because w3s have not yet been taken seriously by most coaches, are still quite new to nutritionists, and are still largely unknown to conservative ‘old’ school doctors and dieticians.
In order to maximize energy productions, athletes should use short-chain saturated fatty acids, and increase their levels of w3s. At the same time, they should avoid the hard, saturated fats that slow them down. They should also avoid processed, altered, fried, deep-fried, hydrogenated, and rancid fats and oils, because these poison their cells and decrease cell (and athletic performance). Stated more precisely, they interfere with natural cell functions, and some inhibit cell oxidation (respiration) and energy levels. Some injure cell membranes, tissues, liver, and arteries. Others interfere with digestive processes, resulting in poorer absorption of nutrients, bowel irritation, ‘leaky gut’, and allergic reactions that require an enormous amount of energy to process, leaving less energy available for physical performance. They use up energy in immune defense reactions-energy that could otherwise be used for athletic activity.
Athletes who use w3s report increased stamina (longer performance before fatigue sets in), reach higher performance plateaus, and recover from fatigue after exercise more quickly than they did before taking w3s. These benefits are likely due to increased oxidation rate.
Because of their increase of oxidation and metabolic rate, w3s and other highly unsaturated fatty acids such as stearidonic (18:4w3), gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) (18:3w6), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (20:5w3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (22:6w3) prevent fat deposition. These fatty acids help people lose excess fat as well as excess water held in tissues.
Fundamental assets. Optimum health, optimum cell, tissue, and organ function, optimum energy production, and optimum waste and toxin management are an athlete’s fundamental assets.
Athletes who squander these assets break fewer records, win fewer matches, suffer more injuries, and take longer to heal at comparable levels of discipline, techniques, and practice. Even if their spirit is willing, their flesh remains weak without good oils and good food habits. Optimizing the fundamental, natural assets of the ‘athletic machine’ leads to higher performance levels.
Whatever minimizes the energy needed to digest and absorb nutrients, process toxins, perform immune functions, and eliminate wastes gives an athlete an edge over the competition. Whatever maximizes energy production without creating toxic side effects widens the competitive edge. Whatever minimizes allergic reactions to foods supports higher peak athletic performance. Optimization of cell, tissue, and organ functions according to each athlete’s unique genetic and physical makeup is key to peak performance.
Fatty Acids and Healing
Athletes report that bruises and sprains heal faster when they include w3s in their diet. According to these athletes, minor injuries take only one-quarter to one-third of the healing time previously required.
These reports should be followed up, both by athletes trying them and by serious controlled studies that either prove or disprove these reports. If they prove to be true, much can be gained in the world of sports and world records.
Although our knowledge of the biology and biochemistry of the w3s is incomplete, we know about their effects on oxidation, membrane functions, and prostaglandin production predicts that they have a valuable role to play in extending the limits of human performance.
Quantities. One tablespoon of flax oil provides three times more than the minimum amount of w3 essential fatty acids, which in 1992 was set at 2 grams per day by an ‘expert’ government committee in Canada-the amount present in just under 1 teaspoon of this oil. Some people benefit form using up to 5 tablespoons of the oil daily. What ever the initial amount may be, use the amount of oil necessary over the long term to keep skin soft and velvety feeling. When the skin becomes dry, take as much oil as needed to retain velvety skin.
If hemp oil is used as the source of EFAs, 2 teaspoons contain the minimum recommended amount of w3s, and 2 tablespoons or more of hemp oil may provide optimum amounts of both EFAs.
Other Nutrients
The roles of w3s and other highly unsaturated fatty acids are fulfilled in the presence of other essential nutrients. fats, oils, and EFAs require about 30 other essential nutrients to maximally perform their functions in our body.
For athletes trying to maximize their performance, optimum amounts and balances of all essential nutrients are especially important. They need to find their individual optimum balance between pro-oxidant fuels that maximize energy production and anitoxidants that prevent damaging free radical chain reactions. They need to find levels of essential nutrients that optimize fuel and oxygen delivery to their cells and tissues for maximum energy production and, at the same time, efficiently detoxify waste products that build up during intense training and competition.
An optimum program must be individually designed for each athlete, because each athlete is a unique individual with unique biochemistry, and therefore needs a unique fuel mix for the highest possible performance short of burnout.
Product Quality
More than with any other nutrient group, oil quality and freshness is an important issue for athletes. This is because of the ease with which highly unsaturated fatty acids spoil and produce toxic substances when exposed to light, oxygen, heat, processing, and time. Like fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat, these oils are perishable, and should be treated like fresh produce.
The chemical reactivity of oils when exposed to light, oxygen, and heat, which makes them perishable, is also the quality that makes them useful for increasing energy productions and physical performance.
Many oil products that are available on the market contain spoiled oil molecules. These are toxic because they interfere with energy-producing reactions, disrupt membranes, interfere with live and immune functions, and can injure the cells lining the inside of arteries.
Conclusion
Fats and oils are vital to health and to athletic performance. Some enhance performance and some inhibit it. The field of athletics has barely begun to tap and exploit the potential of fats and oils. The right kinds of fresh oils, used in appropriate ratios as part of a complete program of super-nutrition for athletes, have much to offer.
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