Exercise Science Discipline: Differences between food and supplement consumption in endurance training.

For a long time now, many individuals have been under the assumption that fast food should never be consumed by professional athletes – especially before or during any competitive races or trainings. However, a group of researchers from the University of Montana may well have found a solution for all the athletes that find themselves craving a deep-fried takeaway meal after a long day on the sporting track.

The Director of the University of Montana’s Centre for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism, Brent Ruby brought together a team of young researchers to conduct experiments and further research into the ongoing phenomenon of the effects of fast food on athletes - before training and during it. In order to fully understand the effects of fast food on the body, the researchers agreed on a specific type of sport and training to focus their experiment on. This training was ‘endurance training’ – a vigorous and exhausting type of workload which puts an enormous strain on the body and the athlete’s mental stability. Hence, the sport the researchers chose to focus on was road cycling.

In the report, the researchers were able to find and persuade eleven experienced male cyclists into participating in their experiment. For the experiment, the participants were instructed to complete two challenging trials in a randomized order. At the start of both trials, all participants were included in a 90 minute cycle that was aimed to reduce and/or deplete the participant’s glycogen (sugar) and energy levels. After this ride occurred, the participants were able to enjoy a recovery period that lasted for a total of four hours. Immediately after the 90 minute cycle and again after two hours, half the participants were provided with an odd, yet delicious menu of fast food and/or takeaway items while the other half of the group were disgusted and envious when the researchers revealed their meals would include quick acting sports drinks and health supplements. The delicious takeaway menu included the likes of french fries and hamburgers while the sports supplements and drinks could only provide the likes of ‘Powerade’ and supplement beverages. After the completion of the four hour rest period, the participants concluded the experiment with a 12.4 mile or 20 kilometre time trial.

To produce results and valuable information from this experiment, the team of researchers recorded and analysed important information throughout the experiment which included blood tests from all participants as well as physical examinations and the recording of time trial performances.

From these methods of data collection, the researchers gathered some interesting results. The main result they found throughout the test was that the rates of glycogen recovery were constant between all participants – irrelevant of what they ate before or after their training. More specifically, there was no differences between participants in individual’s blood glucose levels, and insulin responses. Therefore, through this experiment, the researchers can suggest that there is an uncanny similar benefit between eating fast food during an endurance based training and consuming sports drinks and supplements during an endurance based training.

A key limitation to the scientific experiment is the emphasis on fast food consumption. For this experiment to be accurate, the author must ensure that the half of participants eating fast food, consumed the same product and the same quantity of the product. In this scientific article, they failed to do that. Therefore, to be appropriate with the study and common sense, the results from this experiment should suggest that the fast food consumed within this practical was a reasonable and acceptable amount. For example, in the right amount, fast food could provide the human body with the same effects (as seen above in the results) as the human body would get from sports drinks and supplements.

After the completion of the experiment, the architect behind the research Brent Ruby agrees that this study has been misinterpreted by a lot of people, Ruby comments, "We had participants eating small servings of the fast-food products, not giant orders of burgers and fries. Moderation is the key to the results we got.".

In conclusion, the scientific study that Ruby and the rest of his team at Montana University conducted, proved to be a real eye-opener for a lot of researchers and sportspeople. Although it is probably not recommended for athletes or young endurance-based sports participants to start eating fast food while training, it opens a door into further research and analysis on the different compounds and nutrients found in fast food that can be beneficial in cycling and similar sports.

The full journal article can be found by referring to the reference below:

Michael J. Cramer, Charles L. Dumke, Walter S. Hailes, John S. Cuddy, Brent C. Ruby. Post-exercise Glycogen Recovery and Exercise Performance is Not Significantly Different Between Fast Food and Sport Supplements. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2015; DOI: 10.1123/ijsnem.2014-0230