dietrocious wrote:
British Guy wrote:
…
Ever since that visit I've pretty much abandoned my diet, which used to be pretty healthy, and this past weekend I improved my 4-month old 5K PB by a fairly large margain, even breaking 15 for the first time in my life, despite eating far far worse than I was eating 4 months ago.
This whole experience has shown me that diet can't make much difference at all, it makes me realise that anyone short of olympic level shouldn't really care about their diet as the gains from it are so margainal. Training and genetics are what matter.
Some “facts” (aka the closest to truth we know):
1) Your performance almost certainly improved despite your diet, not because of it. Science says so.
2) How science works: Your “whole experience has shown” bollocks because it’s anecdotal, rather the way science works (pardon my condescension) is via peer reviewed studies of larger groups of users with control and placebo subgroups as appropriate, and decades of nutrition science developed in this manner shows both the importance of a balanced diet as well as the micro-advantages or lack thereof of small optimizations (like after a workout, is only protein, or only carbs, or a combination of the two is best for recovery and how much better; do you know the answer without reading that paper?).
Science is far from perfect in that sometimes the findings are statistically weak especially when the study group is small, and are sometimes not reproducible or even controverted, but it’s worked really well for the most part for society. Are you really going to ignore that knowledge and, say, happily consume trans fats over a lifetime?
3) Injury risk: Your anecdotal observation is not surprising and even “correct” in the sense that the impact of diet on performance is small below sub-elite levels, more so when you are younger, but see how you feel after 10 years though when the body becomes more prone to injury.
The way risk works is insidious, with everything seeming like milk and honey until it’s dark slime around you all of a sudden. Not enough calcium and vitamin D? Your bones will complain one day. Not enough protein? Your connective tissue won’t heal as quickly. Electrolyte imbalance can even be fatal.
4) ”Bad” isn’t actually bad most of the time:
- Pizza is delicious and healthy (just wheat, cheese, and some vegetable or meat toppings), not junk food.
- Ice cream is the same deal, it’s almost just milk and sugar, which your body can put to good use.
- Sugary drinks are just empty calories and I hate them, not because they are unhealthy, which they are not if you need the calories and burn them off, but because I feel cheated out of the opportunity to eat something tastier with my limited appetite.
- Fries are tasty and not unhealthy at all as they are just potatoes, oil, and salt.
- Alcohol in moderation has little harm, but again you better really enjoy the taste or the buzz as it’s empty calories and you have a limited appetite.
Some things are or may be bad (until proven good) irrespective of balance: trans fats, processed foods with too many unrecognizable chemical ingredients, rancid oil in low quality commercial kitchens, etc, but absolute “villain foods” are indeed few and far and are usually not foods in the natural sense (i.e., coming from plants or animals as opposed to an industrial plant).
4) Balance of nutrition is important given that appetite is limited. The thing however is the human body is amazing at getting your taste buds and cravings go for what it lacks, so if you are reasonably privileged and can act on your impulses (“I feel like spicy Indian food today”), you can likely eat without care as long as you are burning off excess calories, still in your twenties, and not at high risk for diabetes, hypertension, etc. because of family history. But if you are eating unhealthy not by choice, say eating ramen noodles because you are too busy/stressed/poor/allergic to go find better food, you will damage your body over time. “Over time” meaning it can take several years, again because the body is amazing at adapting to what it’s given but it does have its limits.