F.A.Q.

Fruit & Veg – what is meant by „5 a day“ ?

What is meant by „5 a day“ ?

Fruit and veg are the most pro­mi­sing source for vit­amins and mine­rals, fib­re and fur­ther acti­ve plant ingre­di­ents such as anti­oxi­dants. With 5 ser­vings per day (approx.. 600g) you get an ade­qua­te amount of the­se nut­ri­ents. A good varie­ty in your choices (make sure you cover every colour), fresh and fresh­ly pre­pared foods is vital to cover all your needs.

How much fruit & veg is one serving?

One ser­ving equ­als the volu­me of your clen­ched fist.

For kids this is about 70 g of veggies or 100 g of fruit (= 510 g/​day), adults should be con­sum­ing 120 g of fruit & veg (= 600 g/​day). This is only the edi­ble part, after pee­ling etc.

What’s bet­ter: raw or cooked?

A healt­hy diet includes both, raw and coo­ked fruit and veg. The­re some loss of vit­amins duet to heat in the coo­king pro­cess (e.g. vit­amin C or folic acid). On the other hand, steam­ing or coo­king your veggies increa­ses the bio avai­la­bi­li­ty of other acti­ve ingre­di­ents (e.g. beta caro­te­ne or lycopene).

Raw is essen­ti­al to cover your need of heat-sen­si­ti­ve vit­amins, hence it’s recom­men­ded to con­su­me 1 ser­ving of your dai­ly 5’s raw.

What about fro­zen fruit or veg?

Nowa­days you’ll find ple­nty of fruit and veg in the fro­zen food ais­le in your gro­cery store. Tech­no­lo­gy in the pro­duc­tion pro­cess of fro­zen food is quite ama­zing. It takes only a cou­ple of minu­tes from har­ve­s­t­ing to free­zing. This assu­res that the fruit and veg is super fresh and full of valuable nut­ri­ents – often bet­ter than what you find in the fresh pro­du­ce sec­tion. Careful though: much of the fro­zen pro­ducts con­tain sau­ces and spi­ce blends that have no only favoura­ble ingre­di­ents. Make sure to buy only natu­ral „no-non­sen­se“ ones.

Refe­rence: (5 a day, SGE, BLV):

Why is iron defi­ci­en­cy such a pre­va­lent thing and why should acti­ve peo­p­le make sure to avo­id it by all means?

Among the many dif­fe­rent roles iron plays in our, its part in the crea­ti­on of red blood cells is most important. The red colour comes from hae­mo­glo­bin – a mole­cu­le that binds oxy­gen and trans­ports it in the blood stream. binds oxy­gen and trans­ports it in the blood stream. Iron defi­ci­en­cy thus impairs the oxy­gen trans­port capa­ci­ty of the blood and direct­ly leads to per­for­mance los­ses and fatigue.

Our body can­not build iron and need to source it only through our diet. The net requi­re­ment is about one to three mil­li­gramms. We need to eat much more iron than this tiny amm­ount. Our body can only use about 10% of the iron intake.

Ath­le­tes often show hig­her iron los­ses through swea­ting, regu­lar­ly hea­vy impact on the sole of the foot or pro­lon­ged trai­ning at altitude.

The recom­men­ded dai­ly inta­ke (RDI) for fema­les is 15mg and for males 10mg. Women have hig­her needs becau­se of increased los­ses in menses. The­se amounts are gene­ral­ly suf­fi­ci­ent for ath­le­tes as well. Some situa­tions or indi­vi­du­al dif­fe­ren­ces in iron upt­ake can increase the RDI, e.g. very high iron los­ses through swea­ting or regu­lar­ly hea­vy impact on the sole of the foot or pro­lon­ged trai­ning at altitude.

To pre­vent iron defi­ci­en­cy you should be awa­re of a few points:

Haem-iron (from ani­ma sources) is bet­ter available for humans than non-haem iron (plant-based). Very good iron sources are red meat or liver.

Good plant-based sources are legu­mes (len­tils, soy), nuts and seeds (pistachi­os, sun­flower seeds), veggies and herbs (pars­ley, cress, onions).

Dairy con­ta­ins only litt­le iron hence meat and veggies are to be preffered.

Con­ve­ni­ence food often con­ta­ins sub­s­tances that lower iron upt­ake. Hence fresh pro­du­ce or clean fro­zen foods are better.

While vit­amin C impro­ves iron upt­ake, Dil­lu­ted fruit juice helps to boost iron uptake

cof­fee, tea, milk, cocoa, Coke or red wine decrea­ses it. The­se drinks should thus not be con­su­med with a meal.

Refe­ren­ces:
Schwei­ze­ri­sches Rotes Kreuz, Ernäh­rung, Blutspenderatgeber

Ani­mal pro­te­in, vege­ta­ri­an or vegan – what is the healt­hie­st diet?

What diet you choo­se has beco­me much more than just a ques­ti­on of health and sta­tus. Moral, envi­ron­men­tal, socie­tal and ethi­cal aspects have gai­ned incre­asing importance in this dis­cus­sion. Here, I only cover nut­ri­tio­nal aspects and refrain from any other ways of jud­ging this.

From an evo­lu­tio­na­ry stand­point it is safe to say that our body (diges­ti­ve sys­tem from tee­th to sto­mach and gut) is geared to have a mixed diet of ani­mal foods (meat, dairy, eggs) and plants.

In fact, it doesn’t real­ly mat­ter from what sources we get our nut­ri­ents as long as we cover our needs in amp­le sufficiency.

When we total­ly get rid of all ani­mal food sources in our diet (i.e. vegan) we increase the risk of nut­ri­ent defi­ci­en­ci­es a lot, sin­ce bio avai­la­bi­li­ty and nut­ri­ent-den­si­ty of cer­tain nut­ri­ents is far lower:

Pro­te­ins (essen­ti­al ami­no acids)
it takes a tho­rough­ly com­bi­ned blend of plant-based pro­te­ins to cover the amount and qua­li­ty of ami­no acids – espe­ci­al­ly for acti­ve peo­p­le. to cover the amount and qua­li­ty of ami­no acids – espe­ci­al­ly for acti­ve peo­p­le. By com­bi­ning ide­al sources, the pro­te­in-score can be raised.

Omega‑3 fat­ty acids(Ω‑3)
They play a key role in pre­ven­ting inflamm­a­ti­ons in our body and sup­port our immu­ne sys­tem. Plant-foods con­tain less of the Ome­ga-3s. They are good in redu­cing the risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses and other inflamm­a­to­ry ill­nesses. Ani­mal foods such as dairy, fat­ty fish, grass-fed beef are good Omega‑3 sources.

Vit­amin B12

Meat or liver con­ta­ins a lot of vit­amin B12 (coba­la­min), fol­lo­wed by fish, cheese or eggs. By cut­ting all sorts of ani­mal foods from your diet, you hard­ly get enough coba­la­min wit­hout using any sup­ple­ments. cheese or eggs. By cut­ting all sorts of ani­mal foods from your diet, you hard­ly get enough B12 wit­hout using any supplements.

Vit D3

Actual­ly this is more a hor­mo­ne than a vit­amin. Our skin pro­du­ces it from cho­le­ste­rol under suf­fi­ci­ent suns­hi­ne expo­sure. Ani­mal food sources (D3) are more effec­ti­ve than their plant-based coun­ter­parts (con­tai­ning a less effec­ti­ve form, D2 ).

The com­pli­ance in using sun screen is a major cau­se for incre­asing num­bers in vit­amin D defi­ci­en­ci­es. More and more rese­arch finds out the rele­van­ce of this vit­amin, also in the recent Covid-19 pan­de­mic, whe­re it seems that a lack of this vit­amin increa­ses the risk of acqui­ring the virus and suf­fe­ring from more seve­re symptoms.

Iron, Cal­ci­um, Zinc, Selenium
The­se mine­rals occur in les­ser amounts in plants a/​o with a lower bioavailability.

Nut­ri­ent defi­ci­en­ci­es rare­ly mani­fest very imme­dia­te and only show over time. Cut­ting out cer­tain foods from your diet should lead to increased awa­re­ness, dili­gence and moni­to­ring of your nut­ri­tio­nal status.

Cut­ting out cer­tain foods from your diet should lead to increased awa­re­ness, dili­gence and moni­to­ring of your nut­ri­tio­nal sta­tus. A vege­ta­ri­an diet (inclu­ding dairy, eggs and may­be even fish) pro­ves less com­pli­ca­ted to cover all die­ta­ry needs.

Sum­ma­ry:
With an omni­vo­re, mixed & balan­ced diet, we have the least risk to suf­fer from nut­ri­ent def­fi­ci­en­ci­es. This on its­elf does­n’t gua­ran­tee though, that we are tal­king about a healt­hy diet. This is whe­re most stu­dies fall apart, clai­ming vega­tri­ans /​vegans eat heal­tiher. It’s almost impos­si­ble to compa­re the­se diets like for like. A long-term com­pa­ri­son with equal­ly ener­gy balan­ce and nut­ri­ent inta­ke would be necessary.

In my own hum­ble opi­ni­on, I think it’s key that if you eat ani­mal pro­te­ins, it’s neces­sa­ry to make sure that they come from a ani­mal-fri­end­ly source. That makes tho­se pro­ducts more expen­si­ve, but is non-nego­tia­ble to me. I am real­ly keen about the­se ethi­cal aspects. And often times it is that fair­ly pro­du­ced pro­ducts also are of a bet­ter quality.

Refe­ren­ces (SGE):

Which oils are best to use in the kitchen?

Oils dif­fer lar­ge­ly in their nut­ri­tio­nal value and apti­tu­de for use in the hot or cold kit­chen. Oil from plants with a balan­ced fat­ty acid pat­tern and a high con­tent of omega‑3 fat­ty acids are of hig­hest nut­ri­tio­nal value (e.g. canola, wal­nut, flax­seed, wheat­germ). Apart from that we need to know which oil to cho­se for what pur­po­se, becau­se not every healt­hy oil is sui­ta­ble for high tem­pe­ra­tures. The fol­lo­wing list gives a brief recommendation.

  • Cold kit­chen(e. g. salad dres­sings, for adding fla­vour): canola, extra-ver­gi­ne oli­ve oil wal­nut, pump­kin, flax­seed, Chia, hemp.
  • low-med tem­pe­ra­tures poa­ching, steam­ing, slow coo­king): canola, oli­ve (refi­ned), sunflower.
  • High tem­pe­ra­tures (fry­ing): high-oleic canola, HO-sunflower
  • Bak­ing (cakes, piz­za): but­ter, mar­ga­ri­ne, canola, olive
  • Spreads: But­ter, Margarine

Refe­rence: Schwei­ze­ri­sche Gesell­schaft für Ernährung

Is low-carb a bet­ter, healt­hi­er diet than a balan­ced macro­nu­tri­ent ratio?

Accor­ding to all sorts of media buzz, low-carb is the only way to be lean, healt­hy and per­form well. Spoi­ler alert: I stron­gly doubt that. I stron­gly doubt it. As a mat­ter of fact, the way we com­po­se our diet with the three macro­nu­tri­ents (i.e. car­bo­hy­dra­te, fat, pro­te­in) stron­gly depends to our life­style. To explain brief­ly: carbs are the main source of ener­gy for acti­vi­ty of increased inten­si­ty. While we are rather pas­si­ve, working in an office (sea­ted) or at very low inten­si­ties, such as doing gro­ce­ries, tal­king a casu­al walk etc. we can burn fat as source of ener­gy. That brings us to the prac­ti­cal con­clu­si­on: peo­p­le choo­sing a very inac­ti­ve life­style bene­fit from a low-carb approach.

Their meta­bo­lism remains healt­hi­er if they don’t eat too many carbs and con­su­me healt­hy fats. Yet, the­re is a big BUT – punt unin­ten­ded: peo­p­le that choo­se not to move much at all are crea­ting a very sub­par envi­ron­ment for their health any­way! peo­p­le that choo­se not to move much at all are crea­ting a very sub­par envi­ron­ment for their health anyway!

But back to the carb-ques­ti­on: for acti­ve peo­p­le or even ath­le­tes it’s well worth eating 45 – 60% of their total ener­gy from carbs. That’s not a all-access pass to Can­dy­land! Not all carbs are equal. Include healt­hy carbs (star­chy, fib­re-rich) foods in your meals regu­lar­ly and limit suga­ry treats.

Short­ly befo­re, during or after acti­vi­ty “fast carbs” are the way to go (sta­bi­li­zing your blood sugar levels, incre­asing a sus­tained effort and adding to your recovery).

For eli­te level ath­le­tes we cho­se a peri­odi­zed approach for carbs over the cour­se of a sea­son, whe­re the­re are times with a high amount of carbs and inten­tio­nal­ly crea­ted situa­tions whe­re car­bo­hy­dra­te avai­la­bi­li­ty is low. This is done to boost trai­ning sti­mu­li and increase per­for­mance when the gun goes off.

The low-carb move­ment comes from the weight-loss indus­try a/​o fit­ness realm. While images of hea­vi­ly shred­ded phy­si­ques are stun­ning, the pro­cess to get the­re is often not sus­tainable a/​o healt­hy. While images of hea­vi­ly shred­ded phy­si­ques are stun­ning, the pro­cess to get the­re is often not sus­tainable a/​o healthy.

For an ath­le­te it is important to know the rele­vant aspects to per­form well in a sport and tho­se might dif­fer from a purely visu­al appeal. I want to sup­port my cli­ents for sus­tain­ba­le pro­gress and not just a beau­ty fix. It’s gre­at that the cur­rent fit­ness trend led peo­p­le from 15 – 50 to be more acti­ve. But behold of the power of social media. Dis­tor­ted rea­li­ties and unrea­li­stic goals can be a poi­so­no­us moti­va­ti­on. Tho­se who are after max-shred­ded phy­si­ques sup­port a low-carb diet, sin­ce this helps to car­ve out the last bit of (healt­hy) body fat and retai­ned water.

But this is not the health-bene­fit­ting way and not sui­ta­ble to max out your sports performance.

Last but not least: within very ambi­tious phy­si­que-goals the­re is an incre­asing use in ban­ned sub­s­tances (Ana­bo­lics, growth hor­mo­nes, diure­tics, amphet­ami­nes). The­se are no joke and ban­ned not only if you com­pe­te in a WADA-sanc­tion­ed sport!!! HANDS OFF!

Refe­ren­ces:

  • Wylie-Rosett, J., Aeber­sold, K., Con­lon, B., Isa­si, C. R., & Ost­rovs­ky, N. W. (2013). Health effects of low-car­bo­hy­dra­te diets: whe­re should new rese­arch go?. Cur­rent dia­be­tes reports, 13(2), 271 – 278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-012‑0357‑5
  • Har­vey, C., Schofield, G. M., Zinn, C., Thorn­ley, S. J., Crofts, C., & Merien, F. (2019). Low-car­bo­hy­dra­te diets dif­fe­ring in car­bo­hy­dra­te rest­ric­tion impro­ve car­dio­me­ta­bo­lic and anthro­po­me­tric mar­kers in healt­hy adults: A ran­do­mi­sed cli­ni­cal tri­al. PeerJ, 7, e6273. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​7​7​1​7​/​p​e​e​r​j​.​6​273
  • Cook, C. M., & Haub, M. D. (2007). Low-car­bo­hy­dra­te diets and per­for­mance. Cur­rent sports medi­ci­ne reports, 6(4), 225 – 229.
  • Mata, F., Valen­zue­la, P. L., Gime­nez, J., Tur, C., Fer­re­ria, D., Domín­guez, R., San­chez-Oli­ver, A. J., & Mar­tí­nez Sanz, J. M. (2019). Car­bo­hy­dra­te Avai­la­bi­li­ty and Phy­si­cal Per­for­mance: Phy­sio­lo­gi­cal Over­view and Prac­ti­cal Recom­men­da­ti­ons. Nut­ri­ents, 11(5), 1084. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​3​3​9​0​/​n​u​1​1​0​5​1​084
  • Bur­ke L. M. (2020). Keto­ge­nic low-CHO, high-fat diet: the future of eli­te endu­rance sport?. The Jour­nal of phy­sio­lo­gy, 10.1113/JP278928. Advan­ce online publi­ca­ti­on. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​1​3​/​J​P​2​7​8​928

Pro­te­in-enri­ched foods – how much is enough?

Gro­cery stores are packed with pro­te­in-enri­ched foods. Cere­als, dairy, soups – you name it. The ques­ti­ons needs to be asked: are we get­ting not enough pro­te­in in our diet? The avera­ge Swiss con­su­mes enough protein.

The­re are two age groups that con­su­me slight­ly not enough that con­su­me slight­ly not enough (teens and peo­p­le >70 years of age)

The indi­vi­du­al need is influen­ced by one’s acti­vi­ty and lean body mass. Phy­si­cal acti­vi­ty and a lar­ge mus­cle mass increa­ses the pro­te­in need, becau­se this tis­sue is con­stant­ly rebuilt are even expan­ded through pro­per trai­ning. Ami­no acids, the buil­ding blocks of pro­te­in, are put tog­e­ther in our body to form all sorts of tis­sues – among others, mus­cles. Main­tai­ning or buil­ding mus­cle mass hence needs protein.

A modera­te­ly acti­ve per­son should con­su­me 1 – 1.4g/kg. With indi­vi­du­als who are very acti­ve, this goes up to 1.6 – 2g/​kg. Men should con­su­me more than women, for their hig­her lean body mass. Hig­her pro­te­in con­sump­ti­on gives you not an incre­men­tal benefit.

Recent rese­arch shows that not only the actu­al amount, but also the way how pro­te­in is spread out through the day (and night) is important to achie­ve the best results. is important to achie­ve the best results.

Con­clu­si­on:
Pro­te­in-enri­ched pro­ducts are not supe­ri­or to “nor­mal” food. They can help to achie­ve desi­red con­sump­ti­on, but are not a magic bul­let. It is best to eat a healt­hy, mixed diet throug­hout the day and to choo­se real food first befo­re rely­ing on supplements.

Refe­ren­ces:

What do I need to eat to gain mus­cle mass?

First comes the right trai­ning (inten­si­ty, amount)to initia­te ana­bo­lic processes.

On the nutri­tion side, buil­ding lean body mass take pro­te­in and ener­gy. The exact amount of pro­te­in depends on the indi­vi­du­al, but for ath­le­tes it is some­whe­re bet­ween 1.5 – 2g per kilo­gram body weight per day.

Get­ting in enough pro­te­in is rare­ly the bot­t­le neck. Most ath­le­tes unde­re­sti­ma­te the amount (i.e. sur­plus!) of ener­gy they need to con­su­me to real­ly build mus­cle, which can be hard with an alre­a­dy high ener­gy need with all the trai­ning. Con­sum­ing more ener­gy than what they burn often sca­res ath­le­tes, becau­se they think they get fat. Striking the right amount is the secre­te ingre­di­ent here.

Refe­ren­ces: