Nutrition on the Tour de France

Just wanted to say Hi!
It's been a while! I recently moved and started a new internship and am having trouble finding some free time!
I miss reading your blogs, and miss blogging... but I hope to find some balance soon!
Hope you're enjoying your summers!!


It lasts three weeks, covers over 3500km, and is arguably the world's most physiologically demanding sporting event....

The 172 cyclists (including one Canadian!) that participated in the 97th Tour de France this year traveled through 3 countries, rode an average of 182km (114 miles) a day over the 20 'stages' at an average of 40km (25 miles) an hour,while climbing 10 mountains or racing against the clock in individual time trials.

This effort has been described as roughly the equivalent of running a marathon almost every day for 3 weeks. In the mountains, they climb a vertical distance equal to three Mount Everests!

Below, Robbie Ventura, a professional US cyclists, describes nutrition during the 7 hour, 140mile Stage 6 of the Tour:

Cyclists will burn over 5000 calories.
Each hour, they'll aim to eat about 400 calories and drink 3 water bottles!





A 1988 study found that cyclists met half their caloric needs for the day while on the bike... Pretty impressive!
A good chunk of their calorie and carbohydrate intake came from liquids.

Cyclists are given feed bags at the start and middle of each stage. These bags contain easy-to-eat foods- sports bars and gels, fruit, small sandwiches, Coke cans.

Here's sport physiologist (currently with team RadioShack) Dr. Allen Lam with his recipe for a 'real-food' addition to the riders' feedbags: Rice Cakes?!





The cyclists in the study mentioned above were also pretty good and meeting their total daily caloric needs- while they spent about 6100 calories a day, they were able to eat about 6000 a day- not a small feat given that they're on they bikes 7-8 hours a day, and then have to deal with a lack of hunger that results from strenuous activity. The average Tour rider loses about 10lbs from an already small frame.

One easier way to take in those calories after a day on the bike is to drink them. Dr. Allen Lim explains the cyclists' recovery routine, which includes drinking 700-800 calories!





A post-race meal for Lance Armstrong:

Lance Armstrong's Post Race Meal in the Car -- powered by livestrong.com

What Makes You Eat More Food

Photos: What Makes You Eat More Food

It's my Blogiversary: Celebrating with cottonseed oil and some refelction!

My blog turns 2 today... I can't believe it... they grow up so fast!
I looked it up, and the traditional 2-year anniversary gift is cotton. So....

Did you know that Cottonseed oil accounts for only 5-6% of the American fat and oil market?
It's very low in the omega 3 fatty acid, making it a very stable frying oil at high temperatures. For this reason, and because it has a bland flavour, it's used often as a frying oil by the food industry.
Who knew?

In the last two years, what I've learned is that, both in the field of nutrition, and in my own life, there will always be surprises. There's a line from the movie the Truman Show when, in response to why Truman hadn't figured out he was an actor on a set, his "creator" responds:
"Because we always accept the reality of our surroundings, without question".

Well, this blog has allowed me to question... and what I learned has surprised me:

Caffeinated beverages, including coffee, can be used to meet your fluid requirements. It's not a major diuretic as we once thought.

Whole wheat is NOT a whole grain (in Canada).

A low carb, high fat diet may be what we should be recommending: it can control blood sugar and improve cholesterol level.

A grapefruit a day isn't as healthy as it sounds.

That cool, hip coffee shop in your neighbourhood may actually be a Starbucks, in disguise!

Exercise may not be the answer to weight loss.

Just because my dad is a runner, thin, and a vegetarian, doesn't mean he won't have a heart attack.

So... I continue to question and not just accept, I continue to try to keep an open-mind, and continue to share what I learn...

Thanks for learning with me, and teaching me, over these last 2 years!

Preventing a second, or a first, heart attack: Part 3

Eating the right type of fat.

Our dietary fat intake has actually decreased over the years... but heart attack and strokes have increased.

Obviously, fat isn't the enemy and, in fact, including the right type of fat in your diet can help decrease your risk of having a first, or a second, heart attack or stroke.

Unsaturated fats include:

Monounsaturated fat- Olives, olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, nuts, seeds, natural peanut and seed butters and avocadoes.

Polyunsaturated- Fish and corn, soybean, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils.

Replace the Bad with the Good:

Replacing saturated fats or carbs in your diet with unsaturated fats has been shown to decrease the 'lousy' LDL cholesterol (the one that clogs up your arteries), prevent the increase in triglycerides (the fat that's in your blood) that has been linked to heart disease and that increases with high refined carb intake (sweets, desserts, white bread, white pasta, white rice etc.), reduces the risk of blood clot formation, and decreases erratic heartbeats- the main cause of sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Willett and his team at the Harvard School of Public Health calculated that replacing 5% of calories as saturated fat with unsaturated fat reduces the risk of heart attack by 40%!

Assuming you eat 2000 calories, that would means replacing 11g saturated fat with 11g unsaturated fat.

For example, eat 1 oz nuts (about 1/4 cup) instead of 1/2 cup ice cream or eat 2 Tbsp peanut butter instead of 2Tbsp cream cheese or 1 oz hard cheese.

Speaking of nuts, the Nurses' Health Study, published in the British Medical Journal in 1998, looked at the health of more than 86,000 women. It found that those who ate 142 grams (five ounces) of nuts per week were 35% less likely to develop heart disease than women who ate less than one ounce per week.
The 2002 U.S Physicians Health Study found that men who ate nuts two or more times per week were 47% less likely to die of a heart attack and 30% less likely to die of heart disease than men who rarely ate nuts.

Bottom Line

Make sure that every day you replace some of the saturated fat in your diet- found in animal products like meat, milk products, eggs, lard, shortening and butter- and excess refined carbs with various sources of unsaturated fat, including fish, vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, avocadoes, peanut butter, olives and non-hydrogenated margarine.

Want to read more?

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

"La pâtisserie, c'est comme les gens"

"Pastry is like people... Some dough needs a lot of kneading, some requires much less. Some dough is satisfied to rise just a little, while other dough needs to double in size. All dough needs warmth to rise."

-Taken from Kathleen Flinn's wonderful memoir, The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry , about her experience moving to and living in Paris and attending the famed Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.
I just finished this book- an easy and enjoyable read about a women pursuing her passion for cooking...while living in a foreign city and trying to learn the language. The author offers her readers a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the grueling training that goes on at the Paris culinary school and, along the way, manages to inspire us to follow our own dreams.

Vitamin supplements undo benefits of exercise

First, some facts:

Exercise has loads of health benefits including decreasing your risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes by making your body’s cells more sensitive to insulin.

The more sensitive your cells are to insulin, the easier it is for the glucose (sugar) that’s in the foods you eat to get used up by your body. When your cells become insensitive or resistant to insulin, the glucose doesn’t get used up by your body but instead stays floating in your blood, causing high blood sugar. You body cries out for the glucose it needs to function causing your pancreas to over-compensate and produce even more insulin. This combination of insulin-resistance and insulin over-production by the pancreas leads to diabetes and/or obesity, increased risk of heart disease.

Inhaling oxygen produces free radicals. These free radicals attack the body causing you to age and also causes illnesses like heart disease and cancer and, eventually, death. 2-3% of the oxygen consumed by our cells is converted into free radicals.

When we exercise, we use lots of oxygen, increasing free radical production and all the stuff that goes with that.

Antioxidants are those highly publicized substances found in plant foods like fruits and vegetables that neutralize free radicals.That's why eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is good for you!

The Study:

It seems logical that taking supplemental antioxidants, like Vitamins C and E, would reduce the harmful effects of the free radicals produced during exercise and promote longer life and better health, right?

That’s what German researchers thought when they decided to observe 40 young healthy men (half were pretty sedentary and half exercised about 6 hours a week)- randomly assigned, half took a combination of 1000mg of vitamin C (btw, the recommended intake is 75mg and 90mg/day for women and men respectively) and 400 IU of vitamin E (recommended intake is 33 IU/d)- these amounts are commonly found in over-the-counter supplements- for 4 weeks while the other half didn’t. Both groups exercised, supervised, 85 minutes a day, five days a week for the 4 weeks of the study (workouts included biking, running and circuit training).

What they Found:

The exercisers NOT taking the antioxidants did have more free radicals floating around in their bodies but had a significant increase in insulin sensitivity (a good thing), as predicted. However, there was no increase in insulin sensitivity in those taking the antioxidants... but there were less free radicals.

It seems that the supplemental antioxidants prevent the health benefits of exercise when it comes to diabetes prevention. According to the authors, the free radicals produced during exercise are actually a good thing as they activate the body’s defense systems against exercise-induced stress, allowing it to use carbohydrates (glucose) more efficiently, thus helping to prevent diabetes and possibly other diseases. Taking supplemental antioxidants blocks this process and therefore health promoting effects of exercise.

Bottom Line:

Antioxidants like Vitamins C and E found in food protect our body from damage and help prevent diseases like cancer- this doesn’t change. However, taking high doses in supplemental form can be harmful.

As I’ve said before, if you're healthy and eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, you don’t need supplements!

Previous blog entries that drive this point home: Vitamin Supplements Can Kill You & Get Rid of your Multivitamin and Eat Real Food!

Diet Myth #1: Fat makes you fat

It's almost summer, time to get bikini-ready, and the perfect time to debunk some of those diet myths!

Nope. Dietary fat does not make you fat.

- Randomized weight loss studies show little net weight change after a year of following a low fat diet- although people on the low fat diets generally lost 2-4 lbs after a few weeks, they also tended to regain that weight while continuing with the diet.

- In European country-to-country surveys , women eating the least amount of fat were the most likely to be obese while those with the higher fat intake were least likely to be so. (For European men, there was no relation between fat intake and obesity).

- In the United States, the gradual reduction of the fat content of the average diet from 40% of total calories to about 33% has been accompanied by a gradual increase in the average weight and a dramatic increase in obesity rates.

Bottom line:

The fat in your diet doesn't make you fat. You gain weight when you eat more calories (whether coming from carbs, protein or fat) than you burn off.
The goal is to cut back on bad fats (saturated and trans fats) and increase good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats).

If you're already on a low fat diet, think about replacing some of those carbs with unsaturated fats.

An added benefit of replacing saturated fats and carbs in your diet with unsaturated fats is that your risk of coronary heart disease and stroke will decrease by :

- Lowering your "lousy" LDL cholesterol, - Preventing the increase of your triglycerides (fat in your blood),
- Reducing development of erratic heartbeats, the main cause of sudden cardiac death,
- Reducing the tendency for arterial blood clots to form.

What's a Whole Grain?

We know that the grains we eat should be "Whole Grains"... and i've blogged about Whole Grains in the past. The topic can be a bit confusing though so I'm going to review.

First, a little quiz:

1. Which bread is usually all or mostly whole grain?
a. Whole Wheat
b. Multi Grain
c. Rye
d. Pumpernickel

2. Which of the following (could be more than one) are whole grains?
a. Bulgur
b. Quinoa
c. Couscous
d. Oatmeal

3. Which cereals are whole grains?
a. Shredded Wheat
b. Total
c. All Bran
d. Corn Flakes
e. Special K


1. Bread

In theory, Multi Grain, Rye and Pumpernickel could all be whole grain... but not always.
The answer is a) Whole Wheat bread... but only in the US.

In Canada and the US, read the ingredient list. If the first ingredient starts with "whole", it's a whole grain. For example, if the first ingredient is "Wheat Flour", it's not a whole grain. If it's "Whole Wheat Flour", it is.

Products labeled with words like "made with whole wheat", "multigrain," "stone ground," "whole wheat (in Canada*)," "seven-grain," or "bran" may actually contain little or no whole grain!

*In Canada, it's legal to advertise any food product as "whole wheat" with up to 70% of the germ removed! A label must state '100% Whole Grain Whole Wheat' for a Canadian consumer to know they're getting a whole grain product.

Don't rely on the colour of the bread- lots of products add molasses to get that brown colour.
Don't rely on fiber amount either since products may add processed fiber from peas or other food that can help prevent constipation and diverticulosis but doesn't offer the antioxidants and phytochemicals whole grains do.

When shopping for bread:

Choose ones that are whole grains AND high in fiber:
-Read the ingredient list and choose a bread that has a whole grain as the first ingredient- in most cases, starting with the word "whole".
-Choose a whole grain bread that contains 2-3 or more grams of fiber per slice.

2. Other Whole Grains

b) Quinoa and d) Oatmeal are whole grains.
Bulgur and Couscous are not always (whole grain bulgur and whole wheat couscous are).

Other whole grains include:
Barley ( but not pearl barley), buckwheat, kamut, millet, brown and wild rice and spelt.


3. Cereal

a) Shredded Wheat and b) Total are whole grains. All Brans, Corn Flakes and Special K are not.

The first ingredient in a whole grain cereal is a whole grain- usually starts with the word "Whole".
For example, the first ingredient in the cereal Grape Nuts is "Whole Grain Wheat Flour" therefore, it's a whole grain.
The first ingredient in the cereal Kellogg's Multi-Grain Rice Krispies is "Rice" therefore it's not a whole grain.

Cereal can be confusing when it comes to choosing a whole grain, partly because of fiber content. For example, Shredded Wheat (a whole grain) has less fiber than All Bran (bran isn't technically a whole grain).

Secondly, sugar added to cereal decreases the amount of fiber. Honey Nut Cheerios (a whole grain) has only 1g fiber per serving. That's because the added sugar takes the place of the whole grain, therefore there's less fiber.

When shopping for cereal:

- Choose a whole grain cereal that is ALSO high in fiber. A whole grain cereal has a whole grain as the first ingredient, usually starting with the word "whole". A high fiber cereal contains more than 5 grams fiber per serving.

- Even though bran isn't technically a whole grain, think of it as a whole grain because the high fiber in the bran has loads of benefits.

- Choose a cereal with less sugar- less than 10g sugar per serving. Sugar replaces some of the whole grain you should be eating.

- Make sure your granola is low fat.

Here's a list of some of the popular breakfast cereals and whether they're whole grains or not:

COLD CEREAL

Whole Grain:
Cheerios
Granola or muesli
Grape Nuts
Raisin Bran
Shredded Wheat
Total
Wheaties

NOT Whole Grain:
Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes
Just Right
Corn Pops
Puffed Wheat
Rice Krispies
Special K

HOT CEREAL

Whole Grain:
Oatmeal
Oat Bran
Quaker Multigrain
Wheatena

NOT Whole Grain:
Cream of rice
Cream of Wheat
Grits

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest: Earliest Example of Farm to Table

In 1957, the BBC reported on Switzerland’s spaghetti crop. According to the report, spaghetti cultivation wasn’t carried out in Switzerland to the same scale as it was in Italy... it was more of a family affair.

It turns out that the last 2 weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer as there’s always the chance for a late frost, something that would impair the flavour of the pasta.

The report is also the first time that the now popular `farm to table` concept was mentioned!

Nonetheless, some things never change... there really is ``nothing like homegrown spaghetti! “

Happy April Fool`s Day!!

Part 2: What do Olympians eat?

I didn’t really answer my own question yesterday- how do these Olympians get the bodies they have... and what do they eat?

Pretty simply, these elite athletes train hard to look the way they do.

That picture of 41 year old swimmer Dara Torres that appeared in the NY Time had some critics speculating that she’s taking performance-enhancing drugs- something she vehemently denies, of course. She’s gone so far as to request that her blood and urine be tested regularly for illegal substances. But how do you explain the fact that she not only is leaner than when she was younger (at 6’0” she weighs 149 lbs, 12 lbs lighter than she was in Sydney in 2000) but more chiseled and faster too, despite the fact that she’s in the pool only 5 times a week totalling 25 000m compared to 10-12 times- totalling 65 000m- when she was in her 20s? Check out how her times have improved with age:

So what is she doing? And what is she eating?

Firstly, she has a head coach, a sprint coach, a strength coach (who happens to also be the Florida Panthers coach and has Sidney Crosby as a client), 2 stretchers, 2 masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny- a cost of 100 000$ a year.

Torres works with her strength coach 4 days a week, 60-90 minutes each time. Her strength coach has veered Torres away from static heavy weight training and more towards dynamic exercises. According to her coach, weight training- low-rep/high-weight- is not good for sprinters since a lot of energy is wasted trying to move a body of big muscles that have been trained to work in isolation. Instead, she does core work, uses swiss balls, medicine balls, resistance cables and bands. Despite the fact that she doesn’t use dumbbells, she gets a great workout- her legs quiver and her arms are aching at the end.

In the year and a half that she started this new weight training regimen, her muscles have become longer and leaner and she’s become faster in the water.

She then swims- 5 times a week for about 2 hours each time.

However, Torres calls her resistance stretching her secret weapon. She has 2 stretchers come to her house about 5 days a week to basically pull and stretch her body vigorously for 2 hours in order to flush out the toxins and lactic acid and help in recovery and flexibility. According to a journalist, the stetching sequence looks like a cross between a yoga class, a massage and a Cirque du Soleil performance!

Torres also gets massages 3 times a week.

Clearly time and money are also important factors that help you get a 6-pack like Torres!

But what does she eat? That was a bit harder to find out. Because of her past experience with bulimia, she says she doesn’t count calories and she indulges in her cravings... whatever that means. She takes a German-made amino-acid supplement for muscle recovery and strength. That’s pretty much all I could find. Oh, and her favourite power breakfast is a berry-flavored Living Fuel shake with some milk and real fruit.

Just as actors are coached by their publicists to downplay the time it takes to make them look flawless for an event, I found that most athletes seem to downplay their nutrition and workout regimen- maybe to keep their training secrets to themselves?

For example, Erik Vendt, also an American swimmer, the first American to break 15 minutes in the mile and 2-time Olympic silver medalist, credits his return from retirement, at age 27, to an organic diet. So now, if I eat all organic, will I too be a top 5 ranked swimmer in the world? I don’t think so.

Marion Jones, Track and Field phenom at the 2000 Sydney games, credited her amazing performance to nutritional supplements that included flaxseed oil and iron. I guess we learned they contained a bit more than that...

I also found that many athletes don’t eat that much (I discussed this yesterday)... but maybe some are just unaware or downplaying what they eat?

English heptathlete Kelly Sotherton eats 2 toasts with butter and marmite and a cup of tea for breakfast... and nothing else until lunch 4.5 hours later! Kevin Tan, American gymnast, eats eggs and toast for breakfast, a light lunch and a healthy dinner- usually chicken. That’s it- despite the fact that he trains 2-4 hours a day 6 days a week! American weight lifter Tara Nott Cunningham- the first American woman to win an Olympic gold in her sport (in 2000) and US record holder in snatch, clean and jerk and total weight lifted- will have 2 hard-boiled eggs, grapefruit, cottage cheese and decaf coffee. A typical supper for mountain biker Susan Haywood would be grilled salmon with roasted peppers and organic low fat yogourt for dessert. Doesn’t seem much to me...

I did find examples of athletes who seem to place a large importance on nutrition and seem to eat to compete:

Apolo Anton Ohno, reigning American short track speedskating champ since 2001claims to constantly be working to improve his nutrition knowledge and attributes his newfound ab definition to his food intake. He doesn’t count calories but states to be in tune with his nutrition and can feel when he needs to add more grams of fat, protein or carbs.

Canadian triathlete and 2008 Olympic hopeful Lauren Groves claims to be very aware of the foods she eats... and she does eat... very healthily it seems. She usually has three breakfasts- because she finds breakfast food easier to digest. She starts her morning, pre-swim- with a couple of pieces of sprouted-grain bread with some almond butter and a cup of coffee. Post-swim she’ll have some scrambled eggs and fruit- and maybe some more toast. After her second workout, midafternoon, she’ll have a bowl of goat’s milk yogurt with some fruit added, or a turkey sandwich. For supper she’ll have a really big salad and some kind of grilled chicken or fish.

You’d think that given the large amount of calories they spend, these athletes would indulge a bit. However, these are elite athletes and their bodies are their livelihoods. US rower Jennifer Devine has said that just because she needs 3500 to 4000 calories a day doesn’t mean she can eat whatever she likes. She stays away from processed, pre-packaged foods because they are high in salt and fat. Wrestler Patricia Miranda, first American woman in Olympic history to receive a medal in woman's wrestling (in Athens), stated that although she doesn’t count calories, she doesn’t want to waste them on "foods that don’t provide positive fuel".

However, there are always exceptions:

Michael Phelps, American swimmer, 7-time Olympic gold medalist (most recent win just a few hours ago!) and current world record holder in a few events, reportedly eats 8,000 to 10,000 calories per day when training and says "I just eat pretty much whatever I want and as much as I want, because I burn so much."

He says he swims 6-7 days a week, 2-5 hours a day, about 50 miles a week, and- this is the downplaying part- he once said, "I've never lifted a single weight in my life". However, he does admit that since the Athens games he’s added a strength training regimen, three times a week, to put on 14 pounds of muscle.

1500 and 5000m runner Bernard Lagat loves steak and has steak before race day. He is aware that most people avoid steak before a competition for fear of it digesting slowly and slowing them down. However, before his win at the 2007 World Championships, he had gone to Outback and ordered the biggest steak he could! "You have to do what works for your body" he says.

Professional distance runner, 2 mile record holder (8:07:07) and fourth fastest American 5000m runner of all time, Matt Tegenkamp, has ice cream and peanut butter 3-4 times a week... and doesn’t use a bowl!

American middle-distance runner Nick Symmonds has a burger every Tuesday and pizza on the weekend- and will even have 3-4 beers on Saturday!

American swimmer and 2-time Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Benko admits to having eaten McDonald’s for lunch the day she set the world record in the 1200m freestyle...although she doesn’t recommend that. She actually tries to keep her protein intake high and carb intake low... which is actually contrary to what the science shows us- that carbs should be an athlete’s predominant fuel.

American gymnast Stephen McCain is another proponent of the low carb diet claiming that since gymnastics is an anaerobic sport, his body needs more protein. 60-70% of his diet actually comes from protein: egg whites for breakfast, chicken for lunch, small snacks of cheese and vegetables and maybe fish and fruit for dinner.

“I’m years old, so I’m going to do what I’m going to do,” he says. “But I think I’ve finally got a real good grip on what’s right”.

However, he said this during a 2004 interview... maybe he's since changed his tune and reverted back to a higher carb diet?

Someone who is known to have been obessed with his diet is Lance Armstrong, 7-time Tour de France winner. He used to weigh his food and calculate, calorie for calorie, how much food he needed during his training and competition.

According to Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, athletes need to eat in correspondence to the period they are in in their training- periodization is a training technique where your training is broken down into periods, each with a different goal. The nutrients you need varies between periods- and, according to Carmichael, it’s not as simple as adding a granola bar or 2 when the training gets tougher- the ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat changes as well.

For example,leading up to the Tour de France, Armstrong used to up his caloric intake from 3000 to 6000 or more calories- the average rider burns between 7000-10 000 calories per day of the 21-dayTour that covers about 2200 miles- and his carbohydrate intake increased frm 60% to 70% of his total calories.

Sources:

"A swimmer of a certain age" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29torres-t.html?pagewanted=6&ref=olympics

"Torres is getting older, but swimming faster" http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/sports/othersports/18torres.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&adxnnlx=1218294193-NgzQccK3nGG7lC3/N/N7lA

"What's driving Dara Torres" http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1825304,00.html

"41 and ripped: I want abs like hers" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080808.wlabs08/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

"Weight no problem for Cunningham" http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/athens/fight/2004-07-01-cunningham-weightlifting-oly-glory_x.htm

"How Olympians Eat" http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100205413

"Eat to win" http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/eat-to-win?page=4

"Eat like a champion" http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-301--6686-1-1-2,00.html

"Slideshow: What it takes to get an Olympic body" http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/slideshow-olympic-body

"Canada's Olympic women eat to compete" http://www.straight.com/article-156506/medalhungry-olympic-women-eat-compete

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Tegenkamp

"What does Lance eat for breakfast" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2004/07/27/hlance27.xml

"How many cheeseburgers does Lance Armstrong need to eat?" http://scienceline.org/2008/07/25/blog-mahan-cheeseburgers/

"The inside edge: 41 Olympians share 84 insights into training, eating & competing" http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KGB/is_6_5/ai_n6110824

"What do Olympic gymnasts eat anyway?" http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/5317716/

http://www.doubleazone.com/images/marionjones.jpg

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2004/04/startracks/040920/mphelps.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,695143_8,00.html&h=400&w=300&sz=41&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=qlzVOcjl13lh-M:&tbnh=124&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmichael%2Bphelps%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

http://i.pbase.com/g4/02/589102/2/63551373.orgzJh9g.jpg

http://www.adrenalinefitnessny.com/content/lancearmstrong.jpg