100-mile trek changed my diet, says Cracknell
OLYMPIAN James Cracknell has told how his outlook on food was transformed after running 100 miles in five days without eating.
The rower took part in the challenge with nine people, including his brother-in-law Jon Furniss, 42, to show how the body can function running on fat rather than carbohydrates.
James, 48, ate a ketogenic, or very low-carbohydrate diet for two weeks before the experiment so his body was “fat-adapted” and they ran alongside medics to ensure it was safe.
And despite living on nothing but water and black tea for five days, everyone completed the challenge with no complications.
The trial was organised by Dr Ian Lake, who has Type 1 diabetes, ran himself, and wants to show how a low-carb lifestyle can help treat the illness.
The sportsman’s brother-in-law and two others who took part are also diabetic, but James also wanted to test if his carb heavy, low-fat diet a hangover from his sporting career was healthier than a low-carb high fat diet for an endurance athlete. “I was a carbaholic,” he said. “For a sports person carbs are vital to reach peak performance and I have continued that throughout my adult life.
“But I have realised how I just don’t need to be eating that much carbohydrate, none of us do. It is no surprise how many people are overweight because of diet and lack of exercise.
“As a society we are too carborientated. It is not about weight loss, but about how to stay healthy, and of course, I am not advocating a zero-carb diet. We should be looking at having a balanced lifestyle.
But this has changed my thinking on food entirely. I feel just as healthy eating far less carbohydrate. I’m not in elite sports anymore, I don’t need that much. My diet will change from now on.”
James’s diet previously consisted of a high amount of pasta, rice, grains and porridge, but now he focuses on foods such as eggs, cheese and meat.
The current dietary guidance is that 55 p per cent of our daily food intake should be carbohydrate. But m more than 60 per cent of Brito Britons are overweight, one in five 11-year-olds are obese an and a third of people in the U UK are pre-diabetic.
Almost four million people have diabetes in the UK, 90 per cent of whom have Type 2, which you are more likely to get if you are overweight. All carbohydrat drate is converted into glucose, and in someone without diabete diabetes the body produces insulin to de deal with the glucose that enters th their blood.
Those with Type 2 diabetes are often recommended a low-carb diet to reduce their weight and increase their chances of putting their illness into remission. Reducing carbohydrate intake can help to reduce the spikes and crashes in sugar levels that are common on higher carb diets, but a low-carb diet is not always recommended.
James added: “If I had the energy to run that far then a lowcarb diet has more than enough energy to enable us to live a healthy, active and rewarding life.”