The Athlete’s Fix
Written by Pip Taylor published by Velopress reviewed by Matthew Pioro
Getting the right food for a big event isn’t always as simple as pounding back plates of pasta the night before. Actually, at one point in Pip Taylor’s book, The Athlete’sfix, the author does add some nuance to the practice of carbo loading. Fuelling for competition, however, is only one part of Taylor’s look at how our bodies process the stuff that keeps us moving at our best. What concerns the sports dietitian and triathlete mainly is food intolerances.
Food intolerances, which manifest themselves in various ways, from gastrointestinal issues to even cloudy thinking, can hold you back in your training and target events. Detecting, diagnosing and addressing food intolerances is tricky. The science can be dubious. Taylor, who has had food intolerances affect her athletic performances, developed a system for helping you find out what’s not jiving with your system. She puts you on a diet.
Now, we’re not talking about a fad diet or some weird cleanse. The thing about Taylor’s system is that it’s based on a scientific method and doesn’t make any wild promises. First – and I’m simplifying things here – remove all the junk from your diet. It’s tough to do even when you train hard. I know I’ve justified half a bag of Cheetos after a long day in the saddle. I earned a little indulgence, right? Nope. Junk is still junk. Next, take out what Taylor calls inflammatory foods, for what they do to your intestine, such as sugars, sweeteners, refined carbs, trans fats and processed foods. Then take out foods that are likely to be irritants. Finally, spend some time on the base functional diet.
What’s left to eat on this base functional diet? Taylor provides a bunch of tasty recipes in her book: bacon egg tarts, chili lime chicken wings with cucumber salad, coconut beef curry, even gingerbread cookies. The base functional diet is not only flavourful, it can fuel you for your training and racing.
Once you’ve been on the diet for three weeks, you start introducing foods that could be problematic. Like any experiment, you’re controlling the variables and recording what you see. Taylor’s book is an excellent guide for your experiments. If you are a hard-core racer or simply someone who likes to ride and stay healthy, and you suspect you might have some food intolerances, The athlete’s Fix is the place to start.