🤔 Nutritional supplements are frequently advertised as the most effective way to enhance recovery after a strenuous workout. But is this really true? How do these supplements compare to fast food, which is at the opposite end of the dietary spectrum?
🚴💦 A recent study set out to answer these questions. The study involved healthy young men who completed a 90-minute intense bike ride. Afterwards, they consumed either a variety of nutritional supplements or fast food (including hamburgers, fries, and Coke) every hour for two hours. The participants then rested for a total of four hours, during which time blood and muscle biopsies were taken to evaluate their recovery. After this four-hour period, they completed a 25k time trial as intensely as possible to see if they recovered better or worse on the supplements or fast food.
🤯 The results showed that there were absolutely no differences between consuming high-end supplements or fast food in terms of recovery parameters (such as glycogen and performance), as well as blood values (such as insulin, glucose, and lipids). Does this mean that you can simply replace all your post-exercise nutrition with fast food? Of course not - this was only a short-term study. However, it does demonstrate that supplements are not essential for optimizing recovery, and that normal food, even fast food, can also do the job well as long as it provides sufficient carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
Read full study here: PMID: 25811308
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