| Steve Phinney and Jeff Volek have done a lot of research into high performance athletes using a ketogenic diet (see, for instance, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance[1]). Extreme endurance athletes are using ketogenic diets as a tool to smash records in ultramarathon running[2]. Nobody needs carbohydrate. That doesn't mean carbs are necessarily bad, but the long-time trope that you have to have them if you want to move further than your couch is just silly and has long been disproven (if, by nobody else, hunter-gatherers who had gone days without food while running down a kill). Phinney and Volek have found interesting things about fat and high-intensity exercise: * Fat utilization in keto-adapted individuals that is, literally, re-writing textbooks. Levels of fat mobilization that have never been seen in laboratories is being recorded. This likely has a genetic component, what I would consider the opposite of the multiple copies of the amylase gene that highly carb-tolerant people seem to have. * Fat requires less oxygen to utilize, leading to less lactic acid, less muscle tissue damage, and faster recovery. * Keto-adapted athletes are much more efficient in their use of their glycogen stores, using less when passing 70% VO2-max and replenishing supplies faster. They do not store as much glycogen as carb-burners, so the net effect winds up being about the same amount of power from glycogen between carb and fat burners. That doesn't mean there are no athletes who would see benefits of carbs, but, in a fat-adapted state, those carbs can be much, much more strategic in nature (the cyclist sprinting over the hill, the olympic lifter in competition, etc). Peter Attia talks a lot about his strategic use of carbs while exercising[3]. Personally, I see beans as a food to be very cautious with. The phytates, lectins, and saponins in them are there to protect the seed, since plants can't run away to protect their offspring. They use chemical warfare, and are quite good at it, leading to poor absorption of nutrients[4]. Properly preparing them (soaking and fermenting) can address this problem, something done in all societies previous to the 20th century, but rarely done now. I also can't see any reason to use low fat, well, anything. Fat is a perfectly healthy macronutrient, and, when going for low fat, you are typically getting a lot of sugar and additives put in to replace the taste and texture of the lost fat. On the other hand, live-cultured dairy products, for those who can tolerate lactose, are an amazing food. 1. http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/the-art-and-science-of... 2. http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2012/08/11/western-states-100... 3. http://eatingacademy.com 4. http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/49/1/140.short |