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Eating for Heating

Now that we are back to the desperate frosty days of the white water season its time to think once again about keeping warm. After all what is the ambition of every kayaker if not to stay warm and dry?

Well forget about the new non-leaky spraydeck and super special dry cag: they won`t arrive until Christmas - you did mention them when you wrote to the man in the big red cape didn`t you? No, white water kayaking is the ideal opportunity to eat more before or after Christmas. After all the more fuel (food) you provide the warmer the fire!

First some basics. There are essentially three sources of energy in our food: carbohydrates (4kcal per gram), protein (4kcal per gram) and fat (9kcal per gram). `Ah! the answer is obvious, eat more fat!` you might say but you would be wrong.

Second even more basics - I can see that you are keen to go paddling but read on. Not all calories are the same, some are better than others. Some types of food are fast burning and can be used quickly whilst other types release their energy much more slowly. To get the most from our food we need a nice even release of energy: if it all comes out at once our bodies will just produce insulin to eliminate it and that would be a waste; if it all comes out too slowly then we freeze whilst waiting.

For white water paddling we want a steady release of energy through the day or the weekend. The best food for this is complex carbohydrate, the sort found in rice, pasta, potatoes, lentils and bread. It is released steadily and is readily used by our muscles. Simple carbohydrates (sugars) have a role to play but are absorbed very quickly: great for a pick up when you are running low on fuel just before lunch or when you get off the water, but no good for keeping you going all day. Whilst fats store more energy than carbohydrates, this energy is less readily available: a trickle rather than the rush needed for paddling and keeping warm all day.

So what should an aspiring (or should that be perspiring) warm white water kayaker eat: a high carbohydrate diet that is low in fats and sugars. In practice this can be achieved by following two guides. First avoid heavily refined and processed foods like sweets, chocolate and ready prepared meals which are usually high in fats and sugars. Second, aim to keep the energy intake from fats down to 20 to 30% of your total intake and that might mean using a calculator! Look at the nutritional information panel on the food packaging and you should be able to see one line "energy" in kcal and another "fat" in g. Multiply the fat by 9 to get the energy content of the fat. Divide this by the total energy content and multiply by 100 to get a percentage. If the answer is less than 20% that`s good, but if its more than 30% that`s not so good. Here are two examples:

Malt loaf:

"Low Fat" Crisps:

So what does this mean in practice, do I have to spend an evening in the supermarket with a calculator before each white water trip? No. You can spend time with the calculator at home or follow the simple guidelines below.

Dinner (the evening before paddling)

Breakfast

Pre-paddle snack

Lunch

After paddle snack

Dinner

Happy paddling and keep your fingers crossed that Santa remembers your centrally heated dry cag this year.

Date first published: January 2006 by Peter Mansell

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