One thing to remember is that the brain runs on straight glucose, not
protein. The rest of the body can burn other sources of calories, heart
muscle will burn just about anything. But the brain must have sugar. If you
are prone to hypoglycemia a better solution might be to maintain a fairly
constant intake of complex carbohydrates (starches, etc) this keeps the
blood sugar level up without the peaks that can be caused by simple sugars
(soft drinks and regular sugar). The peaks tend to cause regulatory systems
to kick in to lower blood sugar and result in a decrease that can
overcompensate if there is no current intake. By keeping some snack
crackers or some other starchy food handy I can keep myself going by
grapping an occasional handful. The trick is to not eat large quantities at
one time or to go too long without. Of course I am a diabetic, so I have
learned from experience and have the equipment needed to check my blood
sugar periodically. BTW, the newer blood glucose monitors are very small,
quite fast and very easy to use. This might be an interesting way to
monitor performance, I have never seen any literature that has followed
blood sugar versus complex activity like contesting in the literature (I am
a pharmacist by profession). I can't help but wonder what kind of results
would be seen for some of the folks that seem to be able to sit and go on
for long periods.
At 04:17 PM 12/3/99 EST, you wrote:
>
>Eating carbohydrates causes blood sugars to rise and then fall. Those who
>tend toward hypoglycemia, have radical falls that cause extreme fatigue and
>even light headed-ness. For most, the dissipating carbos is what causes the
>drowsiness.
>
>Contest food should be high in protein (meat, cheese, nuts) and very low in
>carbs. This keeps you pretty stable. The downside is going too far on
>limiting carbs and putting yourself into ketosis. That can give you raging
>headaches and leg cramps. The solution is to drink lots of water, which, of
>course, leads to another problem during contests.
>
>I don't know how we successfully contested for so many years on chocolate
>chip cookies, candy and tacos!
>
>Tom, K5RC
>
>
>--
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>Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
>
>
>
Jim Rhodes KC0XU
rhodes@willinet.net
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