Matthew Kadey - Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports and Adventure

Copyright 2016 by Matthew Kadey

All rights reserved. Published by VeloPress, a division of Competitor Group, Inc.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Kadey, Matt.

Title: Rocket fuel : power-packed food for sports and adventure / Matthew Kadey, RD.

Description: Boulder, Colorado : VeloPress, c2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015042481 | ISBN 9781937715465 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781937716790 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Nutrition. | High-carbohydrate diet. | High-protein diet.

Classification: LCC RA784 .K225 2016 | DDC 613.2dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042481

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Cover design: Andy Omel

Art direction and interior design: Vicki Hopewell

Cover and recipe photography: Aaron Colussi, also

Adventure photography: Michael Clark,

Food styling by Eric Leskovar

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CONTENTS

Athletes increasingly want to eat the same foods as everyone else and energize their pursuits with wholesome ingredients.

As any seasoned athlete or adventure seeker will attest, what you put in your stomach BEFORE , DURING , and AFTER exercise can mean all the difference between a winning performance and one that wont make any headlines.

To be a champion, you have to eat like one. You dont want to let your hard work on the saddle, in the gym, or on the field go to waste by not fueling properly. If your competition is eating optimally for performance and youre taking nutrition lightly, you shouldnt be surprised when you get left in the dust.

Even though no one food can turn a donkey into a racehorse and produce an instant athlete, consuming the right combination of foods and drinks on a daily basis can go a long way in helping you train harder and longer. In turn, good workouts will make the most of good nutrition practices. So whether you are a frequent Tough Mudder, mountain bike racer, bodybuilder, or mountaineer preparing for your next summit, good nutrition over the long haul is a key aspect of a successful fitness regimen. In other words, think marathon, not sprint, when it comes to sports nutrition and healthy eating.

With that in mind, when youre heading out for a run, ride, paddle, or hike in the great outdoors, it can be tempting to stuff your jersey pockets and backpack full of packaged sports nutrition products that promise to deliver peak performance. Before and after exercise are times you might find yourself swayed by the convenience and touted benefits of those products. And with daily life feeling more time-crunched than ever, why would you bother trading in the portable, ready-to-use packaged bars, gels, and their ilk for homemade fuel? Its a valid question indeed, but when you take a closer look at the pros and cons of either option, its one that can be answered with resounding support for fuel from your own kitchen.

WHILE THE ORIGINS of the premade, packaged energy-food market can be disputed, few would argue that the release of the malleable, malt-flavored PowerBar in the 80s was a launching pad for what has now become a multibillion-dollar business. Sure, its cardboard-like taste was appetite killing and it would turn harder than carbon when temperatures dipped, but athletes suddenly had a convenient source of energy that they could stash in their gym bags or backpacks and turn to in a flash.

In the years since, the market has been flooded with a dizzying array of engineered products that run the gamut from powders to bars designed to provide athletes of all stripes with specialized fuel. As society as a whole abandoned their kitchens in droves in response to increasing demands on time, these products continued to rise in popularity and even transcended the role of workout fuel to become regular snacks and meals. Professional athletes with sizable sponsorship deals have been all too happy to plug one product or another as a means of achieving athletic greatness. And the rise in popularity of sporting events such as marathons, Gran Fondo road races, and mud runs has only served to fuel the packaged-fuel biz. Heck, you can now even subscribe to delivery services where a box of bars, chews, and sticky gels arrives at your front door monthlyexercise fuel in your hands without moving a muscle.

Despite the size and prevalence of this prepackaged food industry, a powerful movement is now afoot among athletes and adventurers. They are increasingly ignoring the sea of sales pitches and flashy packaging and instead once again turning back to energy food created in their own kitchens to power their active lifestyles. Food blogs, Pinterest, and other social media platforms are being saturated with recipes from pro athletes as well as weekend warriors, all offering up tasty ideas for homemade bars, sports drinks, and copious other sweet and savory performance-fuel options. These athletes are committed to raising the bar, so to speak, on sports nutrition. Its never been a better time to be a fit foodie.

While the day of the prepackaged gel and bar hasnt yet come and gone, and likely wont ever disappear, there is a broad movement in sports nutrition toward once again embracing real food. More people are becoming aware of the potential benefits of ditching some of the store-bought stuff for made-with-love forms of performance nutrition that keep them naturally fit.

Most important, diet has become the new essential and important arena that athletes are scrutinizing to find competitive gains. No longer is the athletic crowd using their workouts as an excuse to stuff themselves silly on boxed cereal and frozen pizza with too many multisyllabic ingredients. Instead, amateurs and pros alike are applying the same level of intensity and focus to their eating habits as they do to their training and competition. Thats because its now well understood that sound nutrition is a vital element in overall performance.