A plug for SHAKES.

Creating the world’s tastiest sports recovery food - an insider’s tory.

From the start, we were determined to create more than a recovery drink.

We wanted to created a complete recovery food in a bottle which was ready to use and enjoy straight after sport.

 Real Food for Sport

Milk, fruit, sugar, vitamins and minerals.  The secret of our recovery.

We don’t use lab-processed protein.  We use natural milk.  Why?

Because milk contains some of the best high value biological protein known to man including slow protein (Casein) and fast protein (Whey).  It provides the 9 essential amino acids the body can’t produce which are vital for muscle recovery.  The human body knows how to use milk’s nutrition – it’s been doing it for thousands of years. Our carbohydrate comes from two sources: fruit and natural sugars which help to re-energise the body fast after training.

Taste

A foul tasting recovery product is a waste of time – it doesn’t get used.  For Goodness Shakes works because athletes finish bottles of it after training, enjoying every last drop.  For world class recovery, taste matters.  Our liquid-food formula is easy on the stomach and easy to digest at a time when you need to eat but don’t feel like it.

There are 4 unfussy flavours: chocolate, berry, banana and Organic Vanilla to be looked forward to after a good session.  Extra smooth and just sweet enough.

Perfect Ratio

For Goodness Shakes is created with 3 parts carbohydrate to 1 part protein.  That’s just the right level of protein for recovery after sport.  Too little protein and muscle recovery wouldn’t happen.  Too much protein and the body won’t absorb the product fast enough to get where it is needed fast and re-hydration is less effective.  Our chocolate For Goodness Shakes has a 4 to 1 ratio – the same amount of protein but a bit more carbohydrate for the more strenuous sessions.

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Breakfast – you need it.
By Alexandra Walton, FGS Nutritionist

You’ve heard it before, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Overnight your body has used up most of your energy so you need to get your body fired up again in the morning. Studies show that exercising on an empty stomach leads to faster onset of fatigue which may mean you finish your workout early, getting less benefit. A decent brekkie however will give you the fuel to power through a tough workout session as well as keeping you on top form for the whole day ahead.

It’s about REAL food to get you going. High fibre breakfast choices; including whole grains like oats, whole grain toast, fresh or dried fruit keep your body healthy through releasing energy slowly throughout the day meaning you are less likely to crave the crisps and chocolate at 4pm.

Here are some great gym energisers – perfect for breakfast or a pre-gym snack.
Start with about half a cup of porridge oats…

• Add a handful of fresh or dried fruit; full of instant energy, vitamins and antioxidants - an easy way to get one of your 5 a day.
•  Add skimmed milk and yoghurt for protein, it’ll also help keep hunger at bay.
• Finish off with nuts and seeds for healthy unsaturated fats and added energy boost.
• If you’re more of a toast person, make it wholegrain bread with seeds… add baked beans on top – for fibre and B vitamins top with jam, manuka honey, marmalade, marmite – minus the inch of butter underneath!or try cottage cheese and a piece of lean meat like ham even try a few slices of fruit toast or two hot cross buns topped with slices of banana, jam, marmalade or honey

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Every year it seems there is an ultimate well being silver bullet proliferating on health food store shelves promising amazing benefits. GOJI or Chinese Wolfberry is one of a number of adaptogens  with the added attraction of being derived from an exotically originated Tibetan location (great for marketing hype). Digging beneath the hype, there is an emerging body of solid science around some of the tabloid claims that Goji is an efficacious adaptogen.

The goji berry contains 19 amino acids, including 9 that are essential for proper body functioning. This vitamin rich berry also contains 21 trace minerals, more protein than a serving of whole wheat, and more vitamin C than an orange.

The goji is super abundant in what are known as Glyconutritionals (Phytonutrients, Saccharides). These have been shown to lower cholesterol, increase lean muscle mass, decrease body fat, accelerate wound healing, ease allergy symptoms, and allay autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, psoriasis, and diabetes. Bacterial infections, including the recurrent ear infections that plague toddlers, often respond remarkably to saccharides, as do many viruses–from the common cold to the flu, from herpes to HIV. The debilitating symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome and  fibromyalgia can abate after adding saccharides. And, for cancer patients, saccharides mitigate the toxic effects of radiation and chemotherapy–while augmenting their cancer-killing effects, resulting  in prolonged survival and improved quality of life. Marine
Phytoplankton and Goji (Lycium) berries are a rich source of saccharides/glyconutrients

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Moderation in all things is a simple, consistent guideline to most things in life including hydrating in summer endurance events. Get your fluid and electrolyte balance right  and you can underwrite a performance, get it wrong and drink water to excess and you can potentially be facing up to catastrophic ill health. In the worst case scenario,  you can overwhelm your sodium levels in your plasma with excess water and  be battling hyponatremia.

Hyponatremia is a disturbance in the fluid-electrolyte balance, causing an abnormally low plasma sodium concentration (less than 135 millimoles per liter). The normal range of plasma sodium concentration is 136 to 142 millimoles per liter. An ongoing decrease in plasma sodium concentration upsets the osmotic balance across the blood-brain barrier and can trigger a rapid entry of water into the brain.

A reduction in plasma sodium concentration to 130 to 134 millimoles per liter generally causes no apparent symptoms. Early signs and symptoms of hyponatremia tend to develop when the plasma sodium concentration falls below 130 millimoles per liter and include bloating, “puffiness,” nausea, vomiting, and headache.

There are many potential causes of hyponatremia, but most often it is simple over-hydration. Exercise-associated hyponatremia is primarily caused by drinking an amount of fluid that exceeds sweat and urinary water losses. The most likely explanation for exercise-associated hyponatremia is that excessive drinking reduces the plasma sodium concentration. During exercise, urine output decreases and sets the stage for hyponatremia if too much fluid is ingested or
retained.

In general, an athlete who drinks too much during exercise lasting more than four hours in hot, humid climates is at risk of developing hyponatremia. Smaller and slower athletes who go over the top with fluid intake are at high risk. While large athletes are not ‘immune’ to hyponatremia, the fact is small athletes require less fluid to dilute their extracellular fluid. Slower-paced endurance athletes have more time and more chance to consume too much fluid.

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Pomegranates are being hailed as a super-food which can protect the heart, turbo-boost antioxidative action and assist in athlete well being.   There exist a multitude of health benefits to be gained with the introduction of pomegranates to your diet. The active ingredients in the fruit are positively implicated in cancer deterrence with most studies to date focused on prostate cancer application. Pomegranate extracts and pomegranate juice have some potential benefits in treating prostate cancer. Researchers have been able to demonstrate that they may stop prostate cancer cell growth, induce cancer cell death and inhibit angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels that supply tumors with nutrients and oxygen). Also, tests(2) have shown that PSA (prostate specific antigen, an indicator of inflammation or cancer of the prostate) levels may be lowered by
pomegranates. In addition, further studies indicate that pomegranates might not only help treat but may also help prevent prostate cancer(3).

In addition, studies have reported anti-inflammatory properties, and to boot, pomegranate oil has antimicrobial and antiviral compounds.

The major active compounds in pomegranates are antioxidative polyphenols. Similar to berries with the most efficacious antioxidative activities  performed by  hydrolyzable tannins, which are polyphenols (1). The tannin, punicalgin, accounts for more than 50% of the antioxidative strength alone(2) of pomegrenates.

Pomegranates may also have a major role to play in improving heart health due to their positive effect on the cardiovascular system(4,5). Studies have revealed that pomegranate juice may lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. Also, low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation and macrophage foam cell development may be reduced. Both processes are seen as a precursor for atherosclerosis.

Scientists in Israel have shown that drinking a daily glass of the fruit’s juice can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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Measuring health by how far you can run is a bad metric. So is using the bench press as a measure of anything other than a bench press.A run is just a run and a bench press is just a bench press. Health and performance are something altogether different and far too complex for any single measure says Dr.Art Devany

More of us should take note of Dr. Devany’s observation. Endurance athletes often mistake fitness for health and well being; be warned they are not interchangeable.

Over the years we have written about the dangers posed to athlete health by overdoing it training and racing. We are prompted to do so again because of the emergence of an alarmingly consistent body of evidence that shows endurance athletes can face major illness threats from mismanagement of their immune systems over time. While the popular online press is awash with some fairly tabloid depictions of cancer-riddled ultra endurance types succumbing in their thousands, it’s vital to take a step back and examine the mechanisms of immunity, the adaptive processes, and sensible management strategies – before jumping to sensational conclusions.

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Since Cliff Harvey first wrote here about the role of neurotransmitters in improving arousal, mental clarity and cognitive functions a few years back, the sports nutrition market has been flooded with new snake oil options said to raise your awareness and performance.

Neurotransmitters are, simply put the messengers that the brain uses to provide communication between cells. In sporting and athletic terms they provide the ‘mind to muscle link’ that allows us to contract our muscles repeatedly and forcefully.

If our neurotransmitter levels are low then we will fatigue more rapidly and in the case of strength based activities our muscles will contract less forcefully. We will also suffer from a general reduction in focus and an increase in perceived exertion.

Neurotransmitters are synthesised from amino acids in the foods we eat. The most common neurotransmitters are: Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, histamine, serotonin and acetylcholine. There are also many neuro-active peptides that exhibit certain (but not all) characteristics of neurotransmitters.

The most important of the neurotransmitters from a sports performance perspective are Dopamine, Epinephrine and norepinephrine and acetylcholine. As Dr John Berardi explains

“Some evidence exists showing that when neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine get depleted, physical and cognitive performance suffers. Since these neurotransmitters can be depleted from intense repeated bouts of strenuous exercise, this is bad news. I believe that certain types of fatigue with endurance training as well as many of the symptoms of over training (altered appetite, inability to sleep, etc.) are a result of this type of depletion of neurotransmitters. In addition to this evidence, there is research showing that even the ratio of tryptophan to BCAA in the blood can increase 5-HT (serotonin) levels in the brain. This is due to increased tryptophan uptake in the brain. Tryptophan is a precursor for the fatigue promoting neurotransmitter, serotonin(USD 7.11) .”

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