Back to the grind...

Well, its definitely been too long. In my defense, I have been busy, but alas, there's no excuse and I will not wait as long to post again. So...let's move on.

Study Study Study

What have I been up to?

Well, I finally began working on my masters degree, which is something that I was terrified have been looking forward to doing over the past several years.  My first course was "The Science of Sports Nutrition" which was challenging, but in one word...AWESOME! Getting back into the science of nutrition was intimidating as its been a while since I looked at metabolism, but it was definitely worth it.

I learned so many things about athletes. Hydration needs, Macro nutrient needs (think protein, carbs and fat), Vitamin and Mineral needs, as well as information on Supplements. Some of the really cool stuff I learned had to do with caffeine and exercise.  One of our assignments had to do with supplements and sports. More specifically supplements as ergogenic aids.  What is that?  Ergo-what?

Supplements that are ergogenic aids assist an athletes performance.  There are many of these that are effective, but many are controversial and some are illegal or banned from use (thinking of a certain cyclist yet?)

Anyway, I chose the supplement caffeine for my research and dove into the science.  It turns out there's a bunch of scientific studies out there just waiting to be read.

Our Coffee Bar

(Disclaimer Here: This is research I performed for a school project and I can provide references if requested.  This is in no way written as a recommendation for anyone reading this to begin taking caffeine supplementation.  Caffeine while considered socially acceptable is still a drug and can have detrimental consequences when too much is ingested.  Use your own judgement and ask your physician if you have any questions....oh yeah, I am a little biased because I love coffee and use caffeine daily, incase you wanted to know)


After doing the research, I concluded that for trained athletes caffeine is an effective ergogenic aid (i.e. will help you perform better) Sorry non athletes, while the studies did support some improvement in your performance, it was not enough to make conclusions yet.  Most of the studies had athletes ingest the caffeine about an hour to an hour and a half before their events.  They figured that way it would be already circulating in the blood and the body could use it right away.

Caffeine won't solve all your problems though and some caution should be had.  Some of the studies showed that athletes who were not used to caffeine got jittery, nauseated, and even cried when they took higher doses of it...so be careful and know your limits.  It works by speeding up your body's fight or flight system and can increase your blood pressure.

Oh, and just a word to the wise, don't test anything like caffeine out ON race day! If you try it or anything else new, do it before hand and do a run through as you don't want any surprises the day of a race.

So that's kind of the short and sweet of that class. I may include more information on athletes in later posts and I really loved the entire course.

I think It's time for some coffee!

I am currently in my second course as the first wrapped up last week.  My second course is "Biostatistics" (I might need some coffee to get through this one).

I have some fun food stuff to post, but have to run out.  I won't take so long between posts next time.

Have a good day!

Erin