Time for a rethink on carb loading...??

In the world of marathon running, the concept of 'carb loading' before a race is well known. The idea is that runners eat lots of food high in carbohydrates in the few days proceeding a race to make sure that their energy stores in their muscles and liver are at a high level.

One of the advocates of this approach was Professor Tim Noakes from South Africa who is the author of the book Lore of Running which would be considered by many to be the bible of running books.

Recently, Prof. Noakes has completely changed his view on carbohydrates and now advocates a high fat / low carb diet instead. Needless to say, any advice which says that high fat levels are ok to eat runs completely against the general mantra that all fat is bad.

This is probably a subject that we will see a lot more of in the future. For the moment, you can listen to this interview below and you can make up your own mind...




If you want to hear more info on this concept, the British Journal of Sports Medicine have a poscast below of an discussion between Dr. Peter Brukner and Prof. Time Noakes...

Additional info...
Marathon Talk have an interview with Tim Noakes available as a podcast. Click HERE (Listen between 44:30 and 1:19:32)