Nutrition is bodybuilding! The foods you eat will not only determine how fast and strong your muscle tissue cells will rebuild, but more important they will definitely help to determine how healthy and long a life you may live.
I can still remember the diets I used to read in the old muscle magazines. Foodstuffs such as pasta, ice cream, cakes, cheeseburgers and hero sandwiches were at the top of the list. Let’s not forget the old protein malteds. A mixture of corn syrup, strawberry preserve, ice-cream, honey, peanut butter, protein powders and loads of milk, were among the ingredients. It’s amazing how some bodybuilders didn’t blow up with all the gas created in their intestinal system.
I am sure we have all seen bodybuilders with fantastic physiques who live on diets loaded with all kinds of junk foods. It’s true they look good now, but where are they going to be in twenty years? After a while their poor living habits are going to catch up with them. Their health will break down and vanish. Their muscles will become weak and small and they will become plagued with all kinds of illnesses.
I say build a “Super Strong” body, glowing with radiance, sparked with health and ready live life to the fullest. This is what bodybuilding is really about. When planning your meals, remember you are not living to eat, but eating to live.
With this thought in mind, I myself follow a well-planned diet, consisting of just the right amounts of all the essential nutrients. Through decades of endless research, I have brought my health to a state of near perfection. It didn’t come easy. I tried and experimented with many different food variations. As time went on I eliminated more and more artificial foodstuffs from my diet. I bought and read dozens of books on nutrition. After awhile my knowledge on the subject paramounted into an enormous computer. I became a walking chemistry set, calculating my chemical balance day by day. Through my individual testing and studies I have performed on my students over the years, I have come to some interesting findings. It seems to me that the majority of people in our country are overweight. Unless you have been following a balanced all-natural diet for several years, chances are your carrying excess fat. Even a person who appears to be thin may still have unwanted bodyweight. You don’t judge the amount of excess fat you have by pinching the side of your belly. There’s more to it than meets the eye. Internal fat accumulates in all kinds of places. Modern research has shown and proven that substantial amounts of excess fat can cause obesity, arteriolosclerosis, indigestion, and many other abnormalities. Now, before everybody goes on a no fat diet, let me warn you, although it is unlikely to occur, a fat deficiency could result in many other nutritional deficiencies.
Fats (Lipids) are the most concentrated source of energy. When oxidized they furnish more than twice the number of calories than carbohydrates or proteins do per gram. Besides providing energy, fats act as carriers for the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Fat deposits surround, protect, and hold in place certain organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver. They act as insulators preserving our body’s heat from environmental temperature changes. It should be clear that fats are important to our lives as well as our workouts, so the last thing we want is a deficiency.
The important thing is to receive our fats from natural sources. The reason a great majority of this countries population is overweight is because of its poor nutritional habits. Right from birth Americans are weaned with loads of milk. It’s true that babies need mothers’ milk to help start them off right in life, but that’s it, that’s all the milk a “normal” child needs. In this country we have a thing about milk. We drink hundreds of
gallons of it every year. Milk is extremely hard to digest; most people are lactose intolerant making it hard to breakdown the simple sugars in milk and some are even allergic to casein, a byproduct of milk. So the intake of this substance can do us more harm than good. In my opinion, if milk were meant for human consumption, we’d all be sucking on cow udders.
Besides milk, we are fed all kinds of unnatural fats throughout our lives. Vegetable oils, hot dogs, sodas, butters, pasta, steaks, and cakes, just to name a few, are given to us at regular intervals. Through time we store up huge amounts of fats externally, but more importantly, internally. We build up excess amounts of fat not only because we eat tremendous amounts of them but because we eat the wrong types. The body was made to handle natural foods, not artificial foodstuff. By intaking substances that were not made for human consumption we run the risk of the aforementioned abnormalities. To avoid this, one has to follow an all-natural diet consisting of mostly raw and natural foods meant for man. The bodybuilder needs energy for his workouts. He needs the strength and endurance to keep his progress at a maximum. By eating natural foods in the form of nuts, seeds, grains, and yellow vegetables, he guarantees himself a lasting force burning strong throughout his entire workout. Natural foods are easily oxidized and stored throughout our entire body in just the right amounts. Mother Nature wouldn’t have it any other way. By applying the laws of nature into your diets, you can’t help but come out a winner.
Carbohydrates are our key source of energy. They are responsible for all bodily functions and muscular exertion. When the bodybuilder consumes carbohydrates, he is provided with immediate energy from the calories that are broken down when the carbon in his system combines with the oxygen in his blood system.
Carbohydrates come in many forms such as sugars, starches and cellulose. The bodybuilder who requires immediate energy before his workout would be wise to select foods that are loaded with simple sugars. Foods such as oranges, pineapples, pears, and other fruits provide us with the explosive energy needed for dynamic workouts.
Before every barbaric bombing session, I fuel up my body with natural carbohydrates, usually in the form of some fresh fruit about one half hour before my workouts, giving my bodily processes just enough time to produce the energy required for my Herculean bombing sessions.
I begin my workouts slowly, increasing the intensity as I go along. The more the blood pumps through my veins the more energy my body creates. I begin to feel as if I am a powerhouse stored with millions of electrical kilowatts. As the workout goes along my intensity increases more and more. After a short time, I am using poundage so monstrous that each rep I perform feels like an atom bomb exploding inside of me. The carbohydrates I ate just a short while ago are now providing me with an optimum amount of energy. This energy is necessary for my championship bombing sessions.
Carbohydrates from fruits are very easily digested and readily available to the body, whereas carbohydrates from starches and cellulose need more time to be broken down. Starches such as those found in whole grains require prolonged enzymatic action in order to be broken down into simple sugars (glucose) for digestion. Cellulose, which can be found in the skins of fruits and vegetables, is largely indigestible and adds little energy value to the diet, although it is a good roughage material.
Carbohydrates from man-made sources such as white sugar disrupt the natural functions of the body. As an example, when you consume white flour, polished rice, and artificial sugar products, you run the risk of becoming deficient in the B vitamins and other nutrients. To show how important that is, carbohydrate combustion cannot take place if the B vitamins are absent. This results in all kinds of symptoms such as indigestion, heartburn, and nausea. A prolonged deficiency may lead to a loss of muscle
tone, loss of energy, depression and a breakdown of essential body proteins. It should be clear that bodybuilders must include generous amounts of natural carbohydrates in their diets, with the total elimination of all man-made foodstuffs. If they ever plan to become true champions, this must be done. Nature provides us with all the essentials we need, it’s up to each individual to take advantage of this offering.
Certainly, one of the most discussed and misunderstood topics in the field of nutrition is protein. Next to water, protein is the most plentiful nutrient in the body. It is an important element in the maintenance of good health and vitality and is also our primary source for growth and development.
Protein is important to the bodybuilder. When taken in the right form and amounts it serves as the building blocks for his muscles, blood, skin, hair, nails, and internal organs, including the heart and brain.
Protein is needed for the formation of hormones, which control a variety of bodily functions such as growth, sexual development, and rate of metabolism. Bodily protein also helps prevent the blood and tissues from becoming too acid or too alkaline and helps regulate the body’s water balance. Enzymes, substances necessary for basic life functions and antibodies which help fight foreign substances in the body, are also formed from protein.
As you can see protein is a top priority with the bodybuilder, which leads us to understand how it became overexposed. Since bodybuilding is a serious business, many athletes are sure to include plenty of protein in their diets to help guarantee continued gains. This is fine and should be the case, but somewhere along the line things have gotten out of hand.
Due to over exposure from the media, advertisements, and numerous articles written by the “champs”, consuming large amounts of protein has become a daily habit for many. It has come to be believed that intaking large amounts of proteins make the body grow faster. Actually, the opposite is true. Excess protein consumption may cause fluid imbalances, disrupting the body’s functional systems, depriving us of our health and vitality. Excessive proteins are also stored as fat, since they are an inferior source of energy as compared to the carbohydrates and fats from foods. Bodybuilders with an over abundance of body fat should try cutting down and selecting foods that are low in fat content until their desired natural weight is achieved.
It would seem to me that the most natural complete protein comes from the egg. If we were able to eat animal flesh raw with no ill effects, my thinking might be different. But since we cannot it leads me to wonder if the flesh from animals was meant for human consumption at all. Maybe there was a time when man obtained his protein from animal flesh and then again maybe there wasn’t. What ever happened occurred thousands of years ago. Tracing our ancestral habits back through time could only be achieved through observations of ourselves today as compared to our past.
Anyway, I still have to go with the egg. It is nature’s most natural, complete, and balanced protein, packed with loads of vitamins, minerals, and fat emulsifiers.
It even comes wrapped in its own shell, which holds and protects its vital nutrients safely.
Next to the egg, chicken and fish are two other sources of protein. If you feel that your body requires animal flesh to keep your health and muscle gains at an optimum, then chicken and fish are the protein foods to fill your needs. Beef products are questionable. How this country ever became dependent on the cow is a question indeed. As a protein source beef cannot compare with the nutrition derived from eggs, chicken and fish. Per pound beef contains more uric acid then either of the aforementioned food sources. Uric acid is a leading cause of gout, a painfully serious illness that plagues many Americans.
While on the subject of toxics, I feel that it’s about time the country’s “political wind bags” took a serious look at the problem and started regulating the decreased use of chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphate pesticides, antibiotics, and loads of other harmful drugs, found not only in beef but in chickens and other animals as well.
Sometimes I wonder what the future generations of man will be like. With all the harm he brings himself today, I doubt if he will be worthy of the title of “man” tomorrow.
Protein supplements are a big business in this country. Consumed by the ton every year, American athletes rely greatly on their nutritional value. While these supplements do work, questions have to be raised as to their need. Why is it that Americans use supplements at all? Why aren’t our people educated more on nutrition? Through my research I have found that not only bodybuilders but also athletes in all sports feel that protein supplements are needed as insurance towards their success.
I feel it is imperative that Americans start taking more of an interest in their diet. As time goes on, inflation will increase, but more important is the fact that some foods will become scarce and hard to come by in the future. By learning about nutrition now, you’ll be prepared when the time comes and will be ready to meet the needs of not only yourself but of your family as well. I see a time for learning, a time for changes, and a time to re-evaluate.
Moving on to other nutrients which are used a great deal in supplement form, we come to vitamins and minerals. Like protein supplements, these do work also. But it should be mentioned that a normal person need only rely on natural foods as their chief source of these nutrients. But a problem lies ahead. Because of modern farming methods, which destroy and devitalize many of our fruits and vegetables through soil exhaustion and over use of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers, our foods have become deficient in the vitamin and mineral substances we need.
Therefore, vitamin and mineral supplements are useful when taken in moderation. They are also helpful because Americans cook so much of their food. Cooking destroys the natural chemical balance of each individual food. When you cook something you change it into another substance, giving it unnatural properties made for no living organism on the planet. I myself eat most of my vegetables raw. I seldom cook or prepare them in any artificial way. All I do is wash them clean, and enjoy their natural health building benefits.
Vitamins and minerals are the guardians of our health. They are responsible for hundreds of functions in our bodies. Here’s a brief list of some of the body parts they affect: Bones, eyes, hair, skin, tissues, teeth, liver, mouth, nerves, gastrointestinal track, brain, nails, muscles, blood, kidneys, heart, tongue, glands, membranes, arteries, lymph and circulatory systems.
Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and all nutrients are not only important to the bodybuilder but everyone as well. It is up to each individual to determine how much of each nutrient he or she should take to meet their daily requirement. Because of cultures, environment, age, religion, heredity, income, jobs, education, and many more factors, the human race is vastly assorted into a wide range of different peoples.
Just look around you, we have fat, skinny, tall, short, ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph and hundreds of other combinations. This results in many different types of people. One important fact still stands. No matter who you are, what you do, or what your goals may be, you can always do it better with nature. Nature provides us with all the nutrient materials we need to manufacture our bodies into Herculean form.
Water should be taken sparingly (about 1 glass) with all meals so it does not wash away the acids, enzymes, and other digestive secretions. If you want to drink a large quantity of water, do so about an hour before or after your major meals. Also, if you have the habit of waking up every night, try drinking one or two glasses of spring water. This will help clean and prepare your internal system for the following day.
Water enables chemical reactions to occur. It is about two thirds of the body composition and is essential for life as we cannot store it. Respiration, digestion, assimilation, metabolism, elimination, waste removal, and temperature regulation are bodily functions that can only be accomplished in the presence of water. Water is essential in dissolving and transporting nutrients such as oxygen and mineral salts via the blood, lymph, and other bodily fluids. Water also keeps the pressure, acidity, and composition of all chemical reactions in equilibrium. Only oxygen is more essential than water in sustaining the life of most organisms. Human beings can live around five weeks without protein, carbohydrate, and fat consumption, but just five days without water in a moderate climate.
Remember, if we stuff ourselves with all kinds of man-made foods we run the risk of not only impairing our muscular growth, but also depleting our body of its natural reserves of health. While we are building a championship physique, we are also building long lasting health. It’s possible and actually easy to stay in shape all your years. All you need do is apply an intelligent, well-planned, instinctive bodybuilding program to your life.
With Nutrition as your starship you’re on your “JOURNEY TO MUSCLEDOM.”
Mario
Strong: Reflections of a Natural Bodybuilder