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Coach Noel talks about Booze

Coach Noel • 4 June 2020
How does Booze affect your fitness ?
Our friend, nutritionist, coach and general guru Noel Sutton has written us a piece on Booze and how it affects men and women differently.

How does alcohol affect or impact on Cardiovascular health?

I'm going to declare my own personal bias first. I'll tell you also what the research says, and then next week discuss the effects of booze on performance and recovery.

I've loved wine since I was young, I love the history, theatre, stories. I'm interested in the process and really enjoy the experience of drinking it. But I'm happy to only drink a couple of glasses and stop. That hasn't always been the case! But generally, I drink very little these days.
I see a lot of the problems that alcohol cause. And my view is that it's not a positive influence on society, again this hasn't always been the case, and is 100% just my opinion.

I guess my personal bias is a bit odd, I both love and hate it. It's been a long journey of experience for me, but genuinely I wouldn't miss it if it left the planet. I'd miss my personal taste and experience of it, but not what it does to society.

What, though, is Cardiovascular disease (CVD)?

It’s not just Coronary Heart disease, that is a part of CVD. It includes the heart and arteries so would include things like stroke, arterial disease and aortic disease as well.

There are some predispositions that you can't do much about genetics or being type 1 Diabetic for example. Your age, gender and ethnicity can also increase your risk. This obviously doesn't mean it will happen, but it might mean it’s more likely to be something that could happen.

There are then more modifiable risk factors, smoking being one. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle will increase your risk as will a poor diet. We think that probably the factors that will make the biggest difference to high blood pressure are weight loss, exercise and not smoking.

I was asked about Cholesterol the other day, and what was a good total cholesterol number. It’s not really the total cholesterol number that we want to look at. Total Cholesterol is a combination of LDL + HDL. LDL is the bad guy as it carries cholesterol to and into cells, where it can cause issues such as build up/plaque. HDL is the good guy as it carries cholesterol away from the cells and back to the liver where its recycled or excreted.

NICE (2017) guidelines suggest an optimal level of total cholesterol as less than 5mmol/L. LDL should be less than 3mmol/L and HDL more than 1mmol/L for Men and more than 1.2mmol/L for Women.

Rimm et al (1999) showed that approx 30g per day of alcohol increased HDL cholesterol but also Triglycerides. So this moderate intake (2-ish glasses of wine per day) seems to be beneficial because of the increase in HDL.
They say "On the basis of published associations between these biomarkers and risk of coronary heart disease 30g of alcohol a day would cause an estimated reduction of 24.7% in risk of coronary heart disease."

Corral et al (2000) found a moderate intake lowers the risk of CVD (but that excessive intake is also detrimental).

Zhao et al (2017) interestingly have questioned the research and in particular the inclusion of former drinkers as abstainers in many studies.
I think this is important as the health benefits of being teetotal are blurred by including former drinkers in the same group. Why did someone stop drinking? Damaged health, alcoholism. Their poor health may not be due to being teetotal but rather due to the former excessive drinking?

So, the research suggest 1-2 glasses of wine per day is good, it doesn't say save it up and drink all your weeks’ worth in one go, it doesn't say moderate all week and then a binge at the weekend. So, I reckon if you can stick to moderate that's good, otherwise my opinion is that it's something you should consider reducing.

It's a difficult subject and I don't want to preach as I'm in a fragile glasshouse myself. In terms of weight loss and athletic performance booze is not good. It has lots of calories and will negatively affect your athletic performance and recovery.
It does help relaxation somewhat and going back to the Blue Zones that I've talked about a lot, most of them drink moderately....as recommendations above.
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This ones an important one in our series of posts on Health and Fitness by our friend, nutritionist, coach and general guru Noel Sutton on the physical and nutritional needs of children involved in sport. Children in Sport A few things have happened recently that have got me thinking and rethinking about this subject in detail again. I was asked to write something, evidence based on how to encourage good eating habits in children for parents. This, alongside some personal experiences of parenting recently and some extraordinary observations of what is being offered in the way of coaching to children locally encouraged me to think more widely. So, I wanted to split this into two parts, the first on kids in sport and then the second part more specifically on nutrition. The first concept that is true to both sport and nutrition is that we should understand there is a difference between children and adults. 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As a running coach I routinely watch a good volume of athletes running at under 13’s, the numbers at under 15’s drops off, by the time you get to under 17’s and then under 20’s we’re lucky to have a handful still competing. Evidence shows that this is a problem not just in running or athletics but all sports. As coaches and parents, we need to consider that even in this best possible circumstance we are fighting a losing battle, so it is key to try and do what we can stem the flow. If by the culture, we create we are adding to this problem we need to consider our motives. I overheard a disturbing conversation the other day about a young girl of 12 who was described as having the physiology of a 13-year-old. This was justifying the extra training and expectation that was being put on her. This for me sums up two massive problems. The first question I’d like you to consider is “What is the Physiology of a 13-year-old girl”? How is this different to the physiology of a 12-year-old, or a 12-and-a-half-year-old, or a 13 and half year old or even a 14-year-old? Is there a big book of Physiology with a page that tells us what a 13-year olds girls physiology will be? I’ve been involved in sports science and coaching for a very long time, I’ve got degrees in it and I’m yet to see this. I do see many, many unique individuals that share some similarities in development. I’ve seen many kids develop at differing rates at differing ages. Rarely have I seen two 13-year olds that are exactly the same in their development. So, we end up with a kid that has grown/developed early and is performing well. Maybe they’re stronger, got longer limbs, had more practice. At some point this will balance out, the other kids will catch up. My second point/problem is how do we manage expectation so that we don’t put so much pressure on them at 13/14 years old that they’ve just had enough by 17? We all want our kids to go to the Olympics and win gold, very few amazing 13-year olds go on to. The odd 18-year-old might though. A swim coach apparently has said quite openly that because he knows most of his swimmers will have given up by the age of 15 he will hammer them in the pool and create the best 11 year olds he can because it doesn’t matter if he breaks them, they’ll give up anyway! As coaches it should be taken for granted that we are teaching life skills through our sport. I use running as a tool to help mould kids into the best teenagers and young adults I can. Skills that help them negotiate school and exams, job interviews and University. At the same we develop their fitness and skills to prepare them to be the best runners they can be. There must be a happy compromise where we are developing our young athletes, to be the best they can be. Without overloading their young developing bodies, without putting some much expectation and pressure on them at too young an age that they have had enough by 17. Most importantly they are not mini adults, don’t train them as such. Secondly they are not elite athletes..yet ,so don’t train them as such..yet. It is amazing to see great performances as 13 or 14 years old, but we shouldn’t be getting excited until they are still doing it at 17 or 18 years old.
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