Secret Diet of the World's Greatest Runners :)

“Follow the runner trash, Julie,” I panted, “ that should get us on the right path,” Tell-tale Gu Energy Gel packets littered the ground on the path which forked left, so left we went. Julie and I were running a trail marathon for our 40th birthdays. We had become separated from the main pack of runners due to Julie’s digestive distress which led to stopping at one too many Port-a-Johns. Periodically bits of what we called “runner trash” littered the trail - Gu packets, Powerbar wrappers - the stuff that runners felt they needed to get them through the 26.2 miles, between the aid stations with their cups of Gatorade and piles of bananas.

Struggling to do our first 26.2, with our energy packets and power drinks, we were in stark contrast to the world’s great endurance athletes, the Tarahumara of Mexico’s Copper Canyon. The Tarahumara are legendary among runners for their ability to run hundreds of miles without becoming exhausted. The differences were obvious. While our feet were covered with Saucony trail shoes and our pockets filled with Gu, the Tarahumara run with little pouches of corn powder - pinole - to mix in their half-gourds of water and have bits of old tires tied to their feet.

In reading up on the Tarahumara, they sounded more like the local party club (“the drinking club with a running problem”) than what I had pictured as Great Endurance Athletes. While the serious runners I know worried about carb-loading, getting a good night’s sleep, avoiding partying before a race, the Tarahumara smoke tobacco mixed with dried bat’s blood and drink right up until race time. Tesguiono, an alcohol made with corn, is consumed in liberal quantities. Getting good and drunk is a matter of personal pride. It certainly isn’t what most of us think of when we think of preparing for an endurance event… and yet, the Tarahumara are the greatest endurance athletes in the world. It surely can’t be their drunken revelries that make them the best (although some alcohol and a good run seem to be cross-cultural!) - could it perhaps be their diets?

The diet of the Tarahumara is roughly 10% protein, 10% fat and 80% complex carbohydrates. Mainstays of their daily menu are the three sisters: corn, squash and beans as well as indigenous plant life. Some wild plants have also been cultivated. While they do consume livestock for meat, they mostly use it for fertilizer. Here and there goat, mice and fish are eaten but mainly pinole, that powdered, toasted corn is the staple in their diets.

Just how healthy is this diet? Dr. William Connor, professor of nutrition at the Oregon Health Sciences University has been studying the Tarahumara since the 1960s. What he has found is that while they die from poor medical care, infections, injuries and lung problems, the big three modern killers, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, are almost unheard of amongst the adult population. Connor studied blood specimens from elderly Tarahumara, age 70 and up, finding that their LDL cholesterol and blood sugar levels were like those of a 25 year old. Sounds great, right? Yet I find it interesting that according to the Tarahumara Children’s Hospital fund, most of the children die before age 5 with one of the leading causes of death declared as malnutrition.

In stark contrast to running on one-ingredient pinole, a slow burning carb, what is in the Gu packets whose little foil covers were the “runner trash“ we tried to follow and what do they have in common? The main ingredient is maltodextrin, a fast absorbing polysaccharide rapidly absorbed as glucose. In the US it is commonly derived from corn, in Europe from wheat. One packet of Gu supplies an athlete with 100 calories - 70-80% maltodextrin, 20-30% fructose. It is infused with an amino acid blend, as well as caffeine, calcium and antioxidants. Chamomile and ginger are thrown into the mix for anti-inflammatory and stomach soothing benefits. Gu has been engineered to appeal to the endurance athlete: quick energy, muscle-boosting calcium and amino acids, and a variety of flavors like Chocolate Outrage, Espresso Love and Lemon Sublime with a texture that goes down smooth and easy.

The flavors sound exciting - they are designed to appeal to the modern taste bud that has been over-sensitized with flavor and sugar. Can pinole serve such discriminating or jaded taste buds? Scanning through running forums, it seems that there are runners out there trying to adopt the idea of pinole (the mix is also sometimes called iskiate). Cocoa, cinnamon or almost any spice are added trying to give it some flavor; chia seeds are often called for to the up the protein content. The powdered corn does not dissolve so most of the blogging experimenters recommend adding a lot of water in order to get it down. Most recipes say to add sugar, some try to be more “authentic” and add agave nectar. Christopher McDougall, author of “Born to Run” found the native recipe surprisingly tasty. However, he was also miles away from Gu packets and other tasty conveniences of civilization.

For a die-hard who is trying to go as natural as possible, perhaps making your own Tarahumara energy drink would be worth a try. I venture to bet, however, that at most any marathon in America the majority will stick to Gu packets. I also am pretty sure that there will be a few of them carrying on the drinking and running tradition.