{"id":191817,"date":"2023-01-24T14:20:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T14:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=191817"},"modified":"2023-01-24T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T14:20:21","slug":"mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/24\/mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mediterranean Diet \u2013 Does It Help Cycling Performance?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Eating well is important for health and may help you lose weight. But what if a diet could actually make you ride faster? A new study suggests that after only four days of following the Mediterranean diet, you could experience noticeable improvements. Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Four days on the Mediterranean diet<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/30758261\/\">A small study<\/a> published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition compared the Mediterranean diet and a typical Western diet when it comes to sports performance. Researchers from Saint Louis University recruited a group of recreationally active adults (7 women and 4 men) and instructed them to follow a Mediterranean-style diet for four days. The participants had to adhere to the following rules.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 tablespoons of olive oil per day<\/li>\n<li>3 or more servings of nuts and fruits per day<\/li>\n<li>2 or more servings of vegetables per day<\/li>\n<li>Included fish, legumes, and red wine<\/li>\n<li>Limited meat<\/li>\n<li>Restricted sweetened beverages and bakery sweets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_180870\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-180870\" style=\"width: 1248px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-180870 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777.webp\" alt=\"Non-processed food\" width=\"1248\" height=\"832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777.webp 1248w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/12\/Healthy-food-pexels-1640777-272x182.webp 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1248px) 100vw, 1248px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-180870\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mediterranean diet has been topping the healthy diet charts for decades now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Athletic performance was assessed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the initial four days, the researchers put the volunteers through several exercise trials to test different aspects of their fitness. They had to go through the following.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>5 km treadmill run to test endurance<\/li>\n<li>Cycling sprint trials to test anaerobic fitness<\/li>\n<li>Vertical jump<\/li>\n<li>Handgrip<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Four days of a typical Western diet for comparison<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the testing was done, all participants went back to their usual diet for a washout period of 9 \u2013 16 days. After that followed four days on a typical Western diet, which is considered quite unhealthy. They had to adjust their diet according to the following rules.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fewer than 2 servings of fruits and vegetables per day<\/li>\n<li>Fewer than 1 serving of nuts and legumes in four days<\/li>\n<li>Increased red and processed meat, dairy and refined grains<\/li>\n<li>Added more sugar and sodium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>They ran 6% faster after the Mediterranean diet<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of the exercise trials were repeated after the Western diet phase was finished. After that, the researchers compared the numbers and found that there were no significant differences in anaerobic fitness or strength between the two diets. But the aerobic fitness test was a different story.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On average, the participants ran 1 minute and 50 seconds faster during the 5 km endurance test following the Mediterranean diet. They completed the distance in 27:09 minutes which was 6 % faster than their 28:59 time after the Western diet. This difference is even more striking considering that they had the same average heart rate of about 160 bpm and the same ratings of perceived exertion during both runs. It\u2019s clear that this could easily translate to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/11\/11\/tips-from-our-cycling-community-the-best-ways-to-build-and-maintain-endurance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">improved endurance<\/a> on the bike as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The researchers speculated that the Mediterranean diet\u2019s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects and dietary nitrates could be the reason for the improved endurance. They also warned that the endurance benefits were lost just as quickly when eating the unhealthy Western diet. This means that following the Mediterranean diet long-term is crucial for sustained performance benefits.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Cycling and the Mediterranean complement each other<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved endurance is not the only reason to give the Mediterranean diet a try as a cyclist. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC7910909\/\">A large review of scientific literature<\/a> showed that when Mediterranean-style diets are combined with physical activity, they become a key factor in the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic respiratory diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eating well is important for health and may help you lose weight. But what if a diet could actually make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":191818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[6860,6903,6902],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-191817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-training","tag-mediterranean-diet","tag-mediterranean-diet-and-cycling-performance","tag-mediterranean-diet-and-performance","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does Mediterranean Diet Help Athletic Performance? - We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A study suggests that after only four days of following the Mediterranean diet, you could experience improvements in your sports performance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/24\/mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mediterranean Diet \u2013 Does It Help Cycling Performance?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A study suggests that after only four days of following the Mediterranean diet, you could experience improvements in your sports performance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/24\/mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-24T14:20:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/01\/Mediterranean-Diet-profimedia-0737076260-2_CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jiri Kaloc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/24\/mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/01\/24\/mediterranean-diet-does-it-help-cycling-performance\/\",\"name\":\"Does Mediterranean Diet Help Athletic Performance? 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