Topic 4. Travel abroad
p. 267-275
Texte intégral
Questions and answers
Key points
■ During a trip abroad, travelling, jet lag and altered eating habits can perturb the athlete’s nutritional behaviour. In this particular context, the athlete must pay attention to his diet.
■ Adapting your eating habits can accelerate resynchronization of the biological clock for recovery from jet lag.
Why is it important that athletes pay attention to their diet while travelling abroad?
1High-level athletes frequently travel abroad. However, these frequent changes of environment can affect the diet due to difficulties and distractions. This can sometimes be a problem, especially when the training load is high (during a training course) or when the athlete has to achieve peak performance during a competition. It is thus recommended that athletes implement nutritional strategies to:
meet daily carbohydrate and protein requirements;
maintain a balanced diet;
remain well hydrated;
avoid any problems related to food poisoning.
How can food influence resynchronization of the biological clock during a trip abroad?
2Because of their numerous trips abroad, athletes often suffer from desynchronization of their circadian rhythm relative to their reference time zone. This generates a certain number of problems because in normal conditions, the body clock can only adjust to changes of one or two hours per day. Therefore, when travelling to countries more than three time zones away, there is a discrepancy between the athlete’s internal circadian rhythm and the environmental rhythm due to the time difference. Some nutritional strategies can be used to accelerate resynchronization of the biological clock as certain foods have a stimulating power (especially proteins and caffeine), whereas others promote sleep (carbohydrates). Consequently, if you know how to manage your intake of these before travelling, during the journey, and when you arrive, it is possible to accelerate resynchronization and to limit the deleterious effects of the time difference.
Practical applications

1. Before the trip
Inform yourself about the destination
3► Water quality

4► Weather conditions in August

5► Catering quality and type of food available
6› Reduce the risks of intestinal problems by avoiding...

7very spicy food (chilli, garlic), fried food (fritters, doughnuts), raw food

8fried food, meat with sauce, raw food
9› If you have food allergies, avoid...

10groundnut-based local dishes, nuts, shellfish

11soy-based local dishes, shellfish, groundnuts, sesame and glutamate (in sauces)
12› Make a list of products to take with you, depending on whether the food you normally eat will be available

13dairy products not available
Make a list of food to take with you based on your usual eating habits
14› For the journey

15Fruit cereal bars, fruit purée pouches (< 150 ml)

16› For your breakfast and pre-training snacks

17Semi-skimmed milk powder, rusks, biscuits, cereals (oat-flake muesli), jam, honey, dried fruit, fruit purée

18› For during training

19Sports drink powder, energy bars, energy biscuits, cereal bars, energy gels, water

20› For post-exercise snacks

21Recovery drink powder, semi-skimmed milk powder, cereal bars, biscuits, gingerbread, dried fruit, fruit purée

Get ready for jet lag in August

2. During the flight
Change your watch to coincide with the time at your destination

Monitor your hydration
22(See Fact sheet No. 10 Hydration, p. 342)

3. When you arrive
Get used to jet lag
23› Set a nutritional strategy to help you to adapt to jet lag (See Fact sheet No. 12 Sleep and alertness, p. 371)
24► To promote sleep

25► To promote alertness
26 Eat small amounts of food and divide your meals

Stick to your usual eating habits as far as possible
27› When choosing at restaurants or in the canteen
28› For your snacks and during training
Adapt your hydration to the local climatic conditions
29› Adaptez la concentration de votre boisson de l’effort selon la température (See Fact sheet No. 10 Hydration, p. 342)
30› Make sure you are well hydrated
Comply with sanitary hygiene recommendations
31► Before every meal
32› Wash or disinfect your hands
33► Meals

34› Temperature of the dishes served: hot dishes should be served hot, not warm (cold dishes should be served cold)
35► Drinks
› Drink bottled water, sealed drinks or hot drinks (boiled water)
› Use bottled water or boiled water for all your daily activities, including making ice cubes, rinsing fruit, brushing your teeth, etc.
Recipe
Beef stir-fry with spicy lemongrass vegetables


Photo credit: Thibaut Ruggeri.
36Serves 2
37Preparation time: 30 minutes
38Cooking time: 30 minutes
39Difficulty:
40Meat
41■ 300 g beef fillet
42■ 10 g paprika
43Cut the beef fillet into strips and sprinkle with paprika.
44Set aside.
45Vegetables
46■ 150 g carrots
47■ 100 g mangetout
48■ 100 g shiitake mushrooms
49■ 100 g beansprouts
50■Olive oil
51■ Salt, pepper
52■ Mild paprika
53Thinly slice the shiitakes and carrots.
54Stir-fry all the ingredients in a wok with a bit of olive oil, add seasoning.
55Make sure the vegetables retain some "bite".
56Strain and set aside.
57Sauce
58■ 5 g olive oil
59■ 40 g shallots
60■ 1 lemongrass stalk
61■ 10 g peeled ginger
62■ 10 g garlic
63■ 20 g honey
64■ 20 g wine vinegar
65■ 40 g soy sauce
66■ 100 g veal stock
67■ Fresh coriander leaves
68Chop the shallots and sweat them together with the bulb of the lemongrass.
69Add the ginger and garlic.
70Allow to brown slightly, add the honey.
71Deglaze the pan with the vinegar and soy sauce. Add the veal stock.
72Cook gently for about 30 minutes.
73Mix, strain. Season to taste.
74Final steps
75Quickly stir-fry the beef fillet strips and season at the end of cooking. Sprinkle with more paprika.
76Heat up the vegetables in the sauce.
77Place the vegetables over the beef strips and sprinkle with the fresh coriander before serving.
78Chef’s note
79This dish is very rich in protein. It covers half the daily iron requirements for women (and 80% of men’s). As the meat and vegetables are cooked, there is no risk of food poisoning.
80This dish does not contain much carbohydrate; so it is recommended that you have a starter and/or dessert with a source of starch (pasta or rice salad, rice or semolina pudding). It would be wise to complete the meal by adding a dairy product, for calcium.
81Nutritional analysis per person
Energy (Cal) | Carbs (g) |
361 | 22 |
Lipids (g) | Protein (g) |
9 | 48 |
Auteurs
PhD. Research Department – French Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), Paris
PhD. Research Department – French Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), Paris
Sports Traumatology Centre, Puteaux, France
Medical Department – French Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), Paris
PhD. Research Department – French Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), Paris
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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