Topic 4. Travel abroad

Yann Le Meur, Amélie Fosse, Christophe Hausswirth, Axel Heulin, Véronique Rousseau, Eve Tiollier et École Lenôtre

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

Image 10000000000003FE000000F13D9A696A.jpg

1. Before the trip

Inform yourself about the destination

3Water quality

Image 1000000000000400000000ED38C412F5.jpg

4 Weather conditions in August

Image 100000000000040D0000009139295200.jpg

5 Catering quality and type of food available

6 Reduce the risks of intestinal problems by avoiding...

Image 10000000000000390000002841FC0E2F.jpg

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

Image 100000000000003B00000028F04B6300.jpg

8fried food, meat with sauce, raw food

9 If you have food allergies, avoid...

Image 1000000000000039000000289A513406.jpg

10groundnut-based local dishes, nuts, shellfish

Image 100000000000003A0000002847FA4ECD.jpg

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

Image 100000000000003B0000002821B63FEA.jpg

13dairy products not available

Make a list of food to take with you based on your usual eating habits

14 For the journey

Image 10000000000000410000002854F79AB0.jpg

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

Image 100000000000009A000000593D82C319.jpg

16 For your breakfast and pre-training snacks

Image 1000000000000041000000281B55957E.jpg

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

Image 10000000000001E70000006E1BE1F890.jpg

18 For during training

Image 1000000000000040000000286E793E1F.jpg

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

Image 10000000000001C4000000701C4111E3.jpg

20 For post-exercise snacks

Image 1000000000000041000000283814756B.jpg

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

Image 10000000000001D0000000591264ADF8.jpg

Get ready for jet lag in August

Image 10000000000003A500000349C80FC530.jpg

2. During the flight

Change your watch to coincide with the time at your destination

Image 1000000000000409000000EFAB5DB632.jpg

Monitor your hydration

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

Image 10000000000003FC00000110D40E04D6.jpg

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

Image 10000000000003EE000000F1195A4F31.jpg

25 To promote alertness

26Image 100000000000001F0000001FB2741970.jpg Eat small amounts of food and divide your meals

Image 10000000000003FE000001152D87BFE9.jpg

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 Image 10000000000000EC00000032F736ED30.jpg

Comply with sanitary hygiene recommendations

31 Before every meal

32 Wash or disinfect your hands Image 100000000000007800000028DBE2A0F9.jpg

33 Meals

Image 10000000000003FC000000F1FA4241CE.jpg

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) Image 100000000000004C0000003265AE655C.jpg
Use bottled water or boiled water for all your daily activities, including making ice cubes, rinsing fruit, brushing your teeth, etc. Image 100000000000003900000032933FE40D.jpg

Recipe

Beef stir-fry with spicy lemongrass vegetables

Image 100000000000011F00000183F98A1BF2.jpg
Image 10000000000001E5000001E7D44A9DD9.jpg

Photo credit: Thibaut Ruggeri.

36Serves 2

37Preparation time: 30 minutes

38Cooking time: 30 minutes

39Difficulty: Image 10000000000000510000001FDD17A55F.jpg

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

50Olive 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


Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.