Alejandro Díaz-AgeroSEGUIRMadrid Updated: Save Send news by mail electrónicoTu name *

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the race to see who finds the latest trends in healthy, almost always with names convoluted in English, come the athletes, entranced, waiting for a revolution that increasingly, it is less constant as are the changes in what should or should not do. What is today gold when she takes to the mouth tomorrow will be coal, and so on in a loop that do not stops. The one that used to jump on the bandwagon of the trend is Novak Djokovic , who this week acknowledged in a talk with Garbiñe Muguruza that your diet is now bound by a regime called intermittent fasting.

The invention consists in establishing a period of hours, if not days in the case of the most radical, in which to dine. In the case of the number one of the ATP ranking, closes the mouth during sixteen hours , and is divided into the intakes between the remaining eight. Led to the mud of the street, the amalgam of physiological processes that are now beginning to be discovered as a miraculous in this type of ways of eating, this is what happened always when someone is not eating breakfast. Which does not mean that there are benefits, evident when asked to the experts who study the matter, let alone taking as an example the Serbian tennis player, in a way intractable since, by his own account, to change your way of eating.

“I’ve been doing it five years. And that I grew up following a power completely opposite, since he ate meat three times a day,” said the champion of 17 Grand Slam. He also said that the first thing that comes to your taste buds every day, is a glass of hot water with lemon , and that the first meal of the day based on a shake of vegetables and lots of fruit. A long time ago that revealed that the gluten had ceased to be part of your diet, and which is now practically a vegetarian, with the exception of the sushi, one of their favorite dishes.

As is often the case, the opinion of experts in the field presents poles are well differentiated. is Guillermo Reglero is professor of Food Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid and director of Imdea Food. Confirms that the research of the benefits that the process of fasting can have on the human body is kind of recent, in about the last five years. “To some it may go well fasting and other fatal,” he summarizes. So soon, adventure that there are obvious advantages. Also drawbacks: “There are organs that are dependent on a contribution of energy continuum, like the brain or the eyes”. In his view, the future is the “precision nutrition”, or what is the same thing, by looking down to the last detail what may or may not enhance the performance of an athlete. “It is based on two axes: the genetic level, where there are so many interesting things such as genes related to the cronotipo, that is to say, with our schedules, which reveal what time performs best, an athlete, and physiological state: it is not the same model to a preteen to a lady’s menopausal, ensures.

More skeptical is Dr. Antonio Escribano , one of the endocrine system most widely recognized in the panorama of Spanish sports. “Some may go well, but certainly not what I see recommended for high-performance athletes,” explains the nutritionist of the ETF. “Any player has told me that what I was testing, but then came the workouts and ended up sick. Man, if it consists of a scamper, and not much else, then nothing happens. But subject to that wear and tear to the body long-term is not ideal,” he continues. And to one side of the high-performance, poses a very visual about their practice in the general population: “I met a guy who liked to climb the Giralda and I have recommended it to people. Man, what better a prediabetic does this and ends up with a low blood sugar”.

experimentation, key

depending On the sources consulted, the literature points to ways various. On the one hand, many researchers argue that the human being practice of fasting from time lejanísimos, back when I was out hunting at the same time as did the sun, and not tied the bib until the last hour of the day, when it is accommodated in its shelter and the dam had been properly prepared. It is something that is still happening in some cultures, the case of the Masai Mara kenyan girl, used to eating once or twice a day. The other stream argues that the instinct of the human body has always led to eat what is right and save the rest for when you need it. In both of these areas will appreciate nuanced .

“The key is usually experimentation”, concludes Reglero, back to the elite athletes. Intervenes Clerk, with an eye in the words of Djokovic: “it seems To me irresponsible that people without knowledge on the matter do apostolate with things so dangerous”. And closes the first: “This is the same as with cars: it does not require the same attention put to point one to go to Madrid, a Formula 1”.