Carbohydrates

Next week Friday, 20 September 2019, we once again become a rugby-obsessed nation as we scrum down and prepare to support the Springboks on their successful journey (hopefully!) to reach the finals and emerge victorious again as the World’s Best for the 3rd time in the history of this championship!

The amount of time, work and energy that goes into preparing for the World Cup is unimaginable, and while training is obviously the main building block to success, other factors like proper sleep, adequate hydration and healthy nutrition are also important.

Keto is short for ketogenic – a low-carb, high-fat diet very similar to Banting. For those of us not familiar with the eating plan, here, courtesy of Healthline, are the basics.

The Comrades Marathon is a South African institution, as much part of our history as mining and braaing. Run for the first time more than 90 years ago and 89 km long, it is considered the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon. If you’ve ever wondered where the name Comrades comes from, it was inspired by the League of Comrades of the Great War.

We’ve dealt extensively with how pre-and probiotics can influence your gastrointestinal tract and why it’s vitally important to keep your digestive system functioning optimally – we all know happy guts equal happy bodies. But in an age of ever-increasing food sensitivities, another topic is raising its head as a potential culprit of digestive issues: FODMAPs.

Whether you’re into Paleo, Banting, Atkins or any other more mainstream eating plan, indisputable is the fact that when you’re trying to make healthier choices, the amount of information out there is staggering and quite often misleading – what’s good today is disproved tomorrow and vice versa. Nutrition is constantly under the magnifying glass; as well it should be, as so much of what we choose to put into our bodies affects our health and general well-being.