My Favorite Recovery Drink: Bone Broth!
What you’re looking at is not a commercially prepared workout recovery drink, nor is it what I personally what I drank for years and years.
You’re looking at bone broth. Iced and blended. And maybe sometimes with just a touch (a touch only inasmuch as not to inundate the body with sugar) of fresh beet juice added for that extra boost of naturally occurring nitrates that increase nitric oxide.
While the 4:1 Carb:Pro ratio I relied upon for such a long time, even in a real-food version (think coconut water, banana, egg), may have been straight forward and more cost effective than many of the commercially prepared recovery drinks, the one I love most now isn’t even sweet at all.
Think about it: if you’re out on the saddle or on the trails for a hard training session, do you really want something sugary sweet when you get back?
I don’t.
And in all truth, I didn’t even want it back when I was using gels to fuel my training and racing. But I forced it down, thinking it was the only way to recover, rebuild and restore.
Now, having been following a fasted / fat-adaption protocol not only for training, but for day to day living for over three years, the last thing I want is sugar…ever, including after a workout.
I want salt.
And so I have it.
Not doing so would be foolish; restricting salt is an issue for endurance athletes (1).
By the way, it’s not just me reciting anecdotally; research now supports this.
Elite endurance athletes who eat very few carbohydrates burned more than twice as much fat as high-carb athletes during maximum exertion and prolonged exercise in a new study — the highest fat-burning rates under these conditions ever seen by researchers. (2)
The athletes in the study ate a diet similar to mine; 10 percent carbs, 19 percent protein and 70 percent fat.
Yes, 70% fat.
Those who are open minded are beginning to fiddle with this, if even just a little, which is long overdue, yet in my experience, the approach is still met more often than not with doubt and judgment.
I, along with a growing number of athletes, are able to train and compete at a high level using fat as their fuel, stay lean, healthy and avoid numerous health issues.
Even Kobe Bryant is said to rely on this elixir of gold as his ticket to keeping lean, fit and focused! (3)
Yet still, the common response is disbelief.
I am never quite sure how to reply to that; we each can choose to open our minds to something new if and when it’s the right time. If we continue to rely on sugar as our fuel and experience more and more declines in health and performance, there has got to come a time when we call a spade a spade and acknowledge that the common advice we’ve received for the last few decades is simply not working.
Here’s another way to spin it. What do you actually want after a long or intense workout?
When I get back from a training session, especially a longer, intense session and even more so, one which occurs in the heat (again- all my sessions are all in a fasted state, regardless on duration) I want water and I want savory!
I focus first on rehydrating, and one thing that fits perfectly not only into what my body needs, but what I want, is bone broth.
Chilled on ice with salt on top… beyond delicious and just what my body tells me it needs.
Check out my recipe for bone broth, make up a batch while you sleep (read the recipe and you’ll see what I mean), keep some in the freezer and arm yourself to recover, rebuild and repair the way nature really intended.
After all, this is what food really is!
(1) Rosner, And Mitchell H. “Mitchell H. Rosner.” Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia. N.p., 01 Jan. 2007. Web. 26 Sept. 2016
(2) “Elite Performance on a Diet with Minimal Carbs Represents a Paradigm Shift in Sports Nutrition.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
(3) Holmes, Baxter. “Chicken Soup for the Aging Star’s Soul.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 Jan. 2015, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/12168515/bone-broth-soup-helping-los-angeles-lakers-kobe-bryant.
