Apnea Diet

[jpelorat]

Hello,

I posted this thread [ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=62896"]Static Apnea Crisis[/ame] a few days ago and Don's and Roland's comments make me start to question my training approach. One of the point we talked about on the thread was my throat tightness and the relation it has with diet.

Well, now I'm wondering if anybody has a guide or idea on a healthy "Apnea Diet" to help the training process. I don't mind to change eating habits, i think it worth the try.

Regards,
Sigi....

 

[Sealdiver]

hi sigi,
I'm no competition diver but i have friends who are. I have gathered a few important dietrey tips over my time, they are:
1. Don't overeat in of peak seasons and balance eating with good cardiovascular exercise to maintain a good static.
2. Avoid caffine (tea or coffee) if you need a hit every now and then drink green tea because it tends to last longer and not mess too much with your heart rate. I reckon only drink it once a week though.
3. the night before a morning dive, eat heaps of pasta or rice to wake up focused and energised for the dive ahead.
4. Basically maintain good dietry guidlines and exersize.
5. Dont have too many cirtus fruits because it can increase your body's pH balance and with the addition of carbonic acid produced in a dive, the combination can be bad for your health and can decrease your oxygen carrying capacity.
6. Brown rice is a good source of slow burning carbs that last for ages. Also, any very rich or spicy food can cause reflux and on a dive stomach acid can come right up during an inversion. This could cause al sort of poblems including slomach ulcers. Big nights out necking will do the same thing, although you probably wont want to dive the next day anyway.
7. don't have too much refined sugar before a dive because you burn out to fast.
8. something you already know that has been no doubt drilled into us is drink about 8 glasses of water a day or if you are diving that day you may need 10-15. Just drink whenever your thirstyand bring a 2L jug with you on a dive.
9. although this isnt diet related do yoga coz it feels good and all the pros do it. Also, if your like me and prefer to dive in summer and cant find much to do fitness wise in winter, go surfing.

Hope this helps, happy eating/diving.
peace, tim.

 

[efattah]

One small correction; citrus fruits will increase your blood pH, giving you higher CO2 tolerance and they will delay the urge to breathe much like CO2 training does. They don't affect the store of oxygen.

Many of the top static competitors will eat 5 lemons a couple of hours before the competition.

 

[island_sands]

One small correction; citrus fruits will increase your blood pH, giving you higher CO2 tolerance and they will delay the urge to breathe much like CO2 training does. They don't affect the store of oxygen.

Many of the top static competitors will eat 5 lemons a couple of hours before the competition.

That's interesting Eric. I was taken off tomatoes and oranges to reduce bloating. Any clues?

 

[samdive]

wow.. I am allergic to citrus fruit and never eat any.. maybe that's why my static is so rubbish............. ; )

why is the caffeine in green tea different? how much caffeine is in there? I don't drink any other kind of caffeine normally but occasionally have some green tea and find it makes me feel loads better!

 

[jome]

5 lemons?!? I'd be lucky to get 1 down and I'm not too picky about food

I don't buy that without trying...I guess I now know what's for dinner tonight.

 

[octopus]

It would be nice if someone could make distinction between alkaline and acidic foods in relation to CW and static. Thanks.

http://www.essense-of-life.com/info/foodchart.htm

 

[naiad]

5 lemons? Is that only the juice or the whole thing? :waterwork

It might be a long time before I try that one!

 

[Michael]

Gratefruit seed extract has the same effect as the lemons.

 

[Ricochet]

That's interesting Eric. I was taken off tomatoes and oranges to reduce bloating. Any clues?

I eat lots of tomatoes. They are rich of antioxidants, especially canned tomatoes. Though I only eat the fresh ones.

 

[efattah]

Sam,

Green tea contains caffeine and L-Theanine. L-Theanine is a rare amino acid which has a calming effect, which counters the effect of the caffeine (somewhat). You can also get 'green tea extract' standardized to as much as 98% L-Theanine, or, conversely, drink decaffeinated green tea, giving you only L-Theanine and no caffeine (for an even more calming effect).

 

[samdive]

Thanks Eric -that explains the calming thing! I didn't think Green Tea had caffeine as I can usually not tolerate it at all - get all headachey and buzzy - but Green Tea makes me feel good - maybe that's why. I will look for the decaffeinated stuff.

 

[AltSaint]

Hot dogs could be the way forward.

Apparently scientists at the American Government's National Institutes of Health have recently discovered that sodium nitrite can be beneficial to the brain / lungs / heart during periods of low Oxygen saturation. Sodium Nitrite is used as a preservative in hot dogs and cured meats, such as bacon.

They reckon that when the body is starved of Oxygen, it turns sodium nitrite into nitric oxide, which dilates vessels and allows more oxygen-carrying blood through. ( That bit didn't quite make sense to me, as I've always understood that the blood-shift involves the opposite - vasoconstriction to the extremeties, to retain blood within the core. ) Anyway, this was one of those short newspaper articles, not a medical journal paper. Might be worth looking into, though.

 

[samdive]

dammit.... I can't eat citrus fruits and I'm vegetarian....

guess I should give up now!!

 

[efattah]

Sam,

What in the citrus are you allergic to? You can go to most pharmacies and buy straight citric acid powder (the stuff that makes citrus fruits acidic). Mix it in water and drink it, and you get the same pH effect as eating lemons, without all the other 'stuff' in the citrus fruit.

 

[DeepThought]

Hot dogs could be the way forward.

Apparently scientists at the American Government's National Institutes of Health have recently discovered that sodium nitrite can be beneficial to the brain / lungs / heart during periods of low Oxygen saturation. Sodium Nitrite is used as a preservative in hot dogs and cured meats, such as bacon.

They reckon that when the body is starved of Oxygen, it turns sodium nitrite into nitric oxide, which dilates vessels and allows more oxygen-carrying blood through. ( That bit didn't quite make sense to me, as I've always understood that the blood-shift involves the opposite - vasoconstriction to the extremeties, to retain blood within the core. ) Anyway, this was one of those short newspaper articles, not a medical journal paper. Might be worth looking into, though.

Fascinating!
Sad that Sodiun nitrite is also suspected as a carcinogen, especially of the colon IIRC.
The confusion between vasoconstriction and vasodilation in that case I think is due to the generalization of the concepts. If I understood correctly, when we hold our breath and the response hit, we get peripheral vasoconstriction and central vasodilation - the best of both.

 

[efattah]

My experience with the effect of preserved sausages (nitrite/nitrate) on apnea was disastrous.... I don't recommend it!

 

[efattah]

Did you know that nitrate and nitrite are also antilibido agents? Sodium nitrate is given to men as a form of chemical castration.

 

[Absolute]

Not a good diet for a porn star.

Eric, Whats up with eating less onions and garlic? Something to do with BP?

Jay

 

[efattah]

Onions and garlic lower BP a lot; this reduces O2 consumption significantly, but increases the risk of a blackout, especially a blackout during packing.

However, recent evidence/experiments with FRC diving imply that a diet high in garlic is ideal for FRC -- primarily because with FRC there is no risk of BO from packing, and there is a lowered risk of SWB from many factors. This allows the FRC diver to take full advantage of the lowered O2 consumption caused by garlic. Don't take that at face value, it needs more experiments to be proven.

Garlic both thins the blood and dilates blood vessels.