Eric Sodicoff 👨🏻‍⚕️

🚨New science DEBATE released on HIGH CARB vs KETO: What the new @ProfTimNoakes vs @LouiseMBurke debate actually shows 👇 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition just released it big debate between two of the biggest names in exercise performance asking one loaded question: does a low-carbohydrate diet impair endurance performance? On one side is @LouiseMBurke, one of the most influential sports nutrition researchers in the world. Her argument: yes, low carb can impair performance? She is not saying every athlete must eat high-carb all the time. She is saying performance depends on the event, intensity, environment, training status, sex, and the athlete in front of you. ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S… Her biggest physiological point is fuel economy. Near an athlete’s oxidative ceiling (i.e., elite race pace), she argues that carbohydrate produces more usable energy per liter of oxygen than fat. So even if keto adaptation dramatically raises fat oxidation, that does not automatically mean better speed or power. Now I am skeptical of this point, since we have conducted Randomized Controlled Trails in both runners and ironman competitors and showed that athletes at 86% of their VO2max can utilize fat as the predominant fuel while on a very low carb diet and STILL maintain performance. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3684… On the other side, @ProfTimNoakes argues: low carb does not necessarily impair performance when athletes are adapted long enough. He points out that many “keto hurts performance” studies are short, often under four weeks, and that several randomized trials lasting four to six weeks report similar performance between high-carb and low-carb groups. ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S… He also reframes fatigue. Instead of saying muscle glycogen is always the main limiter, he argues that during prolonged exercise, maintaining blood glucose, the small glucose pool is the most important. In our trial, 10 grams of carbohydrate per hour improved prolonged cycling performance after both diets. Noakes and Burke also did something really special: they developed a CONSENSUS article where they explored key points of AGREEMENT and DISAGREEMENT for future research. This is the coolest part and in my opinion was one of the verty unique aspect of these three studies ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S… My take is this: It is not "team high carb" versus "team keto." The weight of the evidence demonstrates that 1) BOTH high and low carb diets can work, and that 2) Carbohydrates during prolonged exercise are valuable...but 3) How this is applied depends on the individual athlete. What's your take?