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Get Stuffed - Breakfast of champions

The most important meal of the day is more important for skiers and boarders

At a local event a few years ago, my husband, Danby, and I were wandering through the crowd when Steve Podborski and members of his family happened to be standing beside us. Danby, never a shy person, went straight up to Mrs. Podborski, Steve’s mother, and asked her what she had fed her son for breakfast while he was growing up that helped to make him such a fine skiier. I was shrivelling with embarrassment, showing Mrs. Podborski a sheepish grin and a shrug of the shoulders to indicate how unlike my husband I could be when she answered definitively and proudly, "Oatmeal!" Since that evening, Danby has always eaten oatmeal for breakfast before heading out to the slopes.

Similarly, Danby’s best friend Henry, the most naturally talented skier I know, is religious in his breakfast eating habits during ski season. Henry tops 100 days on the mountains each winter even though he resides in Ontario. He packs up shop for four months each year toting a tin of his mother’s homemade muesli. His family is Swiss. He guards that tin with his life and measures out the same amount each morning, mixing it with condensed milk. A kiwi fruit rounds out the meal along with a whole pot of black tea. Henry and Danby are able to ski four to five hours without the need to refuel with food after these breakfasts – with the exception of a few chocolate covered coffee beans, jujubes and sour face pullers that are eaten on the go.

It is not news that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for children and teens in school learning all day. But what about eating breakfast to increase your energy for sport activities? While researching for this column I became curious to learn what the average day skier might choose to eat for their sustaining meal of the day; what people might choose to fuel their body to allow them to take full advantage of a single day’s lift ticket? To garner such information I accosted people waiting in the lift line around mid-morning on Sunday. Surprisingly there are several (adult) people who like to eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes for breakfast. Lots of people eat bagels or toast with peanut butter. The most interesting breakfast one woman admitted to was leftover ribs from the previous night’s dinner, with a slice of carrot cake. Unfortunately, the majority of people that I asked were tackling the hill with an empty stomach and several of those people did not seem overly keen admitting to this fact.

It is easy to skip that first meal of the day when you are in a mad dash to get to the mountain, to be first in line at the Peak chair or to boot pack up Spanky’s Ladder. Without breakfast, though, you will feel fatigue starting to creep into your muscles far sooner than if you had eaten. The best type of food to fuel the start/stop action of downhill skiing or boarding comes from eating a meal made up mostly (55 to 75 per cent) of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are made up of fibre, simple sugars and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates include things like table sugar, candies, soda or pastries like donuts. These are virtually empty calories without vitamin or mineral content. Complex carbohydrates and fibre are found in items like bread, pasta, grains, cereals and starchy vegetables like potatoes, beans and peas. Complex carbohydrates contain many nutrients that are essential to the body and they provide the most beneficial source of energy for sports activities.

Carbohydrates boost brain and muscle power. After eating, carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Liver glycogen is used to maintain blood sugar levels which are essential for fuelling the brain and central nervous system. Ideal blood sugar levels are critical for clear, high functioning, quick, mental performance. Low blood sugar leads to fatigue and weakness. During exercise, muscles get their energy from muscle glycogen, which is quickly depleted during strenuous activity. Stored fat also supplies energy to muscles but not as efficiently – roughly 50 per cent of the efficiency of muscle glycogen.

The key to sustaining your body through a day of downhill is to eat enough of the good stuff to provide the required energy without feeling uncomfortably full or lethargic. Complex carbohydrates are easily digested and quickly absorbed into the blood stream and they leave the stomach quickly, so there is little if any feeling of nausea during strenuous activity. Grains are a great source of B vitamins which aid in the metabolic production of energy. In contrast, meat uses more energy to digest. It takes roughly two to three hours for carbohydrates to be available as fuel so choosing to eat breakfast is a must.

Okay so how many calories are burned during a day of skiing? The following chart will provide you with a rough idea but keep in mind that these numbers reflect an hour of continuous skiing – not the reality of waiting in lift lines, sitting down to strap on your board or picking up your gear after a fall, but you get the general idea.

Weight (pounds) Calories burned per hour of downhill

110 465

154 595

198 720

Don’t forget the importance of keeping hydrated. You need a glass or two of water for every hour of skiing. Even in the cold you can easily become dehydrated. Alcohol or caffeinated beverages decrease body temperature and can slow reflexes. Drinking frequent small amounts of water or sports drinks like Gatorade will help to keep your body hydrated for the day.

Breakfast is often skipped due to time constraints but there are plenty of quickly prepared breakfast choices to be had. Some of these include:

• Cold whole wheat cereal with milk (or muesli)

• Smoothie made with a banana, yogurt, 1 cup fruit juice and half a cup of frozen or fresh berries – add a little honey for sweetness

• Toasted whole wheat bread or bagel with peanut butter or cream cheese

• Sprinkle bran or wheat germ on cereal or yogurt

If you have a little more time in the morning:

• whole wheat pancakes are great with maple syrup

• oatmeal, cream of wheat cereal or red river cereal are wonderful stick-to-your-rib choices and will warm your tummy on a cold morning.

If you are choosing to make oatmeal, there are several different types of oats to choose from. Oat groats are the whole oat, hulled and cleaned. They are a lot like brown rice and can take as long to cook.

Steel-cut oats are groats cut into pieces which make a creamy, nutty, toothsome hot cereal.

Rolled oats, also called old fashioned oats are the kind most of us are familiar with, along with the quick cooking and instant oatmeal.

One quick trick to take regular, quick cooking oats from their pasty consistency is to quickly sauté them in a tiny bit of butter in a frying pan before adding them to hot water or hot water and milk. This method also works with steel cut oats. This gives the oatmeal a distinct texture and nutty flavour.

Top cooked oatmeal with maple syrup or brown sugar. Honeyed fig compote or other dried fruit compote make excellent toppings if you are more ambitious – these toppings are also delivering more power to your breakfast plate.