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10 miles at 89! I'm putting an order in for a lorry load! I have nothing against any supplements, just the vitamin C pills/lozenges. Oranges, grapefruits etc are full of vit C. Some companies have put those Vitamin C sweets on the shelves for little kids, that just shows them they don't need healthy fruit, just a chewy sweetie.

Yeah that's cool. At CTC you can just swan into the galley and ask for citrus fruits whenever you want.

Not really, there are stacks of oranges and grapefruit growing all over the accomodation and on Woodbury so just pick one and you're away. You're allowed to eat oranges on parade and on speed marches as well so don't bother with girly pills.

Sully wrote:Yeah that's cool. At CTC you can just swan into the galley and ask for citrus fruits whenever you want.

Not really, there are stacks of oranges and grapefruit growing all over the accomodation and on Woodbury so just pick one and you're away. You're allowed to eat oranges on parade and on speed marches as well so don't bother with girly pills.

I can't tell if your taking the p*ss or not sully?

He is taking the p**s mate. There is plenty of fruit down in the gally but not anytime you want.

Its a good idea to take a couple of bits back to the grot on the sly and keep them for that day.

Also Vitamin C needs to be taken with Iron or it wont work.. so get a bottle of Iron + Vitamin C in one.

Why is this then, surely the wouldnt sell it on its own if it had no effects?

Well i don't know about you but with the amount of fruit I eat, I think I could manage to survive a few days with out it, but yeah good one anyway.........

Well when you come down here to CTC and you discover the amount of fruit you can eat, i think you'll start taking the tablets.

Addiction, I for one am glad you'll be alright for a few days, good work. You really do not seem to be able to take advice from people who know more than you, which I am sure everyone can see is obviously a very good trait. Keep it up.

I was just pulling your leg. Addiction, you're right that food is the best way to get this stuff - in an ideal world. I agree that supplements can be a bit of a con but I would have a go at CTC. Hankins and GIB are slugging it out there at the moment and doing pretty well by the looks of things so I'd listen to them.

From my experience you need calories more than anything. A study was done when I was there and it showed an alarming loss of weight amongst recruits so they introduced '9 o'clockers' - a meal at 9pm of some sort of pasta and chips. I still looked like a screaming skull when I passed out Sometimes you'd queue up for scran and the wait would be too long so you'd miss it - I hated that.

When you're doing that much phys then anything you eat is good for you -it will just get incinerated in your body and your body will take from it what it needs. Sometimes it's hard to eat that much with the nerves and all that but if you don't have a gut bucket fry-up before the 30 miler for example then you're asking for trouble. Some vitamins on top won't do any harm.

Sod it if I get to RT I'm gonna take vitiamin tablets and supplements I wouldn't take a chance

Thought you might find this article from today's Times newspaper intresting.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 449813.ece

Any kind of nutritional supplement is designed to (as the name suggests) supplement a persons diet, not replace it. It would be worth remembering that athletes, people training for the forces, or people in the forces themselves do not have the same nutritional needs of the average person. Eating well in many cases simply is not enough and this is where things such as protein shakes, vitamins, minerals, and other supplements come into play.

Then again i would also argue that supplements especially the likes of creatine and protein have a certain placebo effect on people:they think they're stronger for taking these supplements and therefore they are(its the whole mind-body link thing).

People will think they are stronger for taking creatine because they are. Creatine is the most widely researched supplement and countless studies have documented the effects of creatine. As for protein; strength comes from a persons ability to recruit more motor units. The more muscle mass a person has, the the more effective this process is. Protein is needed by the body to repair and rebuild tissue damaged by training and from this hypertrophy occurs and muscle grows. Therefore protein DOES make one stronger although the effects are not instant and not in the way many people think.


I read that Times article, and quite a few things don't feel right with it. It would be interesting to see the peice of research (and moreover the research from which the meta analysis was complied) before anyone uses that as any conclusive evidence. That is the problem with theses "sound bite" pieces. There is not meat to them, not enough information, similar pieces of journalism can be found in the likes of Men's Heath/Fitness and the such.



Spence

Spence wrote:

Then again i would also argue that supplements especially the likes of creatine and protein have a certain placebo effect on people:they think they're stronger for taking these supplements and therefore they are(its the whole mind-body link thing).

People will think they are stronger for taking creatine because they are. Creatine is the most widely researched supplement and countless studies have documented the effects of creatine. As for protein; strength comes from a persons ability to recruit more motor units, and the muscle mass a person has, the the more effective this process is. Protein is needed by the body to repair and rebuild tissue damaged by training and from this hypertrophy occurs and muscle grows. Therefore protein DOES make one stronger although the effects are not instant and not in the way many people think.






Spence

I know!The benefits of creatine and protein are well documented,the point i was making was that aswell as the said benefits,supplements have the ADDED benefit of this placebo effect.its like any well educated weight lifter will tell you,if you truly believe in your mind and imagine yourself lifting the weight,your more likely to be able to do it.just as any negative thoughts of 'i'll never be able to do that' have the adverse effect.its the same with supplements and even food,when i know ive eating the right stuff im much more confident in training cos i know ive had the right fuel and my body is more able to perform.

I apologise, I misread!

Yeah you are totally right about the gains you can make when your brain is in gear aswell, I think I am so used to people dismissing phychological benefit when they say it's only a placebo effect that I jumped on you. The phsychological aspect should never be underestimated.


Spence