The Energy Advantage

Top Tip to Energize your life

Winter food for dark days

After the long hours of daylight in the summer, the clocks change and the days suddenly become shorter, colder and darker. This triggers a change in mood and many people begin to feel less energetic and less motivated. Some are affected more by circadian rhythms.

What are Circadian rhythms? The Earth moves on a 24 hour cycle and so do you. Most of your body’s functions will vary throughout the day – body temperature, metabolic rate and even endurance performance will be different at one time of day than another. Since they follow a cycle of around 24 hours, these are circadian rhythms (from the Latin circa diem – “about a day”). Your body clock is synchronised to the environment and the light/dark cycle is a powerful influence on this.

SAD has been a medically recognised condition since 1984. According to the British based Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA), around 1 million people in the UK suffer from SAD and many more from the milder version of “winter blues.” Both conditions can play havoc with your work, social life and training schedule. Symptoms include feelings of exhaustion and lethargy, oversleeping but not feeling revived and refreshed when you wake up, food cravings – especially for sticky, sweet carbohydrate foods which often results in weight gain over the winter months.

Many of your body processes follow circadian rhythms and one of the cues that trigger these is daylight. The accepted cause of SAD is a lack of bright light in the winter. The pituitary is a small gland about the size of a pea which sits at the base of your brain. When bright light enters the brain via your eyes, the gland is switched off. When light levels fall, the pituitary is triggered to produce the hormone melatonin (not to be confused with melanin, which is the brown pigment produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight and results in a sun tan!).

Melatonin, otherwise known as “chemical sleep” floods your body, makes you feel lethargic and prepares you for sleep. With the long, dark days, many people need to get up before dawn. It is difficult to get up on dark mornings because our melatonin levels are still high. The high level of melatonin is associated with lower levels of another brain chemical, serotonin.

Winter Food Cravings A quick fix way to increase serotonin is to eat carbohydrates and sweet foods. The body’s desire to boost serotonin levels is thought to be the underlying reason for food cravings during winter. One effective way to reduce these cravings, and overcome other symptoms of SAD is to use phototherapy. This involves exposure to special light boxes which produce about ten times the intensity of light compared with normal light bulbs. These can be set up on a desk during work hours or in front of a roller bike to help with motivation to keep training though the winter. Outside In A Cambridgeshire company “Outside In” supplied the 2004 British Olympic gold medal rowing team with Bodyclocks to use during training. These simulated dawn and sunset so that their sleep/wake cycles could be synchronised to their training and competition schedule. As the race days progressed, the team had to get up earlier. It didn’t get light in Athens until 6.30am but the team were woken by “sunlight” from the Bodyclocks at 4.45am.

Another debilitating symptom of SAD is a generally weakened immune system. Even if you do manage to maintain a basic level of fitness over the winter, your training schedule could be disrupted by regular colds, coughs, sore throat or chest infections. It is possible to boost your immune system and there are certain immune enhancing foods which can help protect against the winter bugs.

There is no doubt that SAD makes winter a misery for millions and that about 20 minutes in the morning in front of a light box pumping out light at an intensity of 10,000 lux seem to help most sufferers. However a new controversial theory suggests that the change in mood and energy levels during winter is part of a great seasonal rhythm that affects nearly all living beings. Virtually all animals and plants have strong annual rhythms of reproduction and regeneration. The apparent slowing down and withdrawing during winter is not abnormal but part of the natural cycle. Winter blues may simply be a natural physical slowdown, a form of re-charging. Feeling lethargic and depressed may simply be because you are still trying to function at your summer speed. If you suffer from SAD, it may be nature’s way to tell you to take the opportunity to rest and recover fully from a hectic summer, working long hours and not recovering well. Winter could be nature's way to tell you to slow down and hibernate a little!?

Garlic - add 3-4 crushed cloves to pasta sauces, stir fries or home made vegetable soups.

Vitamin C - start a new habit and eat oranges or kiwi fruits at your desk if you commute to work, or as a refreshing snack after a training session. Spinach, red and green peppers, broccoli and sprouts also contain vitamin C;

Zinc works with vitamin C to enhance the immune system. Good sources of zinc include tofu, turkey, chickpeas, eggs and nuts.

Useful websites

www.lumie.com

www.outsidein.co.uk

Top Tip to Energize your life

Winter food for dark days

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