Nutrition for your fighter's brain

As an athlete, you want your body to perform at its best. Nutrition expert Dr Samefko Ludidi says there is one part of the body you should certainly not overlook.

As an athlete, you pay attention to your eating habits. Usually with a view to what nutrition does for your muscles and your weight. What many athletes are less aware of is the impact of nutrition on another part of the body: the brain. Yet for a fighter, the brain is just as important as the muscles.

Your brain is mainly occupied with unconscious processes. In a bout, you very often react instinctively. A kick comes in and you block it as a reflex. A punch comes towards your head, so you move off the line. That happens without first thinking, "a punch is coming, let me move off the line", because by then it would be too late. You do a great deal of the work automatically.

The speed at which your brain processes information, both consciously and unconsciously, is partly determined by how well you maintain your brain. Which fuel are you using? Is everything properly lubricated?

It may sound as if I am taking the comparison with a car too far, talking about lubricating the brain. But the brain literally needs oil. It keeps the blood vessels healthy and counters inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids are good for the brain. A diet with enough fish, meat, nuts and eggs helps with concentration, learning and processing information. That helps you during training and in competition.

The brain is not very flexible, however, when it comes to taking up nutrients. It can really only use glucose (sugar) as a nutrient. If the sugar level in your body (blood sugar level) is too low, you can even fall into a coma. Fortunately the body has emergency protocols. If you eat no sugar or too little sugar, the body can produce sugar itself. It does so because it is so important to keep feeding the central computer that the brain is. But that is an emergency measure by the body, and you cannot rely on it. You structurally need sugar from food. Incidentally, this does not mean that more sugar is better for the brain. Too much sugar is in fact bad for the brain and can, for example, contribute to Alzheimer's disease. If you simply eat two pieces of fruit a day, you will in principle get enough sugar.

Besides sugar, the brain can use one other substance: ketones. These are produced and released when your body enters the fat-burning zone. What is interesting about these ketones is that we can now also take them from a jar, as a supplement. A great deal of research is currently being done into their positive effects on brain function. This concerns thinking itself, reaction time and the capacity to recover. Certainly for sports involving impact to the brain, such as rugby and combat sports, ketones may contribute to recovery. This is an interesting development that I, as a combat sports athlete, would certainly keep an eye on.

Apart from nutrients, the brain above all needs enough fluid. A shortage shows mainly in reaction speed and the ability to absorb punishment. During weight cuts (losing a lot of weight in a short time in order to get under the limit of a weight class) the brain becomes dehydrated. The brain recovers far more slowly than the rest of the body. That is why a weight cut makes fighters vulnerable: they are knocked out more easily. Hydration is very important. Drinking to rehydrate after a weight cut works for most of the body, but the brain needs about five to seven days to recover properly. So avoid weight cuts and try to stay consistently at weight.

I always stress that a varied diet is the basis for a healthy (sporting) life. But if you really want to perform structurally, consistency is just as important. That means doing the same thing in a disciplined way, and therefore, for example, also keeping your weight stable. Not eating healthily for a few days and then having a day of junk food. Not drinking enough one day and little the next because the scales might look slightly better. Drink 1.5 to 2 litres of water every day, and more if you have trained. If you have trained and your shirt and shorts are soaking wet, that is only part of the fluid you have actually lost. Much of the sweat has already evaporated. You also lose a lot of fluid through breathing. That is why in many gyms you see condensation on the windows, mirrors and walls.

Being consistent is quite difficult. There is nothing wrong with aids. Set an alarm on your phone so that you do not forget to drink in the morning, and also in the middle of the day and at the end of the day. The same applies to meal times. Preferably, you have those at the same times every day too. The more seriously you take your sport, the more seriously you should take consistency.