LGN Tip of the month - March 2010: ‘Runners need their oats'

“My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't think about it, I just have it.”
(Usain Bolt 2008)

Oat cuisine, it’s all the rage darling
As you read, food is important to Usain’s life and breakfast is what kick starts his training each day.

As we have suggested in previous LGN tips, porridge is the fuel of running greats. That includes the marathon queen, Paula - her porridge recipe of choice is by all accounts the classic and beautifully simple porridge, banana and honey.

Porridge is the breakfast gift that just keeps giving, check out LGN’s top 5 health facts.

1. Porridge releases energy slowly and thus can keep you going longer
2. Porridge aids digestion and unlike bran, oats are gentle on the stomach. (All Bran victims, you are amongst LGN running friends!)
3. Porridge is the ideal food for slimmers – fibre rich food, low in calories but also filling.
4. Soluble fibre which is found in oats also helps to reduce blood cholesterol.
5. Eating porridge helps the brain to produce serotonin, which is the all important brain transmitter that helps keep our spirits up and our appetites down.

Posh Porridge:
If you fancy taking your oats in style, LGN can recommend Fortnum & Mason’s Fountain Restaurant, breakfast is served from 7.30am and their Brown Sugar & Whisky Syrup Porridge is rather splendid. http://www.fortnumandmason.com/the_fountain_restaurant.aspx

Competitive porridge passion?
If you fancy your porridge to be a cut above the rest, then ‘The Golden Spurtle’ – World Porridge Championships is for you - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-VvCt1OIe8

Finally 3 random LGN porridge facts
1. Famous names including Madonna, Nelson Mandela, Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, Bill Gates, Demi Moore and Jane Fonda, all like their oats.

2. Oats are Scotland's best export with 55 percent of oats produced for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

3. Muslims use porridge to stop hunger pangs between fasting during the festival of Ramadan.

Bolt inspired?
For those of you inspired by Usain Bolt and keen to combine new found porridge love with a race, how about linking with Usain’s love of Breakfast and his home town of Kingston and doing the traditional Kingston Breakfast Run – not held on a Jamaican island, instead in West London and a classic pre London Marathon preparation event, with an 8 mile and a 16 mile option. Enter here - http://www.humanrace.co.uk/more-info-on-kingston-breakfast-run-388.html


Have a great porridge induced running week!

www.lgnwellbeing.com

Back to advice page