Lychees for the win!

With no more running to talk about this week, I’m going to go into a little about my diet. I mentioned yesterday that I took some lychees to eat on my run, and there’s a very specific reason for that.

I’m vegetarian, and Kasia follows a plant based wholefoods diet (and so do I when I’m at home). It’s just healthier, in general. We rarely use refined sugar, and tend to snack on nuts and fruits if we’re bored and hungry around the house.

Luckily for me, I work for a company that specialises in importing Asian foods to the UK, and have a ready supply of exotic fruit  and vegetables should desire it. The lychees I had I actually bought in Sainsbury’s though.

Here’s a little trick you may or may not know – you can compare two similar products in Google by typing in the first followed by “vs.”, then the second.

I do this a lot. Try “Tempeh vs. Pork”. Tempeh is a fermented soybean product, that tastes nothing like tofu, but can be cooked in anyway that meat can. Interesting, huh?

I’m not going to get into the benefits of a plant based diet, or lecture on the benefits of wheatgrass juice (I’ve never tried it). But I am going to compare bananas and oranges.

Now, everybody knows that you should be eating bananas on a long run. That’s why they hand them out – for the potassium content that is quickly absorbed and gets those essential salts back into your system.

And oranges too – Oranges are high in Vitamin C, right? Every school kid in the world knows that. Vitamin C is great for fighting inflammation, especially after exercise, reducing your recovery times.

This is where the lychees come in. Lychees, if you can find them (fresh, not canned), have more Vitamin C than oranges. While they have about half the potassium of bananas, they do have a higher sugar content, meaning a bigger energy boost (The potassium loss is, in the grand scheme of things, minimal).

The other benefits to a runner, of course, is that they’re small, easily consumed, and perfect to carry in a race belt, due to their shells that stop them getting squished (try that with a banana). Plus they’re juicy and taste great too!

Longans are even better than lychees, if you can find them – even higher potassium and Vit. C. content, with less calories!

Please note though – I’ll take a banana if there’s one on offer, and did have one the moment I got home. Supplement, not replace, people!

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