Beef benefits athletes

Adding lean beef to diet benefits long-distance runners

More than 25 percent of athletes are deficient in iron — endurance athletes are at highest risk. Yet these athletes shy away from consuming red meat, one of the best absorbable sources of iron, according to professor Kendra Kattelmann of the health and nutritional sciences department.

Through a study of 34 collegiate athletes competing in track/cross-country and volleyball, Kattelmann found that adding 9 ounces of lean beef each week to their diets helped the long-distance runners retain lean body mass during the competitive season.

The eight-week project, sponsored by the South Dakota Beef Council, was the third in a series of studies that sought to determine whether a lean beef supplement would enhance iron status. Each one-year project received from $20,000 to $30,000 in funding from the beef council, with the first study beginning in 2010.

Holly Swee, director of nutrition and consumer information, said, “The South Dakota Beef Industry Council works toward science-based research to support the benefits of beef’s high-quality protein in a healthful diet.”

Runners reap benefits

Among the athletes, both the control and intervention groups lost lean mass while competing, but the intervention group lost less than the control group, Kattelmann says. “The additional protein attenuated the loss of lean tissue.”

However, the volleyball players did not experience a similar benefit. The attenuation occurred only among the runners, perhaps because of the aerobic nature of the sport, Kattelmann explains.

In addition, a combination of the studies showed that a high protein diet does not negatively affect a woman’s bone density, Kattelmann says. Previous research suggested high protein levels would lead to lower bone density. There was no evidence of this among the young women in the studies.

Lean protein important source of iron

“Iron is one of those nutrients limited in food sources, so people need to make good choices to have adequate iron in their diets,” Kattelmann says. “By nature, athletes try to avoid high fat diets and consume lots of carbohydrate-containing food.”

Rod DeHaven, SDSU track and cross-country coach, encourages his athletes to take a vitamin supplement that contains iron. “Iron plays a pretty important role in running performance,” says DeHaven, but it is difficult for athletes to find good yet affordable sources of lean beef.

Graduate researchers Jocelyn Johnson and Danielle Burke, a distance runner for DeHaven, solved this problem by using low-sodium beef snacks as the lean beef supplement.

Even minimal deficiencies can hamper an athlete’s performance, according to Suzanne Eberle, Portland, Ore., registered dietician and nutrition therapist. “Less iron means fewer red blood cells, which means less oxygen, which means less energy” says the author of “Endurance Sports Nutrition.”

Those who participate in running and jumping sports must also fight the effects of a phenomenon called foot strike hemolysis which causes destruction of red cells, explains Kattelmann.

“Understanding the physiology involved and the importance of maintaining iron levels is something we continue to bring up to our student-athletes,” DeHaven says.

Christie Delfanian