Time for the Olympics!

Today’s the day folks, it’s finally Friday 27^th July and the London 2012 Olympics are officially opening! Now, I can’t say I’m much of an athlete, but I do love watching the Olympics from the comfort of my sofa with a lovely cup of tea and a slice of my favourite cake.

Whilst eating my slice of cake, I started to wonder about the sort of diets athletes have to follow to stay in tip top shape ready for the Olympics, and how their diet impacts performance. We get all of the energy our bodies need to carry out life processes from the food we eat, so athletes need to make careful food selections to make sure they have enough energy.

The body uses energy from food for breathing, to keep the heart beating, to keep your warm, for digestion and for growing and diving cells. And that’s just the start! So you can see how important food is to us. Different types of cells in the body use different amounts of energy, and muscle cells need more energy than fat cells, so you can see straight away that muscular athletes will need plenty of energy.

But how exactly does food affect our energy levels? Well, the rate at which energy is transferred from food to the body is called the metabolic rate, so the higher your metabolic rate, the quicker your body creates energy from the food you eat. Some food contains more energy than others. For example, the biggest contributors to energy in our diet are carbohydrates and fats.

You could do a simple science experiment to determine which foods release more energy:

• Take 10g of three foods, for example, pasta, crisps and bread.
• Fill a beaker with water, and using a thermometer, record the temperature.
• Fix the beaker into a clamp, or on top of a tripod.
• In turn, burn the three foods underneath a beaker of water, recording the temperature of the water after the food has burned away (make sure you use a fresh beaker of water with each food).
• Record your findings in a table – whichever food heated the water the most contains the most energy per 10g.

Remember, never carry out this experiment without a responsible adult present, and always take caution when carrying out any experiments, especially those requiring burning substances.

I’d love to hear how you get on with your experiments, or how you’re celebrating the Olympics at home or at school, so please leave me a comment below!