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Eating right isn't easy. It's not because we don't have the capacity to, but it's because we are bombarded with so much information and misinformation that we often harm our bodies by trying new diets, cutting out carbs, overdoing the energy drinks.

And being an athlete whether near-Olympic or just your average running Joe, you may also find that you fall prey to the prompting of companies who say you should try this new drink, that new supplement.

Personally, I have always believed that the most natural way is always the best, but have also tried my hand at cutting out, well, just about everything, with sometimes dire consequences like running out of energy, getting sick or putting on extra weight after reintroducing the foods.

Wake-up call

Training for the Cape Odyssey I did some research on what runners should be eating on a day-to-day training basis? Usually when one mentions carbs I immediately put my back up, as there is a stigma attached to carbs as fat-inducing foods. But after doing the Odyssey last year and eating potatoes on the run (which felt much better than sticky sweet glucose sachets), I realised that maybe it was time to change my mindset.

Olympic trainer and a former competitive cyclist, Chris Carmichael, the founder of Carmichael Training Systems, has learned that athletes need to match their nutritional intake to the demands of their training in order to achieve peak performance.

According to Carmichael, runners need to take a holistic approach to eating and training. "Diet and training are so closely intertwined, they can't be separated," he says. Runners' diets need to correspond with their particular workouts.

He also cautions runners about popular low-carb diets. Slashing carbs can negatively affect a runner's health and performance. This is because carbohydrates are the body's high-octane fuel — the fuel it relies on for speed and power.

Cutting carbs from your diet leads to depleted stores of glycogen (the form carbs take when stored in the body). Training in a glycogen-depleted state causes the body to struggle to maintain even low-intensity exercise, making it difficult to improve fitness.

On a run that's about 75 minutes or less, you can rely on your body's glycogen stores and the food you eat pre-run to power you through. Run longer, though, and you need carbs.

The right balance

What we often don't realise is that the best carbs are actually vegetables and fruits like apples, bananas, grapefruit, berries, carrots, green beans, broccoli and so on. Of course your diet should also include grains and higher calorie carbs such as corn, sweet potato, pasta, rice, couscous and so on, but the good news is that you don't have to eat mounds of pasta when training.

Of course everyone is different, and one person's body might react better to sweet potato than rice for instance. And there are factors like what time of the day are you training and when you are eating, what size portions, and how you eat...

According to 'The Runner's Diet' by Madelyn H Fernstrom, if you want to maintain a healthy regime or lose a little weight, it is essential to get a 50-25-25 balance. She suggests a 50-25-25 eating plan, where 50 percent of your calories come from carbohydrates, 25 percent from protein, and 25 percent from fat, but distributed in the right way throughout the day. Eating carbs closer to a run will give you the energy you need, while eating protein will keep you fuller for longer.

The water myth

Hydration is also something that's easy to get wrong. I recently read an article which suggests how your sweat and the quality of your sweat, determine how much you should drink. If you drink too much you actually do damage to your body by flushing out essential nutrients that your body needs.

In recent years sports scientists have discovered that it is just as risky to drink too much during exercise. Hyponatraemia — or fluid intoxication — is more prevalent than dehydration in many cases, which is caused by sodium levels and electrolytes becoming dangerously dilute.

An easy test of how hydrated you are, is the urine test. If it's clear you're pretty-well hydrated...

And when it comes to energy drinks? Well Carmichael says that on runs under 30 minutes, you typically have enough stored energy to meet the demands of the workout and can simply rely on water for hydration. But on runs over 30 minutes, since you need to replace spent carbs and electrolytes, you may want to experiment with flavoured drinks to ensure that you drink enough to meet your needs.

But just be aware that those extra kilojoules you're putting in your body — like an energy bar or energy drink — on a daily basis, could be counterproductive if you are running to maintain or lose weight. Naturally though, this depends on how much running you are actually doing.

At the end of the day an ideal runner's diet is a delicate balance of carbs, protein and fat, choosing the best options in each of these categories and eating according to your bodies needs, and at the right times. If you are training harder you need more carbs, but a banana is probably a better addition to your diet than an energy bar. And you need to drink enough, but perhaps opt for water instead of that energy drink before your 45-minute run...