Now I will tell you about a different type of cycling that I am going through these last 2 weeks. Saturday equals race day so then I am usually quite positive and eager to break my own PB. That has been easy since I have never raced DLD or Raumerrittet before. =) This I can call the cycling cycle, for lack of a better term. Then Saturday night the next cycle starts...the post-race pondering cycle. Sometimes I am completely high on cycling and sometimes I am ready to give it up. Sunday starts the next cycle which I will call the how hard did you push yourself cycle. Last Sunday my back was in agony and my legs were not all that happy either. And then starts Monday which is the worst cycle of them all...the coma cycle. I am completely sedated for the entire day and nothing goes well. No amount of recovery drink or sleep will allow me to skip over this cycle. That is what MTB marathons do to my body.

Luckily, today is Tuesday which means happy happy cycle cycle even if I still have a bit of leg stiffness leftover. This is the day where I start to look forward to the next race...

If anyone was wondering, I am busy doing some medical experiments on myself. Back in the 70s, Nobel Prize winners did this all the time. But I don't suggest trying this at home.

An article I found yesterday while I was dissing Actimel said that anti-oxidants like vitamin C and E are good for stopping inflammation during exercise but you can also take carbohydrates. Vitamin C is obvious but the E I found at Apoteket is mixed with selenium which is something the meat I ate today was full of. So I don't need this and my stomach is reminding me of that. And I know that I don't need one of those sport multivitamin mixes.

After exercise you need, among other things, anti-oxidants and what happens to be in my favourite Enervit R2 Recovery? Exactly. Both vitamin C and E. I know that R2 works. So why change a winning recipe?

By now we all know that Charlotte Kalla starts her day with one of these, at least we are supposed to think that.

And judging by the crowds of people around these products at ICA, people seem to agree that Actimel is something to buy. My first experience with this was on a Malmö Aviation flight where you actually get free food and then there was another free sample at ICA. In my case, my morgonvana is coffee and a bowl of cereal. So adding an Actimel to that seems like a good idea and it tastes good.

But let's look at the health info. Starting with my own poorly designed experiment on myself, I did not have any yoghurt over the weekend I because sick. But is that proof? I started drinking Actimel again during my cold and I didn't become healthy. These things are difficult.

The Actimel website has a list of quite a few scientific articles which was actually a bit surprising. Most foods or diet supplements do not list any actual evidence. When you want medical information, you search on PubMed which is essentially a collection of every proper medical article there is. If it is not here, the article is probably not very trustworthy. So, a search for Lactobacillus casei DN-114 001 (L Casei defensis) gives 27 articles. Was one of those the article saying how drinking Actimel helps athletes recover after hard exercise? Unfortunately, no.

The Merenstein et al paper is interesting because Danone has claimed in advertising that Actimel will help children stay more healthy. And this study does say that there is a small but significant improvement. However, the Meyer at al paper compares Actimel to normal yoghurt and there was absolutely no difference. Both worked just fine. And also probiotics from other companies likely have the same effect.

So if your current morgonvana includes some fil or other yoghurt, there is no need to change. But if you are like me and never had any, Actimel works just fine. Where Actimel wins is in the packaging. If you, like I, am running late in the morning, grabbing one of these is easier than most other yoghurts.

Do you agree?

And since I am looking, I think it is time I review exercise and the immune system. We need some more info on this...