Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My topic for the science fair (my question is) "Does Junkfood Affect your physical performance in physical activites"?. One fact I need to know before I conduct this experiment is "When does junkfood or any food you eat affect you"? (The next day, that night, etc.). I have researched this question and topic and have not been able to find any information on it. What I am planning on doing is: The night before, have my sister sleep from 9:00 pm, to 9:00 am. Next, I will wake her up and have her eat cinnamon rolls, or just anything really unheatlhy for you. The whole day,she will eat unhealthy, stuff like: Pizza, cinnamon rolls, cheetos, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, ice cream. Later that night or the next day (this was my question, when does the food affect you?, I don't know when the food will start affecting her.) I will take her to a gym, or somewhere with a track, and have her run approximately a mile. I will time her, and see how the food affected her, wether she got a really bad time, because of the junkfood. The next week, I will do exactly the same thing, have her sleep from 9:00 pm, to 9:00 am. Next, I will wake her up and have her eat really healthy foods the whole day for all of her meals. Then I will take her to the gym (when I find out how long it takes for the junkfood to really get into your system and slow you down) and time her, My hypothesis was "If you eat junkfood and drink pop, then it will slow you down in your daily physical activites". Thanks so much for your time!!
seawurldgurl

You have selected an interesting topic to study.

The site below will provideome background on foods, nutrition and sports performance.

Sports Nutrition: Fuel Movement & Sport
... content of foods affect the time needed for digestion and absorption. ... of food composition and food processing, they can effectively time their eating ...
http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/nutrition/eat09.html - Cached

Matthew W. Mulanax

Hi seawurldgurl,

You have chosen a very interesting topic!

Depending on how willing your sister is to do this again, you should consider doing a control trial first. You can still have her sleep from 9:00pm to 9:00am, but have her eat her normal diet. That gives you a starting point for her exercise performance, before you start changing her diet.

I hope that helps!

Heather

I'm going to a birthday party sleepover and its just me and my BFF. We tend to pig out on chochlate and marshmellows and lollipops and junk food. How do i keep myself i still wanna eat it!