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Re:Ask HN: Do you use food as a performance enhancing drug w... by Cthulhu_ on Thursday September 14, 2023 @05:53AM (#37506895)
What does your normal day to day food look like? Do you eat enough, healthy, varied, etc, or do you think "no time for food, I must work"?

Food isn't a "performance enhancing drug", it's food, you eat it because you need to. You seem to have a weird relationship or perception of food if you call binging on a day to be "performance enhancing".

Re:Ask HN: Do you use food as a performance enhancing drug w... by coldtea on Thursday September 14, 2023 @06:05AM (#37506976)
>Food isn't a "performance enhancing drug", it's food, you eat it because you need to

It absolutely is, athletes need to have specific diets to maximize their performance for example. And food can certainly raise motivation (or destroy it) depending on how it's used.

Both the quantity and quality of food matters. Specific foods also boost brain function, carbs help power through exercize, protein helps build muscle, other food substances help with sleep and mood, and so on.

'Food is just food' is not even wrong.

>You seem to have a weird relationship or perception of food if you call binging on a day to be "performance enhancing".

Doesn't sound weird at all, just unhealthy.

Re:Ask HN: Do you use food as a performance enhancing drug w... by rantallion on Thursday September 14, 2023 @09:18AM (#37508613)
"Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support."

Food is food. Drugs are drugs. That's not to say that a poor diet won't result in suboptimal results, but let's not conflate the two.

Re:Ask HN: Do you use food as a performance enhancing drug w... by coldtea on Thursday September 14, 2023 @09:31AM (#37508800)
Let's not claim specific foods and diets as not being essential for enhanced performance either (as opposed to merely utilitarian for subsistence).

Nobody said food is a drug in the strict sense. It's the "performance enhancing" part which is the focus, as opposed to something you merely "eat it because you need to" as it it's choice, composition, and amount doesn't have major effects on performance on many levels.