Percy Cerutty and Water with Meals?

Only milk with meals, according to cerutty. Read his book, "why die?". It's great...he led by example.

Not true. Percy thought humans should not drink milk. He claims, beer, tea and coffee interfere with the natural HCl released by the stomach for digestion. He did say a single glass of water with a meal was OK. He later said that water should be taken before or much later because this too would interfere with the pH levels, but for most of his teaching life he advocated 1 glass of water with the meal.

I remember when I was little a lot of adults thought it was bad to drink while you ate. My parents did not, my aunt and uncle did. My uncle would get mad if you wanted to drink while you ate because it was bad for you!

That passed with time, even for him.

Drinking water means you get less out of your food.

Cerutty did die though and he wasn't particularly ancient Why would his book necessarily be a great read if it didn't make him live to methusalean age?

From "Training With Cerutty" by Larry Myers (who spent a year documenting Cerutty's methods):

"Fluids should never be consumed during the main course of a meal. They should be drunk at least a half hour before the meal and then not again until 1 - 1-1/2 hours afterwards. The reasons for this are: (1) The fluids dilute the saliva and the digestive juices in the stomach, thus impairing the natural process of digestion; (2) The combination of food and liquid, particularly coffee and tea, leads to acidity of the heart; (3) The combination contributes to peptic ulcers.

A small glass of wine 15 minutes before the meal has been proven to be an aid to digestion. This is the only exception to the rule."

Not terribly convincing rationale ("acidity of the heart"???) but the man did get results.

Mellow juan wrote:

Only milk with meals, according to cerutty. Read his book, "why die?". It's great...he led by example.

Yea, but he died.

Didn't see other posts, but nutritionists advocate no liquids with meals for better digestion.

I have found more than a few errors in interpretation in Myers book. Perc did not say acidity of the heart. He did say increased acidity.

To Cowboy Bob....we all die sooner or later. Perc lived a helluva lot longer than the doctors said he would.

Mellow juan wrote:

Read his book, "why die?". It's great.

I agree that it was a good book. However, my opinion of Perc greatly decreased after reading it. He was all about Perc not his runners. He couldn't hold a candle to Lydiard or Stanpfl, who always seemed so at odds with.

His greatest contribution was not to running but with getting the Aussies on a general exercise program. IMHO.

PC knew nothing about nutrition and little more about running for that matter

Boring wrote:PC knew nothing about nutrition and little more about running for that matter

I'll agree with that statement!!

Now here's a great reason why I'd prefer Lydiard as a coach to Cerutty. Twice I had dinner with Lydiard and each time we had a few beers with the meal.

No water? Howm I sposed to wash my food down?

citation needed wrote:From "Training With Cerutty" by Larry Myers (who spent a year documenting Cerutty's methods):

Is this the book with the stop-action photos of Cerutty demonstrating the human gallop? That's a great book. Full of nonsense, but great.

Space Ghost wrote:

citation needed wrote:From "Training With Cerutty" by Larry Myers (who spent a year documenting Cerutty's methods):

Is this the book with the stop-action photos of Cerutty demonstrating the human gallop? That's a great book. Full of nonsense, but great.

Exactly. He experimented with things and made outrageaous statements with little scientific basis. PC was a hoot, but if he hadn't had the luck to hook up with Herbie no-one would have given him the time of day.

I doubt that we'd remember him now if not for Elliott, but he had a number of guys, Albie Thomas, Merv Lincoln, Don MacMillan, Dave Stephens, who were quite good in their day.

There was an amazing runner also who was born with a bad arm that also trained at portsea with PC...perhaps someone can help with the name?

What about foods with high water content? Should they be avoided too? or dried before eating?

Why Die is a great book, but Cerutty didn't write it himself. However, I have "Athletics: How to Become a Champion" by the man himself, you lucky duck!

Here's what he says:

"With what avidity do these hungry ones size their bowls: help themselves to their rolled oats, dried fruits, raisins, walnuts, and bananas. These bowls are of considerable size and the food, all eaten raw and dry (no milk or any fluid at all is added), takes some twenty minutes to eat and masticate properly [...description of eggs, potatoes, bread, vegemite served...] No fluid is taken with this meal, neither water, tea, milk, or coffee. The athletes are expected to have taken ample fluid (water) before coming to the table."

At dinner, they mostly eat vegetables. Some boiled some raw. The only fluids at dinner are 1) the water the vegetables were boiled in--Cerutty says it is "greatly esteemed as an elixir." Tried it myself a few times with broccoli--not too bad! and 2) half a pint of milk. This is the only meal at which milk is consumed, but for desert, they have fruit salad with cream (skimmed from whole milk) on top.

Read for yourself on pages 26 and 27 of Athletics: How to Become a Champion. Hard to find though!

Mellow juan wrote:

There was an amazing runner also who was born with a bad arm that also trained at portsea with PC...perhaps someone can help with the name?

Murray Halberg