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SPORTS NUTRTION AND PRE-GAME MEALS What are the best foods for providing energy before an athletic contest, workout, or practice? Carbohydrates, protein, and fat provide sources of energy for the body. Carbohydrates are the fuel that the muscles run on. A jet airplane does not run on 87 octane gasoline, but rather needs jet fuel. The human is much the same in that muscles are not energized by fats or protein, but by carbohydrates. How and where does the body store carbohydrates? The body stores carbohydrates is the liver, the blood, and mostly in the muscle. The storage form of carbohydrates is called glycogen. The longer and harder you train, the more carbohydrate and glycogen your muscles can store. This is one example of how conditioning helps an athlete get in shape and perform better. Your muscles use the energy more efficiently. How long will the muscles store glycogen? In a trained athlete, the muscle can store glycogen for up to 24 hours. What is not used is stored as fat. What are examples of carbohydrates? Breads, cereals, bagels, waffles, pancakes, muffins, rolls, pasta such as spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, rice, grains, fruits, vegetables, pretzels, popcorn, honey, juice, yogurt, jams, jellies, and syrups, are all examples of carbohydrates. What percentage of an athletes diet should be carbohydrate? For an athlete whose body is still growing (like all our Bobcats), carbohydrates should make up at least 60% of the diet, with protein and fat making up 20% each. This can easily be calculated by reading the nutrition labels, which I know even our third graders have been taught to do. PREGAME MEALS AND EATING BEFORE PRACTICE. To get the maximum benefit, energy, and performance from a pregame meal, this meal should be consumed about 2-3 hours before a game, workout, or practice. The meal should be mainly carbohydrate with a small amount of protein and minimal. The protein and fat provide no energy to exercising muscle, but will curb the appetite right before game time. A small snack such as fruit, cereal bar, or sports drink can be eaten 30 minutes before athletic activity if the athlete is getting hungry. Since the Pony and Reserve teams play early in the day, breakfast should be the main meal with a light snack late morning if needed. Since the varsity plays in the afternoon, the best time for them to load up would be between 10 and 11AM. Some athletes cant eat much on game day or may not eat much in the early part of the day. That is not a big problem if you remember the muscles will store glycogen for up to 24 hours. This means that if an athlete has a high carbohydrate meal for lunch and supper the day before, their muscles will be fueled the next morning and those athletes can usually do well with a relatively small amount of carbohydrates such as a bowl of cereal, fruit, toast, or sports drinks before game time. Carbohydrates in the form of dilute juice or sports drinks can be drank during athletic contest to provide energy. It is also important to remember that replenishing carbohydrates after activity is important especially if exercise or practice takes place on consecutive days. The bulk of protein and fat necessary for an athlete to grow can be consumed after athletic activity. If eaten before, energy is taken from the muscles to aid in digesting protein and fat, leading to a tired and fatigued athlete. Below are some sample meals that can be eaten before games or practices: Breakfast: Any combination of cereal, toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, pancakes, milk, juice, fruit, honey, or yogurt. A couple strips of bacon or ham will provide more than enough protein, and will also provide salt to help stimulate thirst, which can help prevent cramping and dehydration late in the game. Lunch: PB&J, sandwiches made with lunchmeat fairly low in fat such as turkey or ham, fruit, rolls, bagels, vegetables, baked potatoes, salads with low-fat dressings, yogurt, pudding, crackers, pizza without added high-fat meat, juice, milk, sports drinks Dinner: pastas, rices, bread, rolls, vegetables, fruits, lean meats such as chicken, fish, pork tenderloin, juice, milk, sports drinks, frozen yogurts, Snacks: fruits, pretzels, popcorn, low fat shakes made with skim milk and frozen yogurt with fruit or fruit syrups added, jello, pudding, juices, cereal bars, breakfast bars. SOME BACIC GUIDELINES TO REMEMBER -Dont overeat before practice or games; eat until you are full, but not bloated -Remember any healthy low fat carbohydrate food can be made into an unhealthy high fat food by eating it fried, by adding creams, cheese sauces or by adding cheese, bacon, and sour cream to a baked potato, or topping pasta with alfredo sauce. -Dont eat large amount of fatty foods or protein before an athletic event or practice. The energy your body uses to digest these foods is energy that could have been used by your exercising muscles. -NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST!!!!! NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST!!!!!!!! -DONT SKIP MEALS -Always drink plenty of fluids -Only carbohydrates fuel your muscles -Dont believe ads that tout supplements as providing energy!!!!! There has never been a scientifically proven supplement that has been shown to provide energy to a growing athlete. Many of these supplements can be harmful to a young, growing, athlete. Many have been implicated in helping cause sudden deaths in athletes while exercising. What they will do is empty your pocketbook. |
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