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Nutrition
and Athletes
As an athlete, the food
you eat provides the foundation for your conditioning program and your over-all
health.
Athletes often complain
of having too little energy or not realizing strength gains from weight lifting.
Both of these complaints, as well as others, are often a sign of poor
nutritional habits.
Eating the right foods
will give you added energy and will supply your body  with sufficient calories to
build strong muscles. All athletes need a diet that provides enough energy in
the form of carbohydrates and fats as well as essential protein, vitamins and
minerals. This means a diet approximately containing 55-60 percent of calories
from carbohydrates (10 to 15 percent from sugars and the rest from starches),
less than 30 percent of calories from fat and the remaining (about 10-15
percent) from protein. In
the vicinity of 1.3g/kg lean body weight is generally recognized as appropriate.
That translates into eating a variety of foods
- grains, vegetables, fruits, beans, lean meats, and low fat dairy products.
The base of the diet should come from carbohydrates in the form of starches and
sugars. Fluids, especially water, are also important to the proper combination.
While the
benefit to athletes of a diet high in carbohydrates has long been recognized it
has become increasingly noticed that carbohydrates that have a low "Glycemic
Index" have a marked stabilizing effect on blood sugar. The glycemic index
(GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the
extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Foods with a high GI
are those which are rapidly digested and absorbed and result in marked
fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low-GI foods, by virtue of their slow
digestion and absorption, produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin
levels, and have proven benefits for health. In effect, the
lower the GI of a food the slower it burns and the more stabilizing an effect it
will have on blood sugar. therefore, it is important that athletes eats low GI
carbohydrates not simply a diet that is merely high in overall carbohydrate
content. While it certainly
appropriate to have an intake of high GI carbohydrates such as hard candies
immediately after a prolonged training session, in general an athlete's diet
should utilize a substantial intake of low GI carbohydrates. Substantial
information concerning GI as well as a large database of foods with their
glycemic index may be found at www.glycemicindex.com.
In the early 1990's the
United States Department of Agriculture developed the Food
Guide Pyramid, as a visual aid
to understanding proper nutrition and the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans.
The Pyramid segregated food into what has become widely known as the Six Food
Groups - Cereal, Fruit, Vegetable, Meat, Dairy and Fats. The goal of the
Food Guide Pyramid is to provide a visualization of the relative proportions of
the general  food
groups necessary for health maintenance. This guide is intentionally vague to
allow the greatest ease of use. Different people prefer different foods and many
will prepare the same foods in different ways. Culture, family background,
religion, moral beliefs, the cost and availability of food, life experiences,
food intolerances, and allergies all affect food choices. The Food Guide Pyramid
is then intended only as a starting point to shape eating patterns. This system
allows one to select from each major group in the Food Guide Pyramid, and to
combine them as preferred. For example, those who like Mexican cuisine might
choose tortillas from the grains group and beans from the meat and beans group,
while those who eat Asian food might choose rice from the grains group and tofu
from the meat and beans group.
The
USDA also provides additional nutritional meal resource information for the
school aged at its Healthy
School Meals Resource System.
 Since the development
of the USDA model the validity of some of the assumptions and assertions made by
the USDA in the development of its Pyramid has recently come under some scrutiny
in various circles. As a result the Harvard School of Public Health has produced
an alternative pyramid known as
The
Healthy Eating Pyramid.
Despite the
distinctions between the competing pyramids and their respective advocates,
there are many similarities. It is with virtual unanimity that experts recommend
diets that are high in whole grain cereal products, fruits and vegetables and
that are low in red meats, animal fats and sweets.
The University
of Illinois Extension notes that there is no one "miracle food" or
supplement that can supply all of your nutritional needs. Certain foods supply
mainly proteins, other foods contain vitamins and minerals, and so on. The key
to balancing your diet is to combine different foods so that nutrient
deficiencies in some foods are made up by nutrient surpluses in others. Eating a
variety of foods is the secret. As an aid to high school athletes it has
developed nutritional guides (the entire University of Illinois
Extension guide may be found at: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/hsnut/index.html.)
Further sources
for sports nutrition and hydration information are
provided by the SportWell
Center of
the McKinley Health Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
and by the University of Nebraska Extension
Information from these
sites have been edited and appear as links at the top of this page.
For further sources
for sports nutrition and hydration information:
STUDENT
ATHLETE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
and
THE
GATORADE SPORTS SCIENCE INSTITUTE.
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