Eat well. Believe it or not, that's what most
active people need to learn to do: Eat for performance. Eat for health.
I am surrounded by athletes who do not know how to eat well. They
know how to skip breakfast and lunch. How to stay away from carbs. How to blow
their diets.
These athletes would not only perform better but also be healthier
down the road if they could eat better on a daily basis, eat at the right times
to optimize energy, eat the best foods to promote future good health, and eat
wisely to manage weight.
For many athletes, eating well seems a trivial concern. They joke
about overdosing on Vitamin C-3 (Chocolate Chip Cookies). They are influenced
by these prevailing beliefs: "Food is fattening"; "I don't have
time to eat" or "I don't have time to eat well."
A survey of 50 collegiate football players reports they averaged
59% of their calories from sugars and fats. Yes, that's a lot of junk food.
The daily intake of those football players contrasts sharply with
the daily diet of Diana Dyer, a three-time cancer survivor who optimized her
eating and acquired remarkable benefits.
After having been diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time
(11 years after her first breast cancer diagnosis -- and this was several years
after a childhood neuroblastoma), Diana decided she would put only
"protective foods" in her body. This means a soy shake with fruit,
flax and berries for breakfast, and lunches and dinners abundant with fresh
fruit, colorful salads, beans, nuts, fish, soy and other wholesome foods.
Being a dietitian, Diana also recognizes the need for "soul
foods" (birthday cake, chocolate chip cookies), and she eats them on
occasions when she wishes to nourish her soul.
So has all this healthy eating done any good? Diana believes her
optimal diet is largely responsible for the increase in her white blood cell
count. It rose from the too low 2,500 cells/cubic millimeter it had been for 11
years after her first breast cancer treatment to the more normal level of 4,700
after her second breast cancer treatment.
As I listened to Diana tell this story at Grand Medical Rounds at
the
(Diana's book A Dietitian's Cancer Story and her web site www.cancerRD.com offer more information about
healing food plans.)
The purpose of this article is to invite you to think about how
you eat and to offer a few tips on eating well as an athlete -- eating
healthfully, appropriately and enjoyably. Eating to heal the tiny injuries that
occur with each workout. Eating to refuel the muscles and prepare them for the
next session. Eating to optimize muscular growth, enhance the immune system,
and protect your body from the diseases of aging.
I hope the information will inspire you to choose a positive
sports diet that repairs your muscles optimally, fuels them energetically, and
protects your good health.
Eating Tip #1
If you have weight to lose, eat -- don't diet. Diets are
oppressive, unrealistic and ineffective. They tend to leave you hungry all day
long and you will never win the war against hunger.
As a client of mine said: "My mother put me on my first diet
when I was 9 years old, I have gotten fatter and fatter with every successive
attempt to lose weight. Diets have made me fat, not thin!" So true. Do not
diet!
The best way to control your weight is to eat wholesome foods,
quality calories, protective foods. Starting at breakfast, have a fruit
smoothie, oatmeal topped with nuts and honey, multi-grain toast smothered with
peanut butter, yogurt with berries, or granola. All of these choices are quick
and easy, tasty, health protective and energy enhancing.
Fear not that you'll "get fat" eating breakfast.
Research indicates breakfast eaters are not only leaner than breakfast
skippers, but also have better quality diets overall.
Plus, you need a hearty breakfast to fuel your afternoon workout
(or refuel your morning workout) and dampen the desire for evening junk food.
The best way to lose weight is to eat satiating food; you can feel fed but still
lose body fat. See Tips #2 and #3 ...
Eating Tip #2
Include more fiber-rich breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables on
a daily basis. Fiber is satiating; it keeps you feeling fed. Think oatmeal,
fruit smoothie, fruit on bran cereal, trail mix, fruit salad.
Enjoy abundant colorful vegetables -- red tomatoes, yellow squash,
green beans, orange carrots. Visit the salad bar. Have a pile of stir-fried
veggies with brown rice.
Take a break from Frosted Flakes, PopTarts, Oreos, soda pop, even
non-essential sports drinks and highly processed energy bars. By eating all the
colors of the rainbow, you'll consume a variety of health-protective fibers and
phytochemicals that you'll never find in any vitamin pill, protein powder or
gel. Diana eats at least 9 to 14 servings of fruits and vegetables per day --
that's two or three fruits with each meal plus abundant vegetables.
Eating Tip #3
Eat more nuts and peanut butter. Nuts add crunch to a meal and
substance to a snack. Peanut butter adds oomph to a sports diet. Feared as
being fattening, research indicates that people who eat nuts or peanut butter
five or more times a week are not fatter than those who stay away from nuts.
That's because nuts offer a satisfying combination of fiber + protein -- two
substances that abate hunger.
The fat in nuts is health-protective. It boosts your immune system
and reduces your risk of heart disease and adult-onset diabetes by more than
20%.
Healthful fat is an important part of an athlete's diet,
particularly if you do endurance exercise. Research suggests that runners who
boosted their fat intake from a very low-fat diet to an average fat intake
improved their performance. The researchers believe the additional fat
replenished intra-muscular fat stores and provided more fuel for sustaining
long workouts.
Instead of snacking on Pringles and Ritz, reach for almonds or
peanuts. No hardship there! Enjoy peanut butter & honey sandwiches and PB
on multigrain bagels. Even commercial peanut butters like Skippy and Jif have
negligible amounts of the bad (trans) fats that contribute to heart disease.
Enjoy this super sports food!
Eating Tip #4
Boost your calcium intake -- not only for your bones but also for
improving blood pressure and weight management. Aim for a calcium-rich food at
each meal, be it lowfat milk on cereal, yogurt with lunch and/or a decaf latte
for an afternoon boost.
Eight ounces of yogurt offers 400 milligrams of calcium; 8 ounces
of milk, 300. Your target is 1,000 to 1,500 mg/day. Lowfat dairy foods are also
excellent sources of high-quality, muscle building protein. Eating milk on
cereal before a workout or enjoying a chocolate milk afterwards for a recovery
food is a perfect way to get a protein-carb combination that enhances muscle
growth and repair, as well as optimizes refueling.
Inspired?
If so, here's a sample sports menu to fuel your good intentions!
(Adjust the eating times according to your workout schedule.) The simplest
guideline is to have at least three different types of wholesome foods at each
meal.
7 a.m.: Oats (raw or cooked) + almonds + milk + banana + latte
11 a.m.: Whole wheat wrap + hummus + baby carrots + yogurt
3 p.m.: Peanut butter + graham crackers + chocolate milk
7 p.m.: Salmon + brown rice + broccoli + salad/olive oil dressing
Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD 7/04