It is great to learn the science behind why sport dietitians recommend eating certain types of food, and it is important to understand the reasoning backing the timing and quantity of our food choices.  But sometimes, simple tips on how to implement these suggestions are just what we need to start incorporating these practices into our daily routine.  Visual cues can be an easy way to keep yourself in check and make sure that you are eating the quality, healthful foods that are key to top-notch performance.

In the nutrition world, we like to talk about creating colorful plates.  When you look at the plate or bowl of food you are about to enjoy or when you unpack your lunch bag at school, do a quick visual check … Is your meal colorful?  Adding color to your meal is synonymous with the presence of a variety of fruits and vegetables.  (Fluorescent gummy candies, and condiments unfortunately do not contribute positively to the color scale).

Fruits and vegetables provide the vitamins and minerals our body needs to metabolize the calories we get from carbohydrates, protein, and fat into the energy our body can use for sport.  Colorful fruits and vegetables contain beneficial antioxidants that help our bodies adapt to training, and they come packed with nutrients beneficial for bone health and immunity.

So, before you eat, check to make sure that your plate, bowl or bag is bright and colorful.

Tips for adding color to your meals & snacks:

• Add vegetables to rice and pasta dishes
• Incorporate salads or steamed veggies into dinner meals
• Have fruit for dessert (use it to top ice cream or yogurt)
• Try dried fruit as a snack instead of chips
• Top pasta with tomato sauce
• Liven up sandwiches with fresh vegetables (lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumbers)
• Incorporate vegetable sources of protein (beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains) in addition to animal sources of protein

To say that there are numerous sport nutrition products on the market is quite an understatement.  The market is flooded with recovery drinks, protein bars, electrolyte capsules and beverages, gummy snacks and gels. Some of these products can be vital to aiding and improving the post work-out recovery process, and knowing what to use and when can be an important part of fine-tuning your sport nutrition regimen.

In my mind I divide recovery nutrition into two categories:

1. Sport Products
2. Whole Foods and Snacks

There is a time and place for both, depending on your situation, timing, and resources.  When I am home, I generally prefer whole foods and snacks.  A homemade smoothie, juice, applesauce, cheese sticks, and yogurt are some of my favorites.  But often I am not home, and rushing from one workout to another is a reality for many athletes.  In these situations, sport foods are a great option.  They are generally non-perishable, easily transportable, and some are formulated based on the latest scientific research concerning recovery.

What type of nutrition do I need for recovery?

When discussing recovery nutrition, I have established the 3, 4 Rule.  This means that an athlete should engage in 3 eating episodes within 4 hours of a hard workout.  This is especially important when the next exercise bout is within 12 hours.  The four-hour window is important because this is when the body is primed to replenish its lost carbohydrate stores; therefore, these three eating episodes should be rich in carbohydrates and include small to moderate amounts of protein.  (Protein will actually help shuttle the carbohydrate back into the muscle).

Eating episode 1: Snack immediately following exercise (ideal within 30 minutes).  This snack should be rich in easily digestible carbohydrates and contain ~10 grams of protein.  Certain sport foods like bars and recovery drinks can be ideal in this situation; however, yogurt, or a homemade fruit smoothie can be just as effective.

Eating episode 2: Meal within 2 hours of exercise.  This should be a well-balanced meal rich in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in fat.  The meal will help continue to replenish lost carbohydrate stores, repair damaged muscle tissue and prepare the body for its next workout.

Eating episode 3: Small snack within 4 hours.  This can be a light dessert (e.g. yogurt with berries, one serving of ice cream or sorbet, fruit, or graham crackers), or a small snack that is rich in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in fat.

Recovering appropriately with good nutrition and adequate hydration is an important part of both refueling the body and preparing it for future exercise.

Go Lean with Protein is one of the slogans of the new Food Guide Pyramid, and its message rings true for athletes as well as the general population. Protein is an essential component of the human diet, and it is used to build and repair muscle tissue, help shuttle carbohydrates into muscles after exercise, make hormones, enzymes and antibodies as well form molecules that transport nutrients from the stomach to other parts of the body.

As an athlete, you need a bit more protein than the general population, but in terms of total daily calories, you actually need the fewest from protein. (Daily breakdown of caloric intake from each macronutrient for athletes: Carbohydrates 50-60%; Fat 20-35%; Protein 12-15%). Unlike carbohydrates and fat, the body does not have a special storage area for extra protein – it uses what it needs and the rest is broken down into its constituent parts and recycled or filtered out as waste.

Even more important than the amount of protein an athlete consumes is the timing of protein intake. In small amounts (5-20g at a time), protein should be represented in all snacks and meals. Most crucial is that protein should be ingested as part of the pre-workout snack or meal, and after workouts.

Why small doses of protein?

The body can only use and process small amounts of protein at a given time. Especially when recovering from a depleting workout or competition, your body will recover more efficiently if you ingest 10-20g of protein at three separate eating intervals spread over a four hour period than if you were to ingest 30-60g of protein in one sitting.

What types of food contain protein?

All Animal Products (choose lean cuts of meat and low-fat dairy): meat, dairy, eggs, fish and poultry.

Plant-Based Protein: nuts and nut butters, seeds, legumes (things like lentils, beans, peas and soybeans), whole grains and vegetables.

Getting protein from a variety animal and plant-based sources will help make your plate colorful and provide a range of vitamins and minerals.

For more information on protein for power sports, see the current issue of Accelerate.

As an athlete, carbohydrates should form the backbone of your diet. 55-60% of what you eat in a given day should come from these fuel rich foods. Let’s look at an athlete’s best sources of carbohydrates and why they are so important.

What foods are we talking about?

All of the basics: pasta, rice, bread, cereal, oats, potatoes, granola bars, crackers, fruit, sport drinks, sport bars

And some that are less obvious: squash and other starchy veggies (corn, peas), polenta (cornmeal), beans, dairy products

Why:

Carbohydrates do more than just taste good, they are a very important and REQUIRED source of fuel for the body.

When carbohydrates are digested, they get broken down into individual glucose molecules and stored. Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in two primary locations: muscles and liver. Muscle stores of carbohydrates fuel our bodies during intense activity. Because these energy stores are close to the working muscles, they act as a very quick fuel source. Be careful, they can be depleted, so fueling before exercise and refueling with carbohydrates after training is imperative.

The carbohydrates stored in the liver supply the blood with adequate glucose and provide the brain with its fuel. Have you ever skipped breakfast and felt that you could not concentrate during your morning classes? The brain NEEDS carbohydrates in order to function efficiently and effectively.

Tips:

• Carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your diet – throughout the day and at each meal.
• Choose whole grains, fresh fruits & vegetables to get the most nutrients.
• Be sure to have a carbohydrate rich meal 2-4 hours before practice or competition.
• Use sport drinks before, during, & after hard training sessions and meets. These are quick, easily digestible forms of carbohydrates that are helpful for athletes.
• Be sure to have a carbohydrate rich snack after training/competition to replenish lost stores. Carbohydrate stores are best replenished within 2-4 hours of exercise.

The short answer to the question posed above is, no, not necessarily.

Fat is an essential macronutrient (source of dietary calories and therefore energy) that has the misfortune of sharing the name of an undesirable physical characteristic. For he past several decades, researchers and scientists have thought that dietary fat was BAD and that it needed to be limited if not removed from our diets. We are finding now; however, that fat is actually good for us. It is an essential component of our diet and not something to be feared. Having said that, running out for a fast food burger and a large order of fries is not quite the type of fat I had in mind. Per gram, fat does contain more that twice the amount of calories of either carbohydrates or protein, so too much will displace the important other calories you need from carbohydrates and protein and could add undesirable weight gain, but then again, too much of any food will tip the scale. Recognizing the beneficial qualities of fat, its myriad functions, and healthy sources of fat is important, so from the point of view of an athlete and with athletic performance in mind, let’s talk about what foods provide beneficial fats and when we should eat them. Quality, quantity, and timing are always the key elements in sport nutrition.

How can fat be good for athletes?
- Fat is a source of energy during low-moderate intensity exercise (Think of going for a brisk walk or jogging around the field in a soccer match when you don’t have the ball, or going out for an easier day of cycling. Your body is using its fat, stored in muscles and other tissues to provide the energy needed for these activities).
- Fat is an essential component of our cell walls and neurons.
- Fat can help reduce inflammation
- Fat acts as a source of internal padding and protection for our vital organs

So where should we get this fat?
The type of fat that we want to have in our diets should come from whole food sources instead of processed food. Nuts, seeds, avocados, whole grains, plant oils, soy products, and lean meat all have great sources of fat that we WANT to have in our diets. Processed, manufactured foods like fast food, and packaged snack foods also contain fat, though as athletes these are foods that we like to keep to a minimum and only consume occasionally. Think of the whole package. A nut is going to provide a lot of other beneficial nutrients in addition to being a good source of fat, whereas a French fry doesn’t provide much nutritional bang for your buck!

When should we eat fat?
The sources of fat that I am advocating, whole foods, should be a part of your daily diet. Limiting fatty food directly before and after competition (focus more on lots of carbohydrates and a little protein) may help the preparation and recovery processes; however, a consistent diet rich in whole grains, vegetable oils, fruits and vegetables will provide you with the fat necessary to keep your neurons healthy, provide energy, keep your cells healthy, and calm inflammation.

Cooking Tips:
- Cook with olive oil or canola oil
- Bake with canola oil
- Sauté or roast vegetables with olive oil
- Make your own salad dressing – vinegar and/or lemon juice, & olive oil
- Make your own trail mix as a snack
- Think whole grains – lots of good vitamins/mineral and important fats
- Have a tuna fish sandwich once or twice a week
- Try canned or foil packed salmon – it is wild and a great source of healthy fats

So, who am I to tell you what you should be eating and how nutrition can play a role in improving sport performance? Here is a bit of background:

My name is Kristi Spence, and my initial interest in the relationship between nutrition and sport performance stems back to when I was in college. I ran on the cross country and track teams for Princeton University in New Jersey, and it was there that I first realized how little, if anything, I knew about how my food choices (quality, quantity, and timing) influenced my performance. It wasn’t until several years later, after I had finished competing in college and started running marathons competitively that I decided to make this field a career path. But I couldn’t give up running. My husband and I moved to Utah in 2004 because of the distance running coaching available here and the great training environment. I received my masters degree in nutrition from the University of Utah in 2007, and will be competing at the Olympic Trials in the marathon this coming April.

Nutrition scientists and exercise physiologists are constantly tweaking sport nutrition recommendations as our understanding of the field broadens, technology develops, and new study results become available. We do, however, have a good idea of what types of foods, the amounts of those types of foods, and how timing our intake of certain foods can help limit muscle damage, lessen recovery time, and improve performance. Nutrition messages in the media can be confusing and we often read articles that present contradictory points of view about certain foods or supplements. The goal of Athletic Republic’s nutrition blog is to clear up some of that confusion, to answer your specific questions, and provide a consistent nutrition message aimed at helping you reach your full athletic potential.

To get started I would like to address some common nutrition questions that tend to crop up among athletes. Please feel free to post responses, share information from personal experiences, or ask follow-up questions. We will update the topic weekly. If you have a question that you would like to be addressed in detail, email me, and we will work it into the blog.

Our first topic will address the issue of fat… Does eating fat make you fat? What can fat in the diet do for athletes?

Stay tuned.