How many times has this happened to you? Practice is at 6pm, your son or
daughter has just completed their homework, you’re driving them to
practice, and they haven’t yet eaten anything. Probably more often than
we would like. As a coach, there’s nothing quite like the site of an athlete
wolfing down the remains of a Big Mac as practice is about to begin.
Armed with a little bit of nutritional knowledge and planning, you can
actually use nutrition to help your son or daughter compete or practice
with more energy and effort.
Carbohydrates are the foods that fuel muscles. This is the food group
that is utilized when the large muscles of the body are involved in
physical activity. Proteins and fats are essential to the physical
development of our young athletes, but provide no direct energy for
exercise or athletics. Carbohydrates are stored in muscles in the form of
glycogen, which can remain in the muscles for 12-24 hours.
Carbohydrates are easily digestible compared to proteins and fats that
can sometimes take 12 hours to be completely digested, especially in
growing children. This is why one can feel so lethargic after eating a
meal high in protein and fat; these foods become an energy drain in the
sense that is takes much metabolic effort to digest these foods. This is
energy that could otherwise be used for exercising muscles. This is very
reason behind the success of the Atkins diet. Because proteins and fats
take so long to digest, the appetite is stifled for quite awhile, and people
then tend to eat less. Carbohydrates also carry quite a bit of water and
this is another reason elimination of carbohydrates in the Atkins diet
works initially-if you eliminate carbohydrates, you eliminate the excess
water weight as well. This type of low carbohydrate diet is the last thing
that should be done for an exercising athlete. There is simply no
carbohydrate to fuel the muscles. While it is true that fat can be broken
down to provide energy, the athlete fatigues easily and fat is difficult to
utilize for start and stop activities like basketball, football, volleyball, and
even soccer.
Examples of carbohydrates are well known to our young athletes. They
have learned the food pyramid and know this food group includes
breads, cereals, pasta, grains, fruits and juices, dairy products such as
milk and yogurt, and sports drinks.
When contemplating what to feed your young athlete before practice or a
game, their meal should be mainly carbohydrates. Kids all have different
eating patterns. Some may not want to eat at all before practice. You can
remedy this by having them eat a bigger lunch or breakfast and having
them take sports drinks to practice and provide a well-balanced meal
after practice or games. The best time to eat a pre-game or pre-practice
meal should be 1-3 hours before competition depending on how much
the athlete eats. A bagel or muffin with some peanut butter and jelly
about 1-3 hours before practice will get most athletes through practices
and games. Avoid a large amount of high fat and protein snacks in the
hours before competition- it won’t provide much energy and may actually
make the athlete feel tired. A small amount of protein or fat (such as
peanut butter) is OK as it can also keep the athlete from getting hungry
during practice. Save larger amounts of proteins and fats for after
practice or provide some at breakfast and lunch. Other good choices
before practice would be cereals, pasta or rice without heavy sauces, fruit
and yogurt, granola, honey, jams or jellies on bread or muffins. Give all
these foods at least a good hour to digest. Popcorn and pretzels are also
good choices as they are high in carbohydrates and have some added
salt, which can stimulate thirst-enhancing intake of the most vital
nutrient-water. Having kids eat during a homework break after school
and before practice is a good idea as it gives food time to digest and also
can get them back in focus to complete their homework.
If your not sure about the nutritional content of a given food, the label
will provide this information for you in great detail.
What about tournaments and multiple games or competitions on the
same day? Most of what is offered at concession stands is pretty high in
protein and fat such as hot dogs, candy, and nachos. Good choices for
between games are pretzels, popcorn, and sports drinks. If your son or
daughter has a favorite snack such as bagels or PB&J, have then bring
some along.
If the game is early on Saturday or Sunday, have your son or daughter
load up on carbohydrates the night before by feeding them pasta or
pizza, especially if they are not big breakfast eaters. A bowl of cereal or
juice with toast or a muffin will usually get them through the game.
Save the wings, burgers, fries, dogs, and chicken strips for after the
games and avoid high amounts of protein and fat with breakfast for
those early morning games. While it is true that soda pop and candy are
mostly sugars (which is what carbohydrates are in a more complex form),
pop and candy can cause wide fluctuations in blood sugar, also draining
and wasting energy that would otherwise be used during practices and
games.
Henry A. Stiene, MD is board certified in Sports Medicine and practices Sports and Orthopaedic
Medicine with Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. He is Co-Medical Director and Team
Physician for Xavier University in Cincinnati. Dr. Stiene and Beacon Orthopaedics provide
Sports Medicine care for many area high schools and colleges including Moeller, LaSalle, Roger
Bacon, Mount Notre Dame, Kings, Mason, Madeira, Indian Hill, and Winton Woods, as well as
the College of Mt. St Joseph and Wittenberg University.
Dr. Stiene is also active in coaching baseball and CYO football. For further information about
Beacon Orthopaedic and our locations, please visit our website at www.beaconortho.com.
Current weather in Calgary 
See the latest game footage on