Limit fried foods, soda, candy and other sweets. Instead, focus on consuming whole, unprocessed foods. You need to say hydrated, particularly before and during practices and games. Water is your best choice. The amount of water you need to drink each day will vary with your size and weight.

Sports drinks can work as a supplement, but they tend to be sugary and high in calories, so limit your consumption. Plan ahead by taking snacks with you to eat between games or before practices.

Healthy snacks include sports bars, trail mix, whole-grain crackers and beef jerky natural and chemical-free with no MSG or sodium nitrate.

When you go out to eat, order some lean protein, like grilled chicken, and vegetables for a balanced meal. Vitamins shouldn't be necessary if you are eating a truly well-balanced diet. Be cautious about using supplements, and always get your doctor's guidance before trying anything new.

Skip Navigation Home News Room Blogs Sports Performance Nutrition for Athletes. Print Share. Sports Performance Nutrition for Athletes. Eat consistently. Have a post-recovery snack. Limit junk foods. Nutrition on-the-go. Vitamins and supplements.

You may also be interested in. Jan 17, Athletes who start a game with low muscle glycogen tend to run less distance and be slower than carb-loaded players; this is particularly noticeable in the second half of the game. Anxious athletes who sleep poorly could burn even more. A pre-game meal helps fuel high intensity sprints; it delays fatigue so that players perform better.

An adequate pre-game meal is particularly important for a lunch-time kick-off. This could be a bagel and a banana; oatmeal with raisins and maple syrup, or two packets of Nature Valley granola bars.

More precisely, target ~0. Players want to tank-up with water, sport drink, coffee or a familiar fluid in the 2 to 4 hours pre-game.

This allows time for them to void the excess fluid. During the game The overall nutrition goals during the event are to: 1 Drink ample fluid to prevent dehydration but not over-hydrate , and 2 Consume ample carbohydrate to prevent blood glucose from dropping. The brain uses carbs to think clearly and focus on the task at hand.

After warm-up and again at half-time, teammates want to consume about calories from carbohydrate ~30 to 60 g carb. In soccer, this has been shown to improve dribbling speed, passing, and shots on goal. Sport drinks and gels can be handy sources of carbohydrate at this time. Most gels offer 25 g carb.

Athletes who poorly tolerate gels can get the same benefit from natural foods banana, raisins, honey. Real food works just as well. No need to spit it out if they can tolerate it! That means a lb athlete should lose less than 3 to 4. Post-game Recovery Athletes need less time to fully recover if they do a good job of fueling and hydrating before and during the event.

This is particularly important in tournament situations and back-to-back games. This equates to calories for a pound athlete and can be accomplished with carb-based drinks and snacks in the locker room, followed by a post-game meal at the stadium, and snacks while traveling.

Refuel-ing after night games needs to be planned ahead! Athletes are either fueling up or refueling! While more research is needed, cottage cheese or another source of casein before sleep might enhance overnight muscle repair.

Tart cherry juice might help reduce muscle soreness.

Ultimately, Andy wants the players he works with to get back to the basics. Even non-athletes can benefit from this philosophy; by using whole foods to guide our eating habits, we can make better decisions about what we eat.

Instead of smoothies and juices which tend to have more sugar and too many portions in one serving , we can focus on eating our foods the way they were created. If we practice moderation and balanced eating, we can improve our overall well-being, both physically, as well as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Eating locally is also intrinsically linked to eating well. Andy supports and buys from local farms as much as possible, and serves seasonal produce to the athletes he feeds.

During the training program, Ginger Gold apples come into season, so he buys a bushel of the apples and serves them to the players. The apples are a favourite of NHLer Phil Kessel, who Andy says will eat three of them before his regular breakfast. Ask as many questions as you can about the food you eat.

Doing your own research can only help you to make better choices. Make wholesome snacks to bring to practice, and make them in bulk! Take the time to prepare snacks at home and avoid overly processed foods. Andy suggests coming up with ideas and getting your kids involved, to get them excited and keep you motivated.

NIKU Farms is now supplying the Gary Roberts High-Performance Training Camp with meat for the players. We are working closely with Andy Muto to make sure that the athletes get the best and healthiest pasture-raised meats there are.

Book a chat with Andy and learn what it means to feel your best. You can find him at his website , at Create Healthy Food, or directly through email. Top Athletes Are Getting Back to Basics and Eating Local June 24, Today more than ever, we are beginning to understand just how much food can affect our overall health.

Sustainable diets are based on consuming locally and responsibly produced foods, minimal processing, and supporting local cuisine. Buying and consuming locally seasonal produce is a vital part of building sustainable diets. When you make an effort to purchase locally seasonally produce rather than off-season produce, it helps you save money.

Even when produce is produced in season in other countries or regions, transporting that food to your supermarket will likely raise the costs. Often, produce grown out of season has impaired taste, nutrition, and quality than when it is grown and consumed in season. This is because the environment or the produce itself must be manipulated for the fruits and vegetables to grow and mature properly.

You can learn more about how eating local seasonal produce improves taste, quality, and nutrition by reading this article. The US Department of Agriculture USDA is responsible for leading policy on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science, and effective management in the United States.

The USDA has identified the produce that grows in the US during all four seasons. You can use this chart to help you make food choices during different seasons. Keep in mind, however, that depending on where you live in the US, some of these fruits and vegetables will be more readily available to you than others.

Eating locally seasonal produce is a great way to care for your nutrition, budget, and community. It is an opportunity for you to connect with your food, experiment in the kitchen, and gain access to a variety of nutrients.

Have them refer to the seasonal produce charts when they are planning meals for the week or making their shopping list. To learn more about the science and benefits of eating locally seasonal produce, read this article.

Read More. April 26, More specifically, the seasonality of produce can be defined in two ways: Globally seasonal produce: Fruits, vegetables, and herbs produced in the natural production season but consumed anywhere in the world.

For example, since Chile has a similar climate to the US but an opposite growing season, cherries produced in the months of November through January are seasonal, even if they are consumed in other parts of the world.

Locally seasonal produce: Fruits, vegetables, and herbs produced in the natural production season and also consumed in the same climatic zone. This would include, for example, lemons grown in California in May but not the imported Chilean cherries described above.

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