I have developed this guide because many athletes ask my advice on many topics about nutrition and supplements.  With all of the magazines and fad diets sometimes it’s hard to know what is myth or factual.  I hope this guide can give athletes of all ages and levels some insight to healthy nutritional habits.
Some common questions I have been asked by many athletes:

1. When Should I Eat?  The best strategy for optimal energy is to divide your total calorie intake into 5 small meals spaced throughout the day.  This allows for a number of things to happen. 
First, when you eat small meals regularly, you are less likely to get hungry and binge on high calorie foods.  Fast food and store bought snacks are typically good examples of high calorie and high fat foods.
Secondly, after about four hours without food, your body believes that it is “starving” because blood glucose (quick energy) is most likely depleted.  Your body is extremely efficient, so it will react by then “storing” the next meal it receives in case of future “starvation.”  Muscle tissue requires energy for activity and maintenance.  That is why individuals with more muscle tissue burn more calories while at rest than do those with less muscle tissue.  When you go long periods of time without eating, your body begins to break down muscle tissue to use for energy.  Your body doesn’t want to keep tissue around that uses a lot of energy and calories if it is starving!  Try to eat a small meal every 2-3 hours consisting of a carbohydrate, protein, and a fruit or vegetable.  Fat is usually found in the majority of foods and should not be added.

2. Should I Avoid Carbohydrates If I Am Trying To Get Leaner?
No!  Carbohydrates will aid in maintaining your blood glucose or sugar levels.  Your brain’s food is glucose.  How does your body feel when you are very hungry?  Weak, tired, unable to concentrate?  That’s because your blood sugar is low, and your brain is not being adequately fed.  The problem with carbohydrates is that people over-consume them.  Carbohydrates are often sweet, tasty, easy and quick to eat or drink.  Most dessert and snack foods consist of fat and simple, processed, carbohydrates.  Simple carbohydrates like sugar and sucrose demand your body to use them immediately, or they will be stored as fat.  Processed carbohydrates often begin as a pure fruit, vegetable, grain, or starch.  In order to enhance flavor, consistency, or look of the food, they undergo a manmade process of baking, separating, mixing, or bleaching.  This decreases the food value and makes your body less able to use it.  Whole grains, fruit, vegetables, and other produce that is not modified from its original form are unprocessed forms of carbohydrate.  The following advice can help serve as a guide to carbohydrate intake: 

3.     Can Non-Fat Foods Make Me Fat? 
Calories, from protein, carbohydrate, and fat are what increase or decrease in your body size.  Gaining and losing weight is a matter of CALORIES IN= CALORIES OUT.  If you consume more calories than you expend you will gain weight.  If you expend more calories than you consume you will lose weight.  For reference, Fat= 9 calories/gram, protein= 4 calories/gram and carbohydrates= 4 calories/gram.  If you eat food with a large percentage of fat, compared to a serving of the same size of protein or carbohydrate, more calories are present in the fat-filled food.
Non-fat and low fat foods have decreased the amount of fat that has been added, therefore decreasing the amount of calories for a serving size.  Problems arise, however, when you end up eating 2-3 times the serving size because “there is no fat.”  For example, a handful of potato chips have about 10 grams of fat and about 220 calories.  Non-fat or low fat potato chips may have 5 grams of fat in a handful and about 180 calories.  If you eat 2 handfuls because they are “non-fat” you are still getting 360 calories from potato chips!  If these calories are not used, they are stored as fat.  Often, snack food companies increase the amount of sugar added to enhance the flavor or the previously fat-filled food.  This sugar increase could offset or eliminate the calories cut from the elimination of fat.  Consuming non-fat and low fat foods can be an effective means of decreasing total caloric intake and improving health parameters, however, portion sizes and nutrient balance are important factors in maintaining this advantage. 

4.     Is There an Advantage of Eating Organic Foods?
Modern technology has made many advancements in creating meat and produce faster, bigger, and disease free.  A chicken can now reach full maturation in 80 days, thanks to steroids and growth enhancers.  Fruits and vegetables are treated with chemicals to keep away infections and insects.  How do these chemicals effect human beings?  The problem is, no one really knows.  The FDA approves products that show no relatively short-term effects on human beings.  Long-term studies are not currently available.  Some human beings show sensitivity to the chemicals and hormones added to meat and produce.  Many food allergies can be developed due to these added chemicals.  Organic foods are grown without using pesticides or other chemicals to modify the food.  Organic farmers often pay closer attention to practices that maintain the quality of nutrients in the soil and do not feed steroids or hormones to their animals.   

Guidelines for Nutrition To Help You Become A Better Athlete!

#1 Ingredient is Food!
Food is our body’s gasoline.  You can put good gas in or bad gas in, and your body will run accordingly.  Candy, fast food, fried food, and other things you may find on your plate every day can actually slow your body down!  Food can be categorized into protein, carbohydrates and fat.  Your body needs all three, yes, even fat!  The problem with a lot of fast food and other “junk” food is that in order to sell the product, the makers have to make it taste good.  Your brain likes the taste of fat and sugar.  Your body however, doesn’t know what to do with all of it.  It sees this stuff coming down the food pipe and decides that it doesn’t know how to use it right away, so it’s going to have to be stored away.  Meanwhile, after a workout, your body is begging for the stuff it can use, a good mixture of protein, carbohydrate, and a little bit of fat.  The McDonalds you just polished off, it’s not going to get a useable amount of any of that stuff.  Even though you feel full, your muscles are starving.  Without proper nutrition muscles cannot repair or recover in time for the next day or two, so your next workout isn’t quite as good.  This can go on and on until working out is no longer fun.  Think of every meal (eating every three hours) as being an opportunity to feed your muscles or starve them.  Every meal should have a carbohydrate and a protein.  Most of the time fat comes with these so you don’t really need to add much.  If you like to add a little butter, sour cream, cheese, or dressing, just add a little bit.

#2 Ingredient is Water!
Just like a car needs oil or it will burn up, you body needs water.  Water helps cool your body down, it gets rid of toxins that your body doesn’t want, and it helps you feel better both during and after a workout.  Soft drinks, “energy” drinks, and a lot of juices are pretty much just sugar.  They may taste good, but they don’t help your body the same way water does.  These things can actually make your body get rid of water!  Then your body overheats and to the sidelines you go!  Also if you replace all your beverages with water it can eliminate empty sugar calories and replace them with nutrient dense calories. Make it a habit to carry a water bottle with you everywhere you go.  Try to finish two 32 ounce bottles of water every day, even more if you can.  Make it a goal and I promise you will notice a difference!

Training Food Suggestions

Mix one from each group for four or six different meals a day.  Most of the time, you don’t need to add the fat.  For the amount of the food you should eat, think about a serving about the size of your fist for the protein and carbohydrate, a serving the size of the top of your thumb for fat.  Don’t worry, eating small meals many times a day won’t make you fat-  it will actually make you a lean mean, fat burning machine.  Your body is designed to eat many meals a day.  When your body doesn’t get food in about 4 hours, it thinks it’s starving.  So your body starts to store the food as fat to use the next time it thinks is starving.  Eating many meals makes your body think it’s not starving, and it can use the food to repair muscles, making you faster and stronger for your next workout. Pick some of these recommended foods on your next trip to the grocery store.

BREADS/CARBOHYDRATES

VEGETABLES

All vegetables such as:
Broccoli
Carrots
Corn
Cucumbers
Dark green lettuce
Peas
Potatoes/sweet potatoes/yams
Pumpkin
Spinach
Tomatoes
Winter squash
Choose vegetables that are raw, steamed, baked or boiled.  The more color a vegetables has the more nutrients it contains.
Caution:
Avoid eating fried vegetables or adding lots of butter, margarine, or sour cream
Eating large amounts of vegetables can cause diarrhea

FRUIT

All fresh fruits:
Bananas
Apples
Oranges
Strawberries
Melons
Fruits canned in their own juice
Frozen unsweetened fruit
Dried fruits like raisins, dates, figs, apples, bananas, and apricots
Cooked fruit like baked baked apples, fruit crisp, or cobblers, fig bars
All pure fruit juices and nectars
Caution:
Eating large amounts of fruits can cause diarrhea
Most pies, cakes, and cookies are made with lots of fat and have more fat calories than carbohydrate cookies
Lemonade, sodas, and fruit drinks have fewer nutrients than natural fruit juices

MILK, YOGURT & CHEESE

Choose any milk, cheese, yogurt, sour creams, or ice creams made from skim or low-fat milk such as skim, 1%, 2% milk
Caution: Against these products made from whole milk

MEAT, POULTRY, FISH, DRY BEANS, EGGS & NUTS- Best prepared- baked, broiled, grilled or boiled
Choose Low-fat such as:

Pork  
Canadian bacon
Centerloin
Low-fat ham
Tenderloin

Beef
Choose SELECT grade, if not available select chuck, flank, ground beef, lean or <10% fat
Round
Sirloin
Tenderloin

Eggs
Choose eggs white or substitute ½ regular eggs/ ½ egg whites when cooking with eggs or preparing egg products such as omelets

Cold Cuts
Choose low sodium, low nitrate, low-fat cold cuts
Stay away from smoked products

Fish
All fish is good

Shellfish
Clams
Crab
Lobster
Oysters
Shrimp

Dried Beans
Baked beans
Black-eyed peas
Kidney beans
Lima beans
Navy beans
Pinto beans
Split peas
Eating large amounts of bean products can cause gastrointestinal distress!

Nuts- are okay in small quantities but most nuts are high in fat
Almonds
Peanuts
Cashews
Peanut butter
Pecans
Sunflower seeds
Walnuts

Caution:
Against choosing regular poultry with skin, beef (brisket, ribs, sausage, bacon, and high-fat ground beef), pork (bacon, sausage, ribs), and high-fat cold cuts
Avoid cream sauces, fried meats and gravies when preparing meals

FATS & SWEETS- Do NOT pick many of these up at the grocery store.
These foods give you only sugar or fat and very few other nutrients; choose these foods in moderation if at all.
Butter
Cakes
Candy
Donuts
Honey
Jelly
Jam
Lard
Margarine
Marshmallows
Pies
Regular soft drinks
High fat salad dressings
Syrup
Shortening

Limit fats and oils such as butter, margarine, cooking oils, salad dressings, mayonnaise, shortening, sour cream, cream cheese, cream and lard

Other Tips To Follow:

Choose foods that are boiled, baked, micro-waved, steamed, broiled or grilled rather than fried

Trim fat off meat or remove the skin from poultry

Moderate your use of egg yolks and organ meats

Read labels on foods to find the amount of fat in a serving, if the food contains <3grams of fat per serving it is considered low-fat

Check the size of the serving on the label; it may be very different than the amount of the food that you actually eat

Watch for hidden fats in foods-many granola cereals, crackers, muffins, cakes, cookies, breads, chips, snack foods, salads, and desserts contain a lot of hidden fat

Foods that are fried, breaded or covered with regular salad dressing, high fat sauces, regular cheeses, or gravy are high in fat

Eating to Fuel Games, Races, and Practice

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Athletes who skip breakfast train less effectively, suffer fatigue more frequently, and may not perform to their potential.  Not only does a wholesome, carbohydrate rich breakfast fuel your muscles for training or competition but it prevents you from getting too hungry later and overeating junk food that lack essential vitamins and minerals. 

Any breakfast is better than no breakfast at all.  The best choices are cold or hot cereals, pancakes, waffles, French toast, muffins, English muffins, bagels, toast, PowerBars, banana bread, fruit juice, flavored yogurt, or even non-traditional items such as leftover pizza.

Iron is an important mineral for carrying oxygen to your muscles so they can produce energy.  Eating iron rich foods will help prevent your muscles from fatiguing early during exercise.  Generally, red meat is going to be your best source of usable iron.  If you do not eat red meats at least 2 times per week, I recommend taking an iron supplement a couple days a week.  Most breakfast cereals and other foods are labeled iron-enriched, so try to consume other foods on the days you do not consume red meat.  Drinking orange juice or vitamin C along with iron rich foods will help the absorption of iron into your body. 

Calcium from milk or yogurt is important for strong bones as well as muscular contractions.  Making sure that you have adequate calcium is especially important on games days.  Calcium is an important mineral for maintenance of muscular contractions and can help reduce incidence of cramping.  If you do not want or cannot drink milk products on game day, try a chewable calcium supplement such as Viactiv.  This will allow for quick absorption of calcium and have less of a potential for gastrointestinal distress when performing intense activity.  If you do choose dairy products, low-fat milk and yogurt are better choices than whole milk products.

Potassium is a nutrient you lose when you sweat and is important for normal muscle functioning and preventing cramping or early fatigue.  Bananas, orange juice, and whole grain cereals are potassium rich foods.  If you have a history of cramping, try taking a Potassium supplement, it’s an excellent pre-game strategy.

An athletes’ diet should consist primarily of carbohydrates (60-70%), protein (20-25%), and then fats (10-15%)

Pre-Competition/Training Guidelines

Wholesome complex carbohydrates (fruits, whole grain pasta/breads) NOT simple sugars (candy, soda)
1. Effects energy levels- slow release of energy (blood sugar)
2. Practice Timing- 70-100g Carbs (turkey, PB&J sandwich)- 4hrs prior, 40-50g (banana, orange, PowerBar) Carbs- 1-2hrs prior
3. Consume at least 8 oz (1 water bottle) of water or electrolyte replacement drink 1 hour before competition

During Competition/Training Guidelines

Water and Electrolyte replacement drinks
1.  Consume as much water that you can tolerate during workouts
a. consume at least 8 oz of fluids every 20 minutes
2. Electrolyte replacement drinks such as Gatorade provide
a. necessary electrolytes that are lost during sweating
b. carbohydrates for use during intense workouts

Post-Competition/Training Guidelines
Carbohydrates and Proteins
1. Consumption of a small meal that has a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate:protein (fruit & yogurt,    PowerBars) can improve recovery time 50%
2. Consumption of meal must be within 1 hour after training
a. body can replace energy more efficiently
b. reduces chances of overeating later
3. Consume at least 16 oz (2 water bottles) of water or electrolyte replacement drink

PROTEIN

If you eat plant and animal proteins on a regular basis you can be sure that you are getting all of your essential amino acids, or building blocks of protein.  All animal foods (fish, chicken, beef, milk products, etc) contain all of the essential amino acids.  If you only eat plant proteins such as (nuts, beans, rice) you might be lacking in some of the essential amino acids and should consider a complete amino acid supplement. 
PROTEIN CONTENT OF COMMONLY EATEN FOODS
Chicken, 4 oz= 32 g
Turkey breast slice, 1 oz= 8 g
Tuna, 6 oz can= 40 g
Egg, 1 large= 6 g
Egg white, 1= 3 g
Kidney, garbanzo, navy, baked beans, ½ cup = 8-10 g
Peanut butter, 2 tbsp= 9 g
Milk, skim, 8 oz= 10 g
Yogurt, 8 oz= 12 g
Cottage cheese, ½ cup= 13 g
Mozzarella cheese, 1 oz= 8 g
American cheese, 1 slice= 3 g
Cheese pizza, 1 slice= 15 g
Frozen yogurt, ½ cup= 4 g
Breads, bagels, 1 serving= 4-6 g
Bran muffin= 6 g
Oatmeal, 1/3 cup uncooked= 6 g
Pasta, 2 oz dry= 8 g
Rice, 1 cup cooked= 3 g
Lettuce, ¼ head= 1 g
Carrots, 1 large= 1 g
Broccoli, 1 cup= 5 g
Corn, ½ cup= 2 g
Potato, 1 large= 4 g
Apple, medium= 1 g
Banana, medium= 1 g
Orange, medium= 1 g

FAST FOODS- Try to limit the consumption of these as much as you can!
If you do choose to eat they these options:
Choose skinless and grilled chicken, instead of fried and breaded
Baked potatoes instead of fries
Salads with low fat dressing
Choose fresh beef burgers instead of frozen
Try not to put too many condiments such as ketchup, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard they can add fat and empty calories!

Fluids, Dehydration, and Thirst Quenchers

Drinking adequate fluids is essential for top athletic performance.  Body fluids have important jobs: fluid transports glucose to the muscles and carries away lactic acid; urine eliminates waste products; sweat dissipates heat via the skin.  If you sweat heavily and lose too much fluid, you reduce your ability to provide adequate circulation to both the muscles and body surface.  This not only hurts your performance but also endangers your health.

Since caffeine, Red Bull, beer, and alcohol are popular beverages amongst many athletes it is important that you re-hydrate with at least 8 oz of water for every alcoholic/caffeinated beverage you consume.  This will help with recovery for more effective training or competition in the following days.

On a daily basis, make sure that you drink adequate fluids.  You can easily determine if you have enough to drink by monitoring the amount and color of your urine.

Pre-Game/Race or Workout Hydration Guidelines

During the Game/Race or Workout Hydration Guidelines

After the Game/Race or Workout Hydration and Recovery

Should contain complex carbohydrates (grains, pasta, rice, fruit) and limit refined carbohydrates or simple sugars (fruit juices and candy).  Consuming an energy replacement drink or snack that contains mainly carbohydrates and a small amount of protein, such as a PowerBars, will provide the necessary fuel you need.

Water Vs. Sports Drinks

Athletes need to not only consume water but also a sports drink (NOT REDBULL) during games and practice.  Because of the intensity of the games and practice large amounts of energy and electrolytes are lost, so drinking only water will not provide you with the most optimal energy advantage.  Be sure to experiment with different varieties or concentrations of sports drinks during practice so you can be sure it doesn’t upset your stomach during the games.

Interesting Information on REDBULL- Claims to give you WINGS?  There’s a new drink in town, and it’s created quite a buzz.  Literally!  Red Bull’s high caffeine content, combined with other ingredients, gives people who drink the beverage quite the kick.  But some health regulators have flagged Red Bull as a potential danger.  It was recently approved for sale in Canada, ehh! Although its label must carry several warnings for consumers most often those warnings are being ignored.

Red Bull is an energy drink that’s suddenly everywhere. In 2002, people in 120 countries guzzled close to two billion cans of the trendy brew, it costs about $3 a can.  Developed in Austria, Red Bull’s marketing campaign promises the beverage “gives you wings.” 

FACT   
A popular myth claims that one of Red Bull's ingredients, taurine, is an extract from a bull's testicles.  Taurine is actually an amino acid naturally found throughout the body, the taurine found in Red Bull is entirely synthetic.  
A drink that gives you wings?  That sounds pretty powerful.  So what exactly is Red Bull?  The makers call it an “energy drink”.  People we’ve talked to describe it as “stimulating,” “addictive,” even “crack in a can.”  If you have any genetic predisposition for heart disease or heart rhythm disturbances this could trigger some deadly effects.
The label on a can of Red Bull boasts caffeine, vitamins, a carbohydrate (glucuronolactone), an amino acid (taurine), and about five teaspoons of sugar.  After testing Red Bull for those ingredients it was found that there was no bull about it.  One can contains mostly caffeine, about 3 times as much as a can of coke, 1000 mg of taurine, 5 teaspoons of sugar and glucuronolactone.  It’s a combination the company claims will boost your energy.
Enter the energy wars… In early 2005, the Coca-Cola company launched a new “energy” drink of its own, Full Throttle. It aims to challenge “energy” drink leader, Red Bull.  That combination of ingredients in a can of Red Bull that has a lot of people talking. There’s no long-term research on how caffeine, taurine and glucuronolactone interact in the body.  That has some countries saying: “No studies?  No thank you.”

Countries like Norway, Denmark and France are so nervous about the can’s contents, they’ve banned the sale of Red Bull.  French nutritionist Isabelle Vanrullen, who works with the country’s food safety agency, says France banned the brew because of how the ingredients in Red Bull interact:  “There are various side effects for each one of these three substances, which vary in degrees of severity.  And they can also interact with each other.”

The French health committee canned the sale of Red Bull, partly because a study found that rats fed taurine exhibited bizarre behavior.  That behavior, says Vanrullen, included: "anxiety, irritability, a high sensitivity to noise --sudden jumps in their cages-- and most of all, self-mutilations.”         
Red Bull is prohibited for sale as a normal soft drink in Denmark, Norway, and France.  In 2001, Red Bull was investigated by the Swedish National Food Administration after being linked to three deaths.  Other countries, like Sweden and Iceland, are also concerned about Red Bull’s stampede onto the market.  Part of the concern is that Red Bull is an energy drink, but it doesn’t replenish the body after physical exertion (like sports drinks such as Gatorade).

In fact, because Red Bull has so much caffeine – it can actually dehydrate the drinker.  That means if you’re physically exerting yourself and drink just a Red Bull, the lack of hydration could strain your heart.  In 2000, Ross Cooney, a healthy, 18-year-old basketball player from Limerick, Ireland, collapsed on the court and died after drinking four cans of Red Bull before a basketball game.  The connection between Cooney’s death and Red Bull remains inconclusive; a coroner's inquest found that he died as a result of Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (sudden death due to cardiac arrest brought on by an arrhythmic episode).

There have been other serious health events reported after people exerted themselves and drank Red Bull.  But again, there’s no evidence to conclude that the drink affected people’s hearts.  In most countries Red Bull is approved for sale – with strings attached.

SUPPLEMENTS

If you are taking nutritional supplements there are a few key things you should be looking for but also a few things you should be aware of when it comes to supplements.

What To Look For:

What To Caution Against When Choosing Supplements:

Hopefully this can serve as a guide for many of you on some questions you might have regarding eating, supplements, and fluid intake.  If you would like a comprehensive nutritional evaluation, specific meal plan or if you have any questions that are not addressed in this guide please feel free to contact me at www.goathletics.org 

Happy Training!