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Evolved Nutrition- You Are What You Eat

 

By Drew Robertson

First thing, how many of us plan out our daily meals? How many of us sit down and plan out meals for our young athletes? How many athletes plan out their daily intake? I have been a nutritionist dealing with athletes now for almost 20 years, so I know very few people and families do! What typically happens is something like this… the athlete gets up, has a small bowl of cereal, fruit bar, maybe a cereal bar, or a small piece of fruit, or my favorite is they skip breakfast all together and off they go. Their mid-morning snack? Their what? Who? Exactly! Most athletes skip this meal all together. On to lunch – this can consist of a wide variety of selections from sandwiches from home, cafeteria food, and pre-packaged foods, to cans of soup and everything in between. Mid-Afternoon snack… well, like the mid-morning snack, this falls by the wayside, then depending on practices, games and other activities, we see a very large consumption of food in the late afternoon through to bed, making up the greatest bulk of the athlete’s caloric intake.

Okay, let’s review: After sleeping through the night, the athlete wakes up with low blood amino acid concentrations, as well as low blood sugar, then consumes a high sugar, low protein meal, they don’t eat again until noon, where they consume carbohydrates, which are typically processed with a small serving of either fruit or vegetables and a small serving of protein, again usually processed.

During activity, practice, workouts or competition, the athlete typically just consumes water, or worse they don’t even do that!! Then the athlete consumes the majority of their daily intake during the latter part of the day, and because of the fluctuating blood sugar levels, they tend to consume a high amount of simple carbohydrates and various forms of junk food. Before we continue, here are some interesting points:

Studies at Georgia State University demonstrate that hourly energy balance is at least as important as total daily energy balance and should remain as close to neutral as possible throughout each of the 24 hours. What does this mean? Well, having well balanced meals that offer up approximately the same number of calories at each meal is just as important as the total number of calories we intake each day.

A fair number of sport athletes have been shown to be deficient in a host of vitamins and minerals, leading to impairments in nervous system function, metabolic processing, and oxygen delivery/consumption. It’s hard to get the requisite amount of vitamins and minerals in only one or two meals. Now, this doesn’t mean that athletes should start popping multi-vitamins. What this means is re-focusing of our daily intake towards fruits and vegetables; not just at one or two meals but at EVERY meal.

Now let’s get started on correcting this and getting the athlete, both young and old on the right track to nutritional excellence. First off, both athletes, young and old, need meals that are easy and quick in the morning, as most like the rest of us are on the run and busy. Here are a few examples of quick and easy breakfast meals:

Breakfast Shake

Dry oatmeal

Greens supplement

Yogurt Protein powder

Fresh or frozen fruit

Peanut butter Blend together

Breakfast Mush (it tastes great and is one of my personal favourites)

Dry oatmeal

Yogurt Frozen berries

Protein Powder

Greens Supplement Mix – this together using enough yogurt to make a mush-like mixture

Make sure to mix these meals up, and when you have the time, make yourself a good sit-down breakfast, using eggs, maybe some whole wheat pancakes, fresh fruit, lean turkey bacon, or lean chicken sausage. Sometimes I hear “I’m not hungry in the morning,” well sure, if you have been skipping breakfast or having a breakfast that consists of small amounts of food your body will adapt to this. So yes, for the first few weeks you might feel a little full, but have no fear, just like your body adjusted to not eating it will adjust to eating, and I’ll let you guess which one is better for us!

On to the snacks. We normally have snacks that are full of processed carbohydrates and artificial ingredients – we need to change this. Here are a few examples of easy, quick and healthy snacks:

Snack shake Fruits (fresh or frozen)

Protein powder

Yogurt Flaxseeds

Snack Mush

Cottage cheese

Frozen berries

Mixed nuts

Protein powder or Yogurt Protein powder

Banana

Peanut Butter ground up Flax Seeds

Easy and quick Fresh veggies Hummus dip in Hard Boiled egg

Every time we eat we should be making sure that we get fruits and vegetables, good carbohydrates, good fats and high-quality protein – this rule includes snacks. Now on to lunch. This is one of the easiest meals to fix. Simple plan: double up on dinner! We can pack this in small Ziploc containers, and if needed heat up before we consume.

Other ideas:

Chicken Sandwich

Chicken breast (sliced up)

Small piece of cheese

Alfa sprouts

Slice of tomato On the side

Mixed nuts

Mexican Tuna

Brown rice Tuna

Salsa Sunflower seeds

Celery (chopped up)

Green or red pepper (chopped up)

Ground flax seed Mix this all together in a Ziploc container and heat before eating. This is a good example of a dish that you can make 2 – 3 servings; just add more tuna so retain the same ratio.

Pasta Salad Extreme

Whole wheat pasta

Chicken Breast (cut up)

Green, Red and Yellow peppers diced

Broccoli (sliced) Italian Dressing

Ground flax seed

Olive oil

This is a great dish cold or hot.

This is a good example of a dish that you can make 2 – 3 servings; just add more chicken so you retain the same ratio.

Now let’s have a look at dinner, this is the one meal that we do usually eat a fairly well-balanced meal. Having said that, here are a few suggestions to help improve your dinner selections:

  • Add a variety of beans and lentils as this will add some good fiber to your diet
  • Always use whole grain versions of foods instead of the processed
  • ALWAYS include vegetables with this meal. Have fresh fruit or fruit smoothies for dessert.

If you and the rest of your household adopt these suggestions and ways, the athlete, young or old will adopt to them and follow along as well, especially when they see and feel all the positive effects of what eating well can do or us!!! For further information regarding these and other healthy eating techniques, please contact me at:

Drew Robertson Email: drew@evolvednutrition.com

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