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Sports nutritionists fuel the competitive edge

2001; Elsevier BV; Volume: 101; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0002-8223(01)00128-6

1878-3570

Deborah Shattuck,

Sports Performance and Training

Athletes are always looking for a competitive edge, through new training theories, new coaching methods, new equipment, or performance-enhancing dietary supplements, legal and sometimes illegal. Remember the high-tech design of swimsuits in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia? It’s questionable whether the new swimsuits worked, but proper nutrition does work. It helps athletes maximize workouts, recover faster from training, and have less down time from injury. Increasingly, professional and college athletic programs are hiring sports nutritionists to gain this competitive edge. One such nutritionist is Suzanne Steen, DSc, RD, head of Husky Sports Nutrition Services at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW). She is the first sports nutritionist to be hired full time by a Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-10) university. While it’s a big enough responsibility to be a sports nutritionist for a major football team, Steen is in charge of a program with 23 sports and over 650 athletes. Athletes competing at the college level have extraordinary energy and fluid needs. They also have very busy schedules, balancing training, practice, competition, classes, and homework. The challenge for Steen is keeping these athletes fueled and hydrated. “The ideal eating pattern for these athletes is grazing,” says Steen. “Three meals a day aren’t going to do it.” A typical schedule for a rower would be a pre-exercise meal, morning row, recovery snack, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, pre-exercise meal, afternoon row, recovery snack, dinner, and snack. The Figure 1 illustrates a typical one-day menu Steen plans for UW’s 105 football players during the “two-a-days” (an intensive training session in August). When the teams are on the road, she plans the buffet menus or reviews restaurant menus and checks off the best preevent choices. She uses mealtimes as an opportunity to educate athletes on optimal food and fluid choices for health and performance, eating on a budget, and “food shopping 101.” She also gives presentations to individual teams. Nutrition knowledge varies among college athletes. Many athletes are under the impression that a high-carbohydrate diet is only needed for endurance sports, but research shows that carbohydrates are also important for stop-and-go sports, such as basketball, football, and soccer ((1)Nicholas C.W Williams C Phillips G Nowitz A Influence of ingesting a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution on endurance capacity during intermittent, high intensity shuttle running.J Sports Sci. 1995; 213: 282-290Google Scholar, (2)Below P.R Mora-Rodriguez R Gonzalez-Alonso J Coyle E.F Fluid and carbohydrate ingestion independently improves performance during 1 h of intense exercise.Med Sci Sports and Exerc. 1995; 27: 200-210PubMed Google Scholar). A high-carbohydrate diet may also prevent mental as well as physical fatigue ((3)Davis J.M Carbohydrates, branched-chain amino acids, and endurance the central fatigue hypothesis.Int J Sports Nutr Suppl. 1995; 5: S29Google Scholar), an important consideration for college athletes. Steen recommends that athletes consume 6-10g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight and 1.2-1.7g of protein per kg of body weight throughout the day. The timing of energy intake is also important. The pre-exercise meal prevents hunger and maximizes glycogen stores, preventing physical and mental fatigue. The post-exercise meal restores glycogen and helps muscles recover quickly, which is especially important for athletes who train more than once a day ((5)Roy B.D Tarnoplosky M.A MacDougall J.D Fowles J Yarasheski K.E Effect of glucose supplementation timing on protein metabolism after resistance training.J Appl Physiol. 1997; 82: 1882-1888Crossref PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar). Steen recommends athletes consume 1.5g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight and a small amount of protein within 30minutes after exercising and a high-carbohydrate, moderate-protein meal 1-2 hours later to continue recovery. The small amount of protein may help muscles recover faster ((6)Shi X Summers R.W Schedl H.P Flanagan S.W Chang R Gisolfi C.V Effects of carbohydrate type and osmolality on water absorption.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1995; 27: 1607PubMed Google Scholar). For athletes exercising at this level of intensity, sports drinks are more effective for hydration than water ((7)Murray R Eddy D.E Bartoli W.P Paul G.L Gastric Emptying of water and isocaloric carbohydrate solutions consumed at rest.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1994; 26: 725-732Crossref PubMed Scopus (60) Google Scholar, (8)Gisolfi C.V Spranger K.J Summers R.W Schedl H.P Bleiler T.L Effects of exercise on intestinal absorption in humans.J Appl Physiol. 1991; 71: 2518-2527PubMed Google Scholar). Steen recommends 16-20 oz 1-2 hours before exercise, 7-10 oz every 15-20minutes during exercise, and 24 oz per pound lost afterwards.Increasingly, professional and college athletic programs are hiring sports nutritionists to gain a competitive edge. Athletes are particularly vulnerable to the advertising promises made by supplement makers. They turn to supplements for improved strength, speed, and recovery and as a quick fix when their busy schedules do not allow them to eat properly. The thinking is that supplements are safe because they are natural. University athletic departments, though, are particularly concerned about supplement use among athletes because they may contain banned substances, as defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (such as anabolic steroids or ephedrine). Steen is chair of UW’s Dietary Supplement Committee, which develops policies and procedures to evaluate supplements for safety, effectiveness, potency, dosage, and risk-benefit ratio. “A team approach is valuable when making decisions about supplement use,” she says. “Each team member—administrator, physician, coach, strength coach, trainer—looks at the issue a little bit differently.” Steen has an open-door policy and is available to answer athletes questions about supplements: she believes an important role of the sports nutritionist is to help athletes make informed decisions. Counseling college athletes requires a broad knowledge of sports and the athletic mentality. Runners, football players, gymnasts all have different training schedules and energy needs. Steen also takes into consideration the athlete’s position on a team, weight and maturity, and personal food preferences. For example, swimmers and rowers need some type of pre-exercise fuel and fluid before their 6:00 am practice; however, they all have very different ideas as to what sounds appetizing at 5:30 am. One thing all college athletes do have in common, though, is the incredible demands on their time. “I’m impressed with everything that they are able to do,” says Steen. “They have two full-time jobs: academics and athletes. I’m asking them to take on a third job: making sure that they are fueling themselves appropriately.” In the last 15 years, Steen has seen major changes in the field of sports nutrition. When she was a graduate student, her advisors told her there were no full-time jobs in sports nutrition. When she said she was a sports nutritionist, people would ask, “What’s a sports nutritionist?” Now people say, “Cool! It must be exciting to work with athletes.” The UW administration supported Steen in developing her full-time position as the head of Husky Sports Nutrition Services. Other universities now contact her for assistance in developing job descriptions for sports nutritionists, and individuals call, asking for advice on how to get involved in the field. Steen has given a lot of thought as to what the role of the college sports nutritionist is, and what skills are needed to be a successful sports nutritionist. “This isn’t an entry-level position. Sports nutritionists need a strong background in medical nutrition therapy, exercise physiology, administration, and counseling. An advanced degree is also helpful.” She encourages anyone interested in sports nutrition to pursue their interest, as opportunities in the field are opening up. College athletic programs now realize that sports nutritionists can give them a competitive edge. The University of Washington won the Rose Bowl last year, and while it was a team effort, they also had the support of a sports nutritionist.