“Over-Snacking” – Fixing the Epidemic in Youth Sports
I am providing a series on Sport Nutrition since many athletes are beginning to return to their activities. However, this information is also valuable if athletes remain quarantined due to the pandemic.
I receive frequent emails from TrueSport with links to their posted articles
Website: http://truesport.org/about-us/
Information about Truesport
Slogan: We Value Champions – We Champion Values
TrueSport Mission is simple and bold
To change the culture of youth sport by providing powerful educational tools to equip young athletes with the resources to build life skills and core values for success on and off the field
Note: TrueSport supports athletes, parents, and coaches by partnering with organizations throughout the country to promote a positive youth sport experience: an experience that gives young athletes the tools to be leaders in life.
TrueSport is founded on three Cornerstones:
Sportsmanship:
Winning the right way – with respect and gratitude for teammates, coaches, parents, and competitors
Character Building and Life Skills:
Using the sport experience to develop positive whole-life attitudes and behaviours: perseverance, courage, honesty, and more
Healthy Performance:
Wellness-centric lifestyles that fuel athletic and personal success – in sport and in everyday life
We’re powered by the experience and values of USADA – the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency – the country’s most trusted guardian of sport, dedicated to preserving the integrity of competition at every level
We’re all about the true essence of sport – integrity, respect, teamwork, courage, and responsibility
We’re all about the true essence of sport – integrity, respect, teamwork, courage, and responsibility.
Posted by TrueSport (truesport.org) – Adapted with modifications by Dr. M. Schloder
The Fuel for Athletes: Nutrition
…“You are what you eat”…
Since many sports are slowly starting up with certain restrictions healthy nutrition is an important topic to address with athletes, and also to design nutritional guidelines for team members.
‘Nutrition’ means ‘eating the right kind of food’ so athletes can develop and grow appropriately, be healthy, and perform their best in both sport and life. A strong relationship with food is an important health aspect parents are supposed to help attain. We want to choose fresh before packaged fruit rather than fruit-flavoured as well as fresh instead of fried vegetables.
Some tips to encourage athletes to achieve proper nutrition for their sport:
Eat a good breakfast to start the day
Consume a balanced meal (carbs, proteins, and fats) 3-4 hours before engaging in their sport
Eat a carb-heavy snack within 30 minutes after exercising
Add carbs, protein, and some healthy fats to post-exercise meals
Avoid supplements and rely instead on protein from food sources
Know that the best post-workout remedy is derived from both proper nutrition and adequate rest
Besides the selection of food, the reason and time athletes consume their food present a major role in establishing their relationship with food
Snacks Yes! BUT NOT THIS!
Youth sport practices, games, and tournaments frequently offer many available snacks, baked goods and sport drinks around training sites or tournament places to raise money, whether inside or outside the site. This leads to the question: Are we actually over-snacking young athletes with poor choices of food? This may be restricted presently due to the pandemic guidelines but it is going to resurface when sports return to so-called ‘normal.’
Reason for Abundance of Food in Youth Sports
Every parent has a story about a certain time(s) when their athlete went from fine to a ‘full meltdown’ in the span of several minutes, only to rebound quickly after consuming some food. This is the reason they usually carry crackers, granola bars, or fruit gummies in backpacks, handbags, and car consoles. According to researcher Toben Nelson at the University of Minnesota, athletes in youth sports often consume more calories than they expend despite using up more energy than non-sport participants. AND a lot of it is ‘Junk Food’, such as sweets or Cola… providing the known ‘sugar fix’ for about 10 seconds of energy, followed by a ‘complete energy collapse.’
Contributing Factors for Over-Snacking:
Time constraints– shuttling athletes from activity to activity means more eating in the car, more stops at convenience stores and drive-thrus, and more packaged foods
Overlap– athletes get one extra snack compared to their non-sport peers but they also get multiple extra snacks before competition or games, during competition breaks or at halftime, after competition or games, or at another game later that day (tournaments, competition finals)
Sponsorships– youth sports leagues and school sports programs can always use more funding, and companies make sugary beverages and snacks easily available at sport sites
Marketing– sport drink companies pay millions of dollars to ensure young athletes make the connection between bottles advertised by Professional Athletes’ pointing out the very same drinks young athletes should consume
They “Burn So Much More Energy”
Wickel and Eisenmann use the accelerometers in their research to examine the connection between youth sports, physical education classes, and recess activity level of 119 boys, ages of six and 16 years old. One hundred ten minutes of ‘moderate to vigorous physical activity denotes 23% activity in youth sports, 27% activity in physical education classes, and 11% in recess activity, and 16% by individuals. Perhaps more surprising is the finding that more than half the time spent in youth sports was sedentary or light activity!
Note: Schloder (2020) has evaluated training sessions of several sport coaches and found that most did not adhere to the 80:20 formulas when conducting their sessions. Athletes need to be occupied with skill learning/refining or activities 80% of the overall training time. Twenty percent of overall time should be spent on instruction, explanations and management (such as moving equipment, getting volleyball, basketballs, soccer balls, tennis balls, kickboard or fins (swimming), or moving into a different area. Instructions and/or explanations need to be short, namely 20 seconds, and precise, whereas athletes stood around or sat during my observations!
Nelson shows a graph to illustrate the approximate caloric expenditures of youth athletes, ages six to 16 years old, during 60 minutes of light, moderate, and intense physical activity. An 8-year-old boy at the median weight for his age would burn approximately 150 calories an hour in continuous intense activity. Considering the amount of low-intensity time during games, the actual expenditure is likely even lower.
Reference: Nelson, T. (2011).
Over-Snacking Leads to Poor Eating Behaviour
Much of athletes’ eating behaviour is based on habits instead of hunger, a contributing factor for obesity at any age. Childhood feeding specialist Dr. Katja Rowell states, “When children are allowed to eat all day, it robs them of the chance to develop an appetite.” In other words, they feel hungry more frequently because they are unaccustomed to being unfed for prolonged periods of the day. If they are used to eating every two hours, four hours without food seems interminable.
Snacks as prerequisite for an activity or as reward can also establish poor eating behaviour. Encouraging children to ‘fuel up’ before practice or a game, to replenish energy during competition or game, and then finish every activity with a snack or sweet treat as reward can condition them to make an unhealthy association between activity and food. In teenagers and adults, this can easily manifest itself as ‘caloric overcompensation,’ namely the tendency to overeat based on an over-estimation of calories expended versus calories necessary to support their activity level.
Controlling ‘Sports Snacking’
There are several positive aspects when establishing eating and drinking routines during sport participation. It is important for athletes to stay hydrated, especially during hot-weather activities. Getting them together at regular and set times to drink establishes the habit hydration during exercise, which should be water most of the time. Similarly, gathering the team during completion intervals, at halftime, after competition and games is important for building strong relationships and learning to celebrate winning and supporting each other when losing.
Reducing Excess Sugar Intake and Calories:
Emphasis of Water over Calories– provide fruit with high water content such as orange slices and watermelon during completion, at halftime, competition intervals, and after competition and games
The American College of Sports Medicine– recommends carbohydrate-rich sports drinks only for activities lasting longer than 60 minutes
Speak up– No one wants to ‘rock the boat’– there may be other parents who support fewer snacks
Reserve Sweet Treats as Earned Rewards– establish a reward for athletes or the team to work toward attitude based on effort not victories. Over the course of a season or portion of the season, the team could be rewarded for efforts, listening during practice or improving an aspect of their performance.
References:
Messner, M. A., Musto, M., & Harmann, D. (2016). Sport and the childhood obesity epidemic. In Child’s Play: Sport in kids’ worlds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Nelson, T. F., Stovitz, S. D., Thomas, M., LaVoi, N. M., Bauer, K. W., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2011). Do youth sports prevent pediatric obesity? A systematic review and commentary. Current Sports Medicine Reports, Vol. 10(6), 360–370.
Gutstadt, S., White, H. (2014). The Snack Epidemic. Parents, January 5. www.parents.com/recipes/ nutrition/kids/the-snack-epidemic/
Wickel, E. E., & Eisenmann, J.C. (2007). Contribution of youth sport to total daily physical activity among 6- to 12-Yr-old boys. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Vol. 39(9), 1493–1500.
TrueSport. Retrieved September 3, 2020, from https://learn.truesport.org/over-snacked-fixing-the-snacking-epidemic-in-youth-sports/
Tartakovsk, M. (2012). Myths & facts about feeding your kids: Part 2 with Dr. Katja Rowell. PsychCentral. Retrieved September 5, from https://blogs.psychcentral.comweightless/2012/11/