Carbohydrates for soccer

Carbohydrates are an essential part of your sports diet.  As a soccer athlete, you need carbohydrates to fuel your muscles (to delay fatigue) and feed your brain (to help you concentrate). You can find them in a vast array of foods, from grains, fruits and vegetables to soft drinks and candy.

Although exercise scientists understand the role of different types of carbohydrates in sports, some athletes are confused or misinformed about the metabolic effects and real needs of carbs to perform at their best in the soccer field.

That’s why I found the information contained in Chapter 5 of Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes From the Pros (by sports nutritionist Nancy Clark and co-author Gloria Averbuch) so helpful. There, Nancy Clark clarifies some questions that eventually arise in every athlete’s mind. Here’s a taste of her lesson:

1)     How much carbohydrate should I eat?

The average soccer player with moderate calorie needs should target about 2 to 3 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight (5 to 7g carb/kg), that is, 350 to 490 grams in a 140lbs (70kg) player. The serious soccer player with higher calorie needs due to the numerous workouts and intense practices and games should target about 4 to 5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight (8 to 10g carb/kg), which translates to 560 to 700 grams in a 140lbs (70kg) player.

To consume that much carbohydrate, you really need to eat carbs as the foundation of every meal and snack.

2)    Aren’t carbs fattening? Shouldn’t I eat less of them to be a lean soccer player?

No! First of all, excess calories are fattening, not carbohydrates per se. As long as you don’t exceed your calorie budget, you don’t have to worry with carbohydrate intake. Secondly, excess calories of carbohydrates are actually less fattening than are excess calories of fat, because the body spends calories to convert excess carbohydrates into body fat. In comparison, the body easily converts excess dietary fat into body fat. 

3)    Is there a difference between the carbs in starchy foods (like breads) vs. the carbs in fruits and vegetables or in candy?

As far as your muscles are concerned, there is no difference. Your muscles don’t care if you eat sugars or starches for fuel because they both digest into the same simple sugar: glucose.

The difference between sugars and starches comes in their nutritional value and impact on your health. Some sugars and starches are healthier than others. For example, the sugar in a natural orange juice is accompanied by vitamin C, folate and potassium. The sugar in orange soda pop is void of vitamins and minerals; that’s why it’s described as “empty calories”. The starch in whole wheat bread is accompanied by fiber and phytochemicals, while white bread’s starch has lost many health protective nutrients during the refining process.

The nature of carbohydrates may also be of interest in terms of nutrient timing (for further info, you can also check my “Match day Nutrition for Soccer” blog post).

Ingesting enough carbohydrates from a variety of sources will help you recover quickly, feel good, and enjoy your practices and games.

Do you have any other question you would like to ask about carbohydrates? I’ll be glad to help you!

To learn more on this topic and others of interest please read:

Food Guide for Soccer – tips and recipes from the pros (www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Wishing you the best performance ever,

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”

Gaining weight healthfully

Are you one of those players who’d love to build muscle and gain strength?

Do you think expensive weight gain supplements are the best way to do so? Think again…

While reading the “Bulking Up Healthfully” chapter of Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes From the Pros by sports nutritionist Nancy Clark and co-author Gloria Averbuch, I really liked the point Clark made on that issue, as well as her healthy “formula” to gain muscular mass and strength. Here are Clark’s six tips for gaining weight healthfully:

1.     Eat more consistently

·      You must have at least three hearty meals plus two or three additional snacks/meals daily.

2.    Eat larger portions of common foods

·      By eating larger portions of your standard fare, you can meet the goal of 500 to 1000 extra daily calories, needed to support weight gain.

3.    Select higher calorie foods, but not greasy, fatty foods

·      Excess calories from fat will easily convert into body fat, and you don’t want that to happen. Choose healthy, carbohydrate-dense foods that have more calories than an equally desirable counterpart (e.g. a banana has more carbs and calories than an apple; split pea soup is more calorie-dense than vegetable soup). Read food labels so you can make the best choices. 

4.   Drink lots of juice and low-fat milk

·      Beverages are a simple way to increase your caloric intake, so it is a good strategy to replace part of the water you drink with calorie-containing fluids. Fruit juices and fruit smoothies are great options.

5.    Do strength training (push-ups, weightlifting) to stimulate muscular development

·      A well planned and supervised resistance training program is essential for you to build muscle instead of increasing your fat deposits.

6.   Be patient

·      Due to genetic predisposition each individual has its own pace of muscular development, and there’s nothing you can do about it. However, you can optimize your gains by applying the best nutritional practices and training to your daily life. Be patient and persistent, with time you’ll achieve your goals.

These principles are the basic ones to promote weight gain. Supplements are generally simply an expensive way to boost your calorie intake; however, they can be useful in some exceptional situations. I strongly advise you to consult with a professional before initiating a serious weight gain program.

Learn more on this topic and others of interest by reading:

Food Guide for Soccer – tips and recipes from the pros (www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Wishing you the best performance ever,

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”

Book Review - “Food Guide for Soccer: Recipes and Tips from the Pros” By Nancy Clark MS RD and Gloria Averbuch

How far does your dedication to soccer go?

Do you wish to include nutrition as a part of your personal strategy to win?

If so, this book is a must-read for you.  Written by sports nutritionist Nancy Clark MS RD and Gloria Averbuch, in collaboration with Women’s Professional Soccer, Food Guide for Soccer was especially designed to help soccer players optimize their health and performance with good nutrition.

 Food Guide for Soccer covers every relevant aspect in soccer nutrition, including principles for daily eating, what to eat before, during and after training/competition, weight management, hydration and supplements! All of these topics are written in a simple, practical and realistic way, so you can easily apply what you read to your personal sports diet. By doing so, you will discover a whole new level of play: you’ll feel more energized, less prone to injuries and, even more important, you’ll feel more in control of your own body.

Besides teaching you great nutritional principles, Food Guide for Soccer also includes more than 40 easy-to-prepare tasty recipes for athletes. Each recipe  includes  nutrient analysis for carbs, protein, fat and calories.

Food Guide for Soccer combines the state of the art of scientific research in sports nutrition with years of both authors’ experiences teaching soccer players to win with good nutrition. Soccer athletes, parents and coaches are among those who will benefit from reading this guidebook. Enjoy!

Available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. 

Wishing you the best performance ever,

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”

 

Supplements in Soccer – part V (creatine)

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound found in large amounts in skeletal muscle. It can be obtained daily in small amounts (1-2 grams) by all those who include fish and meat in their diet, and some is synthesized by our own body.

Muscular stores of creatine (more specifically, creatine phosphate) are very useful during bouts of high intensity exercise (ex: 10 second sprint), because creatine promotes fast resynthesis of ATP – the chemical source of energy that we use to generate muscular work! The lower your muscular stores of creatine, the harder the ability to generate energy.

Fortunately for many athletes (including soccer players), sports scientists found around 20 years ago that muscle content of creatine  can be increased by taking creatine supplements. Since then, creatine has become a sales phenomena in the sports supplements industry and, unlike many other substances, its popularity was based not only on testimonials and commercial ads, but also in a solid scientific support, with hundreds of investigations on creatine supplementation.

When can I benefit from creatine supplementation?

As I said, muscles use creatine to generate energy during short-lived high intensity exercises. In practical terms, supplementation with this compound may be useful in the following situations:

·         Resistance training to increase lean body mass;

·         Sports with intermittent work patterns, such as soccer, where there is a demand for bursts of physical activity (ex: sprints) with relatively short recovery.

Note: Your body’s individual response to creatine supplementation will depend on your initial (“natural”) levels of your muscle creatine stores. For example, athletes who have lower initial levels tend to respond better to supplementation, and vice-versa.

Due to the inverse situation, others (20-30%) fail to respond.

Which are the recommended supplementation protocols?

There are two types of protocols scientifically proven to augment creatine muscle stores, the “rapid loading protocol” and the “slow loading protocol” (both protocols assume the utilization of creatine monohydrate).

Rapid loading protocol:

• Initially: 20g daily, divided into 4 doses of 5g, during 3 to 5 days;
• Maintenance: 3g/day.

Note: you must expect an acute weight gain of 0,6 – 1kg with this protocol, due to some water retention in muscles.

Slow loading protocol:

• Initially: 3g daily, during 1 month;
• Maintenance: 3g/day.

Practical tip: Taking your creatine along with a meal with substantial carbohydrates (ex: homemade fruit smoothie or a “gainer” shake) will likely enhance creatine uptake.

Are there any side effects related to creatine intake?

If taken at the recommended amounts, the only clinically relevant effect that you can expect is possible weight gain. According to the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN, 2010), prolonged ingestion of creatine by athletes is unlikely to cause any impairment in health outcomes (such as kidney damage) and may even lessen the incidence of injury during training.

Should young athletes try creatine?

Health professionals generally advise against the use of creatine in athletes who are not fully grown. If you are a young athlete I advise you to first acquire the best training methods, sound nutritional practices (ex: not skipping meals, avoiding too much processed food, ingesting the right kind of food before, during and after practice sessions/competitions) and good sleep patterns (6-8h of sleep). This should be enough to see great improvements in your performance.

Conclusion

When added to adequate training, good sleep and a rigorous sports diet, creatine is a well-tested ergogenic supplement that could possibly enhance your sprint performance on the field, as well as other fast moves and jumps.  But no amount of creatine will compensate for a lousy diet and inadequate training program.

If you choose to experiment with creatine, don’t think about taking larger doses of creatine than recommended in guidelines, because an increased amount of intake won’t augment muscular creatine stores and may impair your health.

Recommended reading for more information: 

• Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)
• Food Guide for Soccer: Tips & Recipes from the Pros   (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Don’t hesitate to ask your questions!

You may leave it in the form of a blog comment or you can contact me directly through my e-mail: diogoalvercaferreira@gmail.com

Wishing you the best performance ever,

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”

Supplements in Soccer – part IV (Caffeine)

Who has never heard of caffeine?? 
Well, probably, nobody!

That’s right, caffeine is a worldwide known substance that is present mainly in coffee, tea, chocolate and cola drinks. Normally, people consume these caffeine sources as a social drink or to keep eyes open in work/school… but did you know that caffeine is also the subject of a huge number of studies on exercise performance (including soccer performance)? That it is actually one of the most scientifically supported substances known to probably enhance your workouts?? Well, indeed, it is!

Effects of caffeine in soccer performance

Caffeine is a mild stimulant that increases the activity of the central nervous system, helping you stay alert and enhancing mental focus. Besides that, caffeine also causes an altered perception of effort or fatigue, so you’ll feel less tired! (Some scientists theorized that it would also cause a glycogen - the fuel of your muscles – sparing by increasing the fat burning, but this effect is short-lived or confined to certain individuals.)

How much caffeine is enough to achieve the desired results?

Small doses of caffeine (such as taken socially) may enhance performance, whereas high doses can be counterproductive to performance. Your target dose must be 1 to 3 milligrams per kilogram (0,5 to 1,5mg per pound), as found recently. This means that if you are a 70 Kg soccer player, you should take 70 to 210 milligrams of caffeine to perform better in the field.

Note that the effects of caffeine supplementation differ between individuals, according to their specific sensitivity and their previous exposure to the substance: if you are an occasional coffee (or other rich dietary source of caffeine) drinker, you’ll tend to be more sensitive to caffeine’s stimulant effects as compared with the daily coffee consumer who has developed a tolerance to caffeine.

Furthermore, you must understand that performance benefits don’t increase with increases in the caffeine dose.  In fact, caffeine doses in excess of 6-9 mg/Kg (approximately 400 -700 mg of caffeine) may cause you a variety of conditions: caffeine jitters, anxiety, stomach ache, bowel transit problems, increased heart rate, impairments of motor control and technique, disruption of sleep patterns and consequent impairment of recovery. As so, acute and long term intake of these large amounts of caffeine is generally discouraged by health authorities.

Table 1 provides you the average caffeine content of common sources.

If you are looking for a specific dose of caffeine, coffee isn’t the best choice when it comes to a well designed supplementation protocol, because of its great variability in caffeine content.

Table 1 - Average caffeine content in common sources. (Reprinted with permission from Nancy Clark, author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 4 Edition, 2008.)

Advised protocol of supplementation

Caffeine’s stimulant effect peaks in about one hour and then declines as your liver breaks down the caffeine (4 – 6 hours). This is the reason why traditional caffeine supplementation protocols consisted of consuming caffeine 1 hour before exercise. However, similar performance benefits may be seen if you split the initial dose into various doses across the exercise session: for example, take a partial dose 1h before match (ex: a latte) and the rest of it (ex: GU bar) at the interval.

Of course, forget about any protocol of caffeine intake if you don’t eat a balanced sports diet!

Cases where the use of caffeine is discouraged

Those who should abstain from caffeine or limit its consumption are:

• Smokers;
• Ulcer patients and others prone to stomach distress;
• Athletes with anemia;
• Pregnant women.

What about you? Have you ever supplemented with caffeine? How was your experience? Hope to hear from you!

Recommended reading for more information: 

• Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)
• Food Guide for Soccer: Tips & Recipes from the Pros   (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”

Supplements in Soccer – part III (commercial sports foods and fluids)

Back to 1967, the Miami Orange Bowl playoff in American College Football saw the Florida Gators in competition against Georgia Tech. The Gators were losing by far and at halftime they were given a new drink, containing electrolytes and carbohydrates, designed for them by Dr. Robert Cade. In the second half, the Florida Gators played well enough to defeat their opponents and win their first Bowl! The drink was released commercially and is still known as Gatorade. This marked the beginning of the sports fuel industry, which is nowadays a billion dollar business with fuels for every possible dietary need and time to eat.

Although these products aren’t absolutely necessary for you to achieve a great performance, sports scientists recognize their benefits as a practical way to meet sports nutrition goals, particularly if you are an athlete who exercises intensely, holds a heavy competition schedule and/or is limited by a sensitive intestinal tract.

Nevertheless, all active people should maintain a foundation of wholesome foods in their day-to-day diets, with engineered choices used to support their exercise programs. In other words, don’t have a sports drink at lunch (instead of a raw fruit juice) or eat a energy bar at dinner (instead of rice or pasta) unless you have no access to common foods. Also, bear in mind that common foods are much cheaper.

I’ll share with you some features of sports foods:

Sports drinks

Sports drinks are designed to provide you an optimum delivery of fluids and carbohydrates during strenuous exercise and also to rehydrate and refuel after the game.

Form:

·         Powder or liquid.

Composition:

·         5 – 8% carbohydrates (200 – 320 Kcal/L);

·         10-35 mmol/L sodium (230 – 800 mg sodium/L);

·         3-5 mmol/L potassium (120 – 200 mg potassium/L).

Energy Bars 

Energy bars are a useful source of carbs (along with protein and micronutrients) to eat at half-time and/or after the game, and might be helpful to supplement the diet of a soccer player who needs lots of calories.

Form:

·         Bar (50-60g).

Composition:

·         40-50g carbohydrates;

·         5-10g/protein;

·         Usually low in fat and fiber;

·         Vitamins/minerals;

·         50-100% of RDA/RDIs;

·         May contain creatine, amino acids.

Sports gels

Sports gels are a useful source of carbs to eat at half-time and/or after the game, and might be helpful to supplement a high carbohydrate diet.

Form:

·         Gel, 30-40g sachets or larger tubes.

Composition

·         60-70% carbohydrates (approximately 25g/100 calories per sachet);

·         Some contain caffeine or electrolytes.

Electrolyte replacement supplements

These supplements are designed to allow rapid and effective rehydration following moderate to large fluid and sodium losses (ex: after a very intense soccer game where you fail to replace those losses during the match).

Form:

·         Powder sachets or tablets.

Composition:

·         ≤ 2% of carbohydrates (≤ 80 Kcal/L);

·         50-60 mmol/L sodium (1150 – 1380 mg sodium/L);

·         10-20 mmol/L potassium (390 – 780 mg potassium/L).

Liquid meal supplements

Liquid meal supplements are low-bulk meal replacements that may be useful especially to the traveling athlete (portable nutrition). Also, they are suitable to supplement a high energy/nutrient diet during heavy training/competition or weight gain.

Form:

·         Powder or liquid.

                                      

Composition:

·          1-1,5 kcal/ml;

·         15-20% protein;

·         50-70% carbohydrates;

·         Low to moderate fat;

·         Vitamins/minerals;

·         500-1000ml supplies RDI/RDAs.

A last advice concerning supplementation with commercial sports foods and fluids: carefully balance pros and cons and ask yourself (or a professional) if you really need that product before buying it. Also, try not to be swayed by a product’s name, because the name might be more powerful than the sports food itself!

Recommended reading for more information: 

• Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)
• Food Guide for Soccer: Tips & Recipes from the Pros   (http://www.nancyclarkrd.com)

Stay tuned!

Wishing you the best performance ever,

Diogo Ferreira, RD

Sports Nutritionist, Lisbon, Portugal

“Promoting best health and performance through nutrition”