Carbs aren't bad. You just don't know how to use them...And 3 carb secrets for student athletes
Diane Johnson
Empowering youth athletes with simple and strategic nutrition & wellness support.
A 5 minute read today.
Carbs are a hot topic these days. In the student athlete space we hear some pretty interesting understandings, concepts and beliefs about carbs.???
It makes sense though.?
When you step back and look at our current health crisis, carbohydrates are definitely a part of it. Especially all of the highly processed and refined carbs that are prevalent in our Standard American Diet and that are contributing to Type 2 Diabetes, Pre-Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, weight gain, Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease and Autoimmune and other diseases.
But when student athletes adopt this ‘carbs are bad’ mentality it can be really harmful for them.?
Instead of shaming carbs, we can turn our focus to ensuring that student athletes understand how to harness the power of carbohydrates as a primary fuel source for their working muscles and for their brain.?
Doesn't that sound better?….Harness the power of carbs!!!?
We don’t want student athletes:
This is what they get from social media, from peers and even sometimes from family.
Instead, we want to help them break free from this depressing outlook on energy and help them build the capacity to use carbohydrates strategically.?
Now and in the future.???
So here’s 3 keys to empowering student athletes to use carbs as a powerful performance strategy.
1) But first...What is a carbohydrate??
You'd be surprised at how many student athletes can't correctly identify carbohydrate food sources.
Ask your student athletes what carbohydrates are, and I bet you’ll get some blank stares. If they can name a few, chances are it will be these 5:?
Most student athletes have grown up learning about ‘food groups’. But very few of them are familiar with macronutrients, which is what they need to understand to use food to their advantage.?
This is really the first conversation that needs to happen. If student athletes don’t know what foods count as carbs, they certainly won't be able to use them effectively.?
2) Carbs and blood sugar
When we talk to athletes about energy, they need to understand how carbohydrates affect their blood sugar. (This will also be huge for them later in life.)
This can be a complex conversation, but it doesn’t have to be.
It can look like this...
Student athletes also need to know that carbohydrates eaten alone, will make their blood sugar levels go up quickly. The more refined the carb, typically the faster blood sugar goes up and the faster it will come down.?
Adding fiber, protein and/or fat to that carbohydrate, will make the spike less dramatic.
These are essential pieces of knowledge that are missed in the student athlete nutrition space and are really critical if carbohydrates are to be used effectively.
3) When to eat carbohydrates
To help student athletes maximize their energy stores and performance, we focus on 4 key areas where carbohydrate consumption can have a really big impact.?
Breakfast
Most young athletes have no problem getting carbs in at breakfast. If they are eating anything in the morning, it’s likely some kind of a bread, processed grain,?or breakfast cereal.?
Eating these foods, means they are getting carbs in, but these carbs are fast digesting and spike blood sugar quickly with relatively little nutritional value otherwise, leaving student athletes dragging their butts, low on energy and hangry by mid-morning.??
Anyone who has parented or coached young athletes knows that nothing productive will happen in this state.
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To make breakfast more effective, young athletes can pair their carbs with some protein.?
Adding protein to their breakfast assists in recovery from the day before, keeps them feeling satisfied and gives their blood sugar a more stable rise in the morning. This is a big piece of making breakfast a foundation of nutrition they can build on for the rest of their day.?
Think about eggs, protein powders, nut butters, plain Greek yogurts, kefir, and even left over meat options from dinner the night before.?
Adding healthy fats like nuts, nut butters, avocado or coconut into breakfast is also helpful in slowing digestion and the subsequent rise in blood sugar while providing essential fats and critical fat soluble vitamins.
It won’t take long for student athletes to feel the difference in their energy levels when they start the day this way.?
Before Activity
About 30-45 minutes before activity, student athletes can again use carbs strategically to ensure that their energy reserves are topped up before they begin activity or competition.?
This is the time to consume a carbohydrate food in isolation. This carbohydrate will digest more quickly and the energy will be pulled into muscles in time to be used for activity.?
We love to see teams working this snack?into their pre-game routine and warm up.?
Fruit, dried fruit, fruit smoothie, granola bars, apple sauce, crackers, pretzels, bagels, white rice, etc are great options for pre activity carbohydrate snacks.
This is really the only time that student athletes will get a great benefit from eating carbs alone. Most of the time we don't want blood sugar to rise that quickly. But this is where student athletes are so unique. Used in this specific way, carbs in isolation can pack a powerful performance punch ensuring that student athletes energy stores are maxed before they compete or train.
After Activity
It’s typically not hard to get athletes to eat after they train or compete.
What is hard is getting them to eat something that actually helps their body recover. While slushies,? burger joint runs and team pizza parties are favorites, they don’t necessarily give young athletes what they need to recover quickly and efficiently.?
After activity, student athletes should eat within a 30-45 mins window during which time their body is primed to pull in energy and nutrients.?
In order to be most effective, this snack should include carbohydrates and protein together.?
Carbohydrates replenish energy stores while protein provides the amino acids needed for muscle rebuilding and repair. After activity, student athletes need both.?
Another bonus that we love to add into this particular snack is color.
Colourful foods provide the body with many needed vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that further assist the body. We love to celebrate athletes when we see them getting color in at this time.??
Try combinations like:
Mid-Day snacking
This is something that we’ve found student athletes struggle with, for three main reasons.?
In order for student athletes to meet their extremely high energy needs, snacking is an important habit to develop. Aiming for a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack?will drastically increase the likelihood that they will meet their estimated energy requirements for the day.
As we have already discussed,? we want to encourage pairing carbohydrates with protein and/or some healthy fat. This will keep blood sugar stable, energy high, minimize cravings and moodiness and assist in ongoing repair and rebuilding in the body.?
These mid-day snacks are often where student athletes can get off track and end up choosing carbohydrates alone (often refined ones) because they tend to be more readily available. Again, we’ll see the blood sugar spike with subsequent energy crashes.?
Instead we can help student athletes build a habit of eating carbohydrates with protein and/or some healthy fat during these mid-day snacks.? These can look a lot like the carbohydrate and protein pairings they use after activity:
This is also a great time to incorporate more healthy fats as well.?
Things like:?
So much of our work with student athletes is focussed on helping them to see ‘nutrition’ differently. For far too long it has been discussed and perceived as a chore. But in reality, there exists so much potential and opportunity to feel and perform differently when we can harness the power of foods.?
Understanding carbohydrates is a key piece of the student athlete nutrition puzzle. We’ve seen its power with hundreds of student athletes first hand.
When you are ready, there are a few ways that I help people like you everyday.
Until next week.
~ Diane