Fruits, grains help add fuel to the fire for young athletes

Tue., Nov. 2, 2010

Nancy Churnin Dallas Morning News

What to serve young athletes

Dietitian Meridan Zerner offers these recommendations for young athletes:

Pregame: Easy-to-digest carbohydrates, such as graham crackers and milk, whole-grain crackers with a little cream cheese, a small bagel with a little peanut butter, pasta, brown rice, a healthful cereal bar such as Kashi, a Clif Z Bar or Kellogg’s All-Bran Fiber bar.

Halftime: Handful of Cheerios or the mini Honey Nut Cheerios bags, whole-grain graham crackers.

Postgame: Trail mix, watermelon, low-fat cheese, whole-grain Goldfish, yogurt sticks, minibagels with peanut butter, oranges and bananas, 100 percent fruit bars, yogurt fruit bars. For kids who want something more exciting than water, she suggests Honest Kids, a flavored water with no high-fructose corn syrup that comes in a pouch with a straw.

DALLAS – There was a time, a few years back, when the Arsenal soccer team would chow down on doughnuts at a morning game.

Not anymore.

The boys, now a sixth-grade recreational YMCA team in Dallas, snack on orange slices, clementines and bananas, cheese sticks, and whole-grain or rice crackers, along with drinking lots of water.

The kids seem to feel better and play better because of it, says Laura Forson of Dallas, whose husband, Jim, coaches the team on which their 11-year-old plays.

“We decided as a group of parents that we want to reinforce what our kids are hearing at school, that if we’re good to our bodies that our bodies will be good to us. We’re trying to stress the importance of a healthy body for longevity.”

Increasingly, parents are taking a healthier approach to the treats they bring to their children’s sports games, says Meridan Zerner, a dietitian at Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas.

“I am seeing parents helping their children make better choices more often,” she says. “I think parents want to give their children every advantage, and one of those is health. Besides, if you want your kids to play stronger, faster and smarter you can’t fuel that with candy and treats.”

Dr. Shane M. Miller, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, says the right foods can make all the difference.

“Simple snacks such as fruit, pretzels or a bagel contain carbohydrates and may be appropriate for longer periods of activity, after activity or in between games,” he writes in an e-mail. “Replacing carbohydrates within an hour after exercise offers the best opportunity for the muscles to utilize the sugar and restore fuel availability.”

Forson says their team’s move to healthier snacks started when the boys were being scheduled for back-to-back games. That’s when the parents noticed that sugary treats after the first game gave boys a burst of energy that faded quickly in the second match.

“It was a common-sense solution to the problem,” she says. “And the boys were welcoming of it. I asked my son if he minded having healthier snacks and he said no. He feels he’s got a lot of endurance because of them and his energy level is higher.”