⚽🏊🏼♀️ Fuelling Junior Athletes - the right way 🎾🥎
🥪 Nutrition requirements for junior athletes 🥪
Do you have a very active child who is always hungry? They come home from school, open up the cupboards and shovel packets and packets of crackers, muesli bars, chips and biscuits into their mouth. I can certainly relate to those days… my mums pantry was the best thing ever!!
Junior athletes have very unique needs. Not only do they need food and nutrients to meet their daily requirements for growth and development, they also need to be adequately fuelled for the energy demands of sport and the training that comes with it.
Why is this important? Firstly, if they are training seriously, multiple times a week, you want to give them the best chance of performing to their full potential. Secondly, who wants a grumpy teenage child living with them – one that is often exhausted and struggles to concentrate at school.
🥙 Energy Demands of junior athletes
Energy requirements will vary depending on many factors including:
- Their age and level of physical development
- How often they are training
- Type, intensity and duration of activity they are undertaking.
In short, when they are more active, they need to eat more and when they are less active, they can eat a bit less.
When training sessions involve significant exertion such as extended running, strength work or swimming, energy demands will be higher and therefore food volume will need to increase. This is likely to be reflected both in larger serve sizes of meals and more snacks.
When training sessions and activity are reduced for example during “off season” or times of injury, energy demands (and therefore requirements) will reduce.
There is no simple method to accurately work out the exact energy needs of junior athletes. We need to be guided by markers of growth, health and well-being to determine if total energy intake is appropriate.
It is important that any messages around eating and food selection reinforce long-term health, as well as developing a positive body image.
🍠Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for athletes, therefore junior athletes always need a good supply of low GI (slow release) carbohydrates. Their daily needs vary according to their training and competition demands. The higher the intensity and longer the duration, the more carbohydrate they require.
In general, good quality carbohydrates should be included at most main meals and snacks. This could include:
Breakfast: wholegrain breads and breakfast cereals, fruit and yoghurt, smoothies, baked beans on toast
Snacks: fruit, healthy muffins/banana bread, vitawheats, grainy crackers, dried fruit and nuts (home), healthy muesli bars, popcorn, healthy brownie
Dinner: Include a carbohydrate source (approx 1/3 of plate) next to their protein and vegies or salad. Good options include sweet potato, legumes (baked beans etc), brown or basmati rice, quinoa or pasta.
🍳Protein
In Australia, most children easily meet their protein requirements which are between 1.3-1.8g per kg per day.
Protein intake should be high quality eg. lean meats, chicken, tofu, fish, nuts, eggs and legumes. Intake should ideally be spread out across the day, and teenagers should aim to have a good spread of high-quality protein foods over the day.
Both protein and carbohydrate are required for the body to recover well (repair, regeneration and refuelling). For this reason, foods containing protein and carbohydrate are great options after a heavy training session or competition.
Nutritious snack choices include toast with nut butters or baked beans, egg sandwich, milk-based drinks, yoghurt with fruit, fruit and nut mix or a meat and salad roll. In some cases, additional sports foods such as Sustagen Sport may help to meet the higher nutrient needs of the athlete in a convenient form.
🥑Fat
Healthy fats (such as unsaturated fats and omega fatty acids) are an important part of a child’s diet, providing valuable nutrients including fat soluble vitamins. Fat intake should be approximately 20-35% of total energy intake, with no more than 10% of total energy coming from saturated and trans fats (eg. fat in meats, pastries, dairy, fried foods and savoury shapes and biscuits). Ideally aim for products containing less than 3g saturated fat per 100g.
When a junior athlete has huge energy requirements and is finding it difficult to maintain their weight and nutrition, increasing the healthy fat component of their diet can help. Healthy fats include nuts, nut butters, seeds, avocado, salmon, tuna, extra virgin olive oil.
🥜NUTRIENTS 🥜
🥣 Iron
Iron is an important nutrient to consider for junior athletes. Iron has an important role to play in the blood - it carries oxygen to the cells of the muscles and organs. Without adequate iron in the body, their muscles may not get enough oxygen. This can lead to fatigue, a lowered aerobic capacity for exercise, and poor athletic performance.
Vegetarian athletes need to pay close attention to ensuring adequate intake of plant-based protein containing foods that are rich in iron. Consuming these together with Vitamin C rich foods (citrus, red capsicum, strawberries, tomato, kiwi, broccoli) will significantly improve the absorption of iron.
Recommended Dietary Intake for Iron
Boys: 8mg/d (9-13 years), and 11mg/d (14-18 years)
Girls: 8mg/d (9-13 years), and 15mg/d (14-18 years)
Note: Teenage girls will have higher requirements for iron once they start menstruating.
Good sources of iron include meat, seafood, chicken, eggs, some fortified breakfast cereals, legumes (eg baked beans), wholemeal/wholegrain products, nuts and seeds, soy products.
🥛Calcium
Calcium and vitamin D are both crucial for good bone health and the development of strong bones. Teenagers especially, have higher calcium requirements than adults due to their stage of growth and development.
RDI 9-11 yrs = 1000mg (boys & girls)
RDI = 1300mg per day (boys & girls)
RDI (adults) = 1000mg per day
Calcium rich foods include: regular dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt). Non-dairy calcium rich foods include: calcium fortified milk substitutes (eg oat and almond milk), tofu, edamame, fish with bones eg. tinned salmon, sardines, oysters, muscles, chia, almonds, okra, teff, rocket, kale, dried figs.
🍄Vitamin D
Vitamin D is not only important for bone health, but it has been shown to play an important role in immune health. 90% of our vitamin D is obtained through exposure and a smaller percentage from dietary sources.
Generally speaking, the further away from the equator you live, the higher the risk of vitamin D deficiency – for this reason athletes in the southern states of Australia are more at risk of low Vitamin D. Those with darker skin, spend less time outdoors or who have their skin covered more often are more at risk. Vitamin D levels can be easily checked on a blood test
Food sources rich in Vitamin D include fish, eggs, mushrooms (especially if left in the sun) and fortified margarines and butter.
💧 Fluid Requirements
Children dehydrate quicker than adults and for this reason fluid intake needs to be monitored, especially in hot humid weather. Even mild-moderate dehydration can dramatically affect wellbeing and performance. Junior athletes should be well- hydrated before starting exercise and should continue to drink (to thirst) throughout training or competition.
Everyone has their own unique sweat rate and for this reason there is no one guide that fits all with respect to fluid needs or replacement. Water should always be the main fluid consumed.
A good way to prevent dehydration is to make sure water is consumed before, during and after exercise. Checking the colour of their urine can be a simple way to check – ideally it should be a pale-yellow colour (and not too dark in colour). Note: multivitamins will change the colour of urine.
If there are significant concerns about ongoing dehydration, a way to monitor fluid loss during training or exercise is to weight pre and post- any deficit incurred during exercise is fluid loss (assuming no food is eaten). Athletes shouldn’t lose any more than 2% of their body weight ie. If they weight 50kg, they should lose no more than 1kg total body weight.
🥤 What about sports drinks?
For most, the use of sports drinks in place of water is not necessary and only further adds to the child’s daily sugar intake. There are however some scenario’s where sports drinks do have their place. These include very hot and humid conditions, prolonged exercise or training (>1 hour), multiple events on one day or where they are so nervous that they cannot stomach food or other drinks.
It is important to note that sports drinks are very different to the caffeinated energy drinks, and junior athletes should not consume these energy drinks.
💊What about supplements for teenagers?
There are different types of supplements – general dietary supplements such as multivitamins and then the type of supplements that are performance enhancing such as creatine and caffeine.
If the teenager is consuming foods from each food group, dietary supplements are generally not needed. They are however needed in some situations (for example iron deficiency) and in this situation, supplements should be recommended by a qualified health care practitioner.
In terms of performance enhancing supplements (creatine, caffeine etc), they have no place for teenage athletes. They are unwarranted and could potentially be hazardous, not to mention a doping risk. Teenage athletes should be focussing on adherence to proper training, nutrition, recovery and sleep regimes. This should be the foundation for all athletes regardless of age.
👧🏼 Body Image
Sport can play an important role in the development of a teenagers social and emotional well-being. Involvement in sport often builds comradery and helps to develop leadership and communication skills. It often also plays an important role in developing a healthy self-esteem; however, it is important to recognise that in some sporting environments, there is an increased rate of disordered eating attitudes and behaviours.
Parents, and coaches have a very important role to play in supporting the development of a positive body image in teenagers together with the early recognition of unusual behaviours. Professional advice should be sought if teenage athletes show signs of obsessive or irrational body image attitudes or behaviours.
➡ More Information:
For further great information about fuelling your teenage athlete, please head to Sports Dietitians Australia website where you will find loads of useful information about nutrition for athletes and their various sports.