Youth sports are an important setting to promote not only physical activity and sports skills, but also positive dietary habits. Food, after all, is fuel, and while training is important, performance actually starts with good nutrition.

Unfortunately, today we live in a food carnival with abundant food choices, many of which are tempting but nutrient-poor. Young athletes (like all of us) like foods that taste yummy! Let’s take a look at what most youth athletes are eating at sports events. A study done in Minnesota (1) reports that youth athletes tend to eat:

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Should we treat workplace inactivity like an occupational hazard such as chemical exposure? After all, inactivity is a health hazard that reduces fitness and contributes to obesity, sleep apnea, heard disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.Employers who encourage brief bouts of physical activity throughout the day will help spare their employees from the health hazard of inactivity—a far more prevalent health hazard than chemical exposure. Plus, physically active workers are more productive, use less sick time, have fewer injuries, and lower medical costs.

In the Netherlands,

 Nancy, I’m not a vegetarian, but I rarely red meat. I have a history of anemia. I’m now training for the Boston Marathon, and it’s always in the back of my mind that I should be eating more meat. What can I eat to get enough iron without eating a steak every week?

Answer: You can bolster your iron intake by enjoying:

• chicken or turkey thighs or legs (the dark meat has more iron than the breast meat), turkey burgers (the dark meat that gets ground up), lean pork chops, and darker fish (such as tuna and salmon). 

• Enriched breakfast cereals (such as made 

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to find recipes to fuel you for high energy and good health, check out my new app: Nancy Clark’s Recipes for Athletes . The information will help you create meals that make you feel and perform better.

The app offers 71 recipes, searchable by calories, carbohydrate, protein, and fat. You can further sort the recipes by recommendations for what to eat pre- and post-exercise, as well as for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free recipes.

Each recipe comes with a  colorful photo of the prepared dish accompany the recipes as well as... [read more]

The Boston Marathon is coming to town. I get lots of questions from anxious runners, who want to know what to eat. Here’s a sample carbo-loading menu with a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Every day, whether or not you are carbo-loading, each meal in your sports diet should include:

--a foundation of carbohydrates (to fuel the muscles)

--an accompaniment of lean protein-rich foods (to repair and build muscles)

--a little healthful fat for flavor, satiety, and anti-inflammatory properties to help heal tiny injuries.

By fu... [read more]

I recently attended the 27th annual sports nutrition conference sponsored by SCAN , the Sports and Cardiovascualr Nutritionists’ group of the American Dietetic Association. One of the speakers was Stuart Phillips, PhD, Professor of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Toronto. Here are a few of his key points:

• While the US government’s current RDA of 0.8 g protein/kg body weight is deemed “adequate” to prevent protein loss in the average person, Dr. Phillips pointed out the American College of Sport Medicine, the Am... [read more]

If you’ve always wanted to attend a workshop that presents the latest sports nutrition research and offers tips to help you fuel better and perform better, here’s your chance!

Exercise physiologist and protein researcher Dr. William Evans PhD and I will be teaching a two-day workshop on Nutrition & Exercise: From Science to Practice:

Friday-Sat

Dec 3-4           Atlanta - St, Josephs’s Hospital

Jan 14-15        Ft. Lauderdale – Bro... [read more]