Sports Day Diet?

This is a typical example of planning a football match day diet.

Overview of the match

A football match lasts for 90 minutes. Prior to the match a low intensity warm-up session including stretching will take place for about 30 minutes and a 5-minute cool down routine employed after the match has finished will see the total ‘match’ duration extend to just over 2 hours. This must all be taken into consideration when planning a match day diet, which must include liquid intake in the form of energy drinks and water. Obviously depending upon the position of play i.e. goalkeeper as opposed to a striker, nutritional demands can vary considerably.

Player’s current diet
To assess any player’s diet he/she must write down all of their meals and meal times including all liquids taken during the day in the form of a nutritional diet diary for a complete week. This helps me to calculate their intake and ensure optimal nutrition is obtained.

Advice for match day prior to kick-off.
It is vitally important to concentrate on carbohydrate loading and hydration prior to the match. This is for two reasons: -

• Glycogen stores can last between 2 to 3 hours if full but is dependant on the type of exercise or sport taking place. Sports like football and rugby where intermittent maximal bursts of energy are needed, muscle glycogen rather than fat, is the major fuel utilised, so the performance of the player on match day will be affected depending on how full their glycogen store is. When glycogen stores become low during the game the body will call upon fat as a fuel source. But because fat is a poor substitute in terms of energy output for high intensity events the player will slow down in terms of speed because of muscle contraction response. The higher the intensity of the match means the greater the demand on muscle glycogen stores as shown in diagram A, below, but because muscle glycogen is stored in relatively small amounts the body is unable to provide energy indefinitely so as the match continues the muscle glycogen stores become progressively lower, as shown in diagram B.

A.     Fuel mixture/match intensity

 

 

B.         Fuel mixture/match duration

 

• If the player is dehydrated this too will have a detrimental affect on performance due to several factors; reduction in blood volume, reduction in blood pressure, rise in core temperature, reduction in oxygen supply to tissues and also an increase in blood viscosity.

To offset these 2 reasons for as long as possible players should make every effort to ensure they are carbohydrate loaded and hydrated before kick-off. Ideally, this should start prior to the day of the match instead of leaving it to match day, which would be too late to obtain the greatest benefit. Not only this but they should eat an early breakfast, a mid-morning snack and a light midday lunch on the day of the match to ensure optimal nutrition has been achieved for the match ahead. Drinking on the day of the match in small but frequent quantities to maintain good hydration is also vitally important. The eating should be stopped about three hours prior to the match to ensure the player’s digestion capabilities are not exceeded so helping to maximise the performance during the match. 

Match day diet
It is important to ensure a good carbohydrate intake before the match so all meals should include mainly low GI carbohydrates to ensure a slow release of energy, which should help to keep glycogen levels high.

Pre-match liquid intake
Liquid intake is important to help combat potential problems as stated in point 2 earlier, but because the match, including the warm-up, lasts over two hours it is vitally important to focus on both liquid and carbohydrate intake during the match. This can be achieved at the same time by drinking a carbohydrate energy drink. Fluid and energy depletion is a big issue, so pre-match and during half-time are the ideal times to ensure further energy drinks are taken on board. But, if someone gets injured during the game or a substitution takes place then the opportunity of taking a few more sips of the drink should be taken. An important note to take into consideration is whether the drink will need to be: -

• Isotonic. This is based upon a 5% carbohydrate solution where the concentration of the drink most resembles the osmolality of the blood. The absorption rate into the blood is at least as fast as plain water while the amount of energy benefit is moderate.
• Hypertonic. This is when the concentration of the drink has a higher osmolality than that of the blood so is greater than 5% carbohydrate solution. The absorption rate is slower, but the amount of energy benefit is higher than isotonic.
• Hypotonic. This is the opposite of hypertonic, so when the concentration of the drink is lower than the osmolality of the blood it is less than 5% carbohydrate solution. The absorption rate is faster than plain water, but the amount of energy benefit is smaller than isotonic drinks.

Specially formulated energy drinks are ideally suited for this. This can be in a powder form energy drink, which can provide upto 94g carbohydrates/100g of powder, and can be mixed with water to different concentration levels. The higher the concentration of powder mixed in water the higher the energy benefit but the slower the absorption rate and, obviously, the lower the concentration of powder mixed in water the lower the energy benefit but the faster the absorption rate.

Different seasons of the year will affect the rate of sweat loss, which affects the rate of sodium loss, so electrolyte replacement must also be taken into consideration particularly in the warmer months. During the cooler months though, the concentration of the mixture can be higher due to less need for fluid intake, but testing this theory during training sessions rather than leaving it to match day is essential as this may be too much for the stomach to handle as absorption rates can vary from individual to individual. And visa versa, when the temperature is higher a weaker solution can be used but more liquid consumed, so overall the carbohydrate input is the same. The important point to make here is getting the calories ingested with the amount of liquid a player can ‘stomach’, because a player will not want to be drinking 3 litres of energy drink during the period of a match on a cold day if they could drink it in 1 litre.

Post-match diet
Within fifteen minutes of the match ending a nutrient replacement drink should be taken to replenish lost fluids, electrolytes, proteins and carbohydrates. This will aid in recovery. An isotonic mixture is ideal to benefit from the fast absorption. Shortly after this drink it is very wise to have a post match snack. In this case a peanut butter sandwich is ideal. Eating grapes after the sandwich will provide excellent antioxidant properties, which help reduce the symptoms and risks associated with the high levels of free-radicals generated during exercise, which are thought to be responsible for muscle soreness, pain, discomfort, oedema and post-exercise tenderness.

Once home the player should maintain healthy eating with a good nutritious meal, which should now become the ‘norm’ if getting the best out of yourself is a top priority. Achieving the best you can in the sport you participate in should always be very important.