Sports Nutrition Basics Center

Among the research findings presented by exercise scientists, sports dietitians, physicians, and health professionals at the 2010 annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Baltimore was that a standard sports drink was preferred by athletes to coconut water to replace fluid lost through sweating because it tastes better.

Athletes should space meals out on a timeline approximately every four hours, starting with a bigger breakfast, and avoid an eating "crescendo" in which they consume most of their calories at dinner, says sports nutritionist Nancy Clark.

Sports nutritionist Nancy Clark says injured athletes need to eat intuitively and listen to their body in monitoring their food intake, eat protein-rich foods important for healing, and avoid overeating, but, at the same time, she says, it is not a time to restrict calories the body needs to recover from a sports injury.

Sports nutritionist and MomsTeam expert Nancy Clark's top three nutrition tips for athletes: think of food as fuel; fuel by day, diet by night; and, think quality calories.

 

For some, chocolate falls into the category of junk food, a guilty pleasure, and ruiner of good intentions to lose weight.  But ads for (dark) chocolate suggest chocolate is good for us. After all, chocolate comes from plants and contains the same health-protective compounds found in fruits and vegetables. The question is whether chocolate is little more than an alluring form of refined sugar, saturated fat and empty calories or does chocolate (in moderation, of course) have positive qualities that might be beneficial for athletes as a part of a sports diet?