Healthy snacks can give athletes a boost

Along with new classes, textbooks and homework, the new academic year also signals the return of after-school sports.

The long hours away from home for practices and games can create a nutritional challenge for young athletes who need to be fueled and hydrated to perform their best.

If your child is not fueling properly, his or her training and performance will suffer, explains Kristi Spence, a distance runner and a Utah sports dietitian.

Her two-hour "Food & Fluids for Young Athletes" class is popular with athletes, coaches and parents.

During a recent session, 16 young competitors - from junior-high swimmers to high-school cross-country runners - learned how food provides both energy and muscle repair for their bodies. Spence answered some basic questions on snacks, such as:

• What should I eat? For those who train and compete several hours a day, complex carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your diet, said Spence.

Stay away from the chips and cookies and focus on foods that have nutritional value such as whole-grain breads, pastas and cereals, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Include a small amount of protein with every meal and snack. Lean cuts of meat, fish, poultry and eggs are good sources of animal protein, but try to work vegetable proteins - such as beans, nuts, nut butters, seeds and soy - into meals, too.

• How often should I eat? Each day, serious athletes should be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as two or three snacks between meals, said Spence. Two to three hours before a practice or competition, athletes should have a carbohydrate-rich meal.

• Where do sports bars fit in? Sports bars provide a compact source of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. That makes them an ideal snack to eat before, during and immediately after exercise, Spence said.

• What are some easy snacks to pack? Apples, bananas, grapes, oranges and other whole fresh fruit are good because they require no refrigeration.

Dried fruit, trail mix with nuts and seeds; peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches; granola bars, applesauce, graham crackers or foil packs of tuna also won't spoil in a backpack or locker.

If you have access to a cooler or refrigerator, try: yogurt, string cheese, carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, cucumbers, fruit juice, cottage cheese or lean deli meats.