16 Breakfast Ideas for the Young Swimmer

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN of usaswimming.org

To eat, or not to eat, breakfast? This is the question young swimmers may struggle with as they scurry out the door to make morning practice or catch the bus and get to school on time.

For growing kids and teens, starting the day with breakfast has its benefits. Breakfast consumption has been linked to better nutrient intake, mental function and academic performance. Skipping breakfast has it drawbacks. A 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2006) survey of children aged 9-18 looked at self-reported breakfast eating patterns and the types of breakfast foods eaten. Researchers found that 20% of children and 35% of teens skipped breakfast, 36% children and 25% teens ate cereal, and the rest ate a variety of different breakfast foods. Interestingly, breakfast skippers had higher body mass indices (BMIs) and a higher prevalence of obesity, while cereal eaters had the most favorable nutrient intakes and weight scores.

We have less data for young athletes and their breakfast consumption patterns, particularly about what constitutes the perfect breakfast amount, and composition. However, it is known that carbohydrate-based foods are needed as fuel for athletic performance, and protein sources help build and repair muscle tissue. So it makes sense that young athletes may benefit from the healthy habit of a daily, balanced breakfast.To make getting breakfast on board for your young swimmer easier, check out these breakfast ideas categorized by preparation method:

REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT

1. Peanut Butter and Chocolate Swirl Overnight Oats

2. Greek Yogurt Parfait: Layer vanilla Greek yogurt, fruit, and granola in a glass or Mason jar.

GRAB-N-GO

3. Nut butter sandwich on whole grain bread: Make this the night before. Add jelly if you like.

4. Trail mix: Use a commercial trail mix or make your own with nuts and dried fruit.

5. Nut butter and fresh fruit: Can you say banana or apple and peanut butter? Vary your nut butters with almond, cashew and try sunflower seed butter too. There are many small convenient packets of nut butter available.

6. Gorp: Mix dry cereal, nuts, raisins/other dried fruit, carob or chocolate chips together in a baggie.

7. String cheese and whole grain crackers

8. Hard-boiled eggs

PREP IN 5 MINUTES…

9. Smoothie: ½ cup 100% juice or nectar; ½ cup milk; 1 cup frozen fruit; ¼- ½ cup Greek yogurt

10. Bagel sandwich: Layer ham and cheese on a bagel. Zap in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm.

11. Egg and cheese on an English muffin: fry an egg; toast the muffin; assemble with a slice of cheese into a sandwich.

12. Breakfast burrito: Take a whole grain tortilla, fill it with scrambled egg or tofu, add cheese, avocado, leftover veggies and salsa, and roll it up.

13. Walking waffle: Toast two whole grain waffles, spread with nut butter or cream cheese, top with fresh fruit or jam, and assemble as a sandwich.

14. Instant oatmeal: Mix hot water and oats in a to-go coffee cup; top with walnuts and blueberries. Don't forget the spoon!

FREEZE AHEAD

15. Egg and veggie cups: Make these over the weekend and freeze them. Heat them in the microwave in the morning and grab a piece of fruit as a side.

16. Breakfast cookies: Try these Pumpkin breakfast cookies or these dried fruit and peanut butter cookies. Toss in a milk box or 100% juice alongside.


Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School (www.fearlessfeeding.com) and author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete (July 2015). She is the creator of Just The Right Byte (www.justtherightbyte.com), and lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT.

Top Nutrient-Rich Food Choices

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM, PHD, RDN, CSSD

Recently a coach asked me what foods were the best sources of carbohydrate, protein and fat for swimmers. Nutritionists like to talk to athletes about nutrients, but swimmers eat foods, not nutrients. So, with that in mind, here are some nutrient-rich foods for each of the energy-producing nutrients of carbs, protein, and fat.

Carbohydrate illustration. (Small)Carbohydrates: Carbs provide 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate and provide not only quick energy to fuel muscles, but they also supply a lot of the B-vitamins in our diet. Carbs also provide dietary fiber, if you choose the best carbs. Carb-rich foods that also supply vitamins and fiber include whole-grain starchy foods, like whole wheat bread (not wheat bread) and other whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat tortillas, rolls and buns and popcorn. Starchy veggies also are good sources of nutrient-rich carbs: corn, green peas, white and sweet potatoes, lentils, black or red beans, and chick peas. Fruits are mostly carbs and whole fruit is best, followed by frozen, dried, canned in juice and fruit juice. All whole fruits are nutrient-rich, so while some swimmers tell me they avoid the sugar in fruit, there is no need forego the naturally occurring sugars in fruit. But, remember that fruit roll-ups, fruit drinks, and fruit-flavored candies are not fruit…those foods do contain a lot of added sugars. Lastly, dairy foods, like milk and yogurt contain the naturally occurring carb, lactose, so don’t forget you are getting carbs when you drink milk for recovery or snack on yogurt.

Carbohydrate Illustration. (Small)Protein: Most athletes know that eggs, meat, fish, poultry and milk are good sources of protein, but don’t overlook nuts and seeds and beans and peas for protein. Vegetarians can get all the protein they need from vegetables sources, if they make the right choices. Eating protein throughout the day is the best strategy to build and maintain muscle.




Fats Illustration. (Small)Fat: Healthy fats for swimmers include the fats in nuts and seeds (including peanut and almond butters), avocado, canola, olive, sunflower or soybean oil (and salad dressings made from these oils). Mayonnaise is made from heart-healthy oils, so there is no need to avoid it. Fats do contain more than twice the calories as carbs and protein, so these are good to include for those trying to gain weight.

Putting it all together: Here is a sample meal plan for swimmers to include nutrient-rich foods for performance and good health.

Breakfast:

Whole grain toaster waffles topped with berries and real maple syrup
1 cup of low-fat milk
1 cup of 100% juice
1 hard cooked egg
Mid-morning or post training snack
Peanut butter and fruit jam sandwich on whole wheat bread
16 ounces of water or fruit juice or sports drink

Lunch

Cup of vegetable soup
Grilled chicken sandwich on whole grain bun with lettuce and tomato
Coleslaw
Fruit salad
Water

Mid-afternoon or pre-practice snack

Plain mini-bagel with almond butter
16 ounces of water
After practice snack
16 ounces of low-fat chocolate milk

Dinner

Protein-enriched pasta with marinara sauce
Ground turkey meatballs
Green salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, and sunflower seeds and olive-oil based salad dressing
9-grain dinner rolls
Fruit cobbler or sorbet
Water

Evening snack

Whole grain cereal and low-fat milk with banana
Or 
Hummus and whole grain crackers and baby carrots


Chris Rosenbloom, PhD, RDN, CSSD, is a nutrition professor emerita at Georgia State University and provides nutrition counseling to athletes of all ages. She welcomes questions from athletes at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com.

Hydration Guide for Swimmers

by Kevin Iwasa-Madge BASc, CISSN from swimmingscience.net

Take home points:

  • Drink liquids throughout the day! Bring a refillable bottle with you everywhere. You’ll be more likely to drink water if you get in this habit.
  • Drink liquids during training. Whether you’re a beginner and drinking water, or at a more elite level and have a well thought out training-drink with you, you should be ingesting 16-32oz of liquid/hour of hard training.
  • Drink liquids after training. I’d recommend using a 32oz bottle and a recovery-formula (opposed to chocolate-milk, protein-bars, or other common recovery strategies). This ensures you are getting the carbohydrate and protein you need for recovery, along with an adequate amount of water. The last thing you want to do is have something so dense or thick that you further your dehydration.

I recently received a question regarding hydration, and specifically, its importance for swimmers.

First, I’d like to touch on the fact that it is possible to over-hydrate. That is, to drink so much water it is unhealthy and possible fatal. Also of note, contrary to what some believe, over-hydration does not subsequently improve performance. In some cases, excessive water without electrolytes (in this case sodium) leads to hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is essentially when your blood does not contain enough sodium relative to the volume of blood. Having said that, this most commonly happens to athletes who are training or competing for an extended period of time in a hot environment (Not swimmers!). The bottom line is, over-hydration, or hyponatremia, is not a huge concern for swimmers… assuming they have a healthy diet. In reality we get lots of electrolytes from our diet, and unless we are sweating to a massive extent (for example training in a hot environment), then our dietary electrolytes are more than enough to maintain electrolyte levels in our blood.

But don’t let all of this over-hydration talk scare you, preventing dehydration and staying adequately hydrated is critically important to performance. Even small amounts of dehydration such as 2% bodyweight loss have been shown to decrease both endurance and power performance measures. Think about it this way, 2% of your body weight is a small enough amount that drinking an extra 32oz. of liquid in a day could be what maintains performance. Our body is just that sensitive!

There is some evidence to support the idea that athletes can adapt to perform efficiently at different levels of hydration for swmmers. So in some sense, “proper hydration” is relative to the athlete. Having said that, this still does not change the fact that said athlete would need to maintain his hydration-level, whatever that may be. So, staying adequately “hydrated” may change from athlete to athlete in the actual amount of water the body holds, but nonetheless, maintaining this “hydrated state” is still the most proven and safe way to optimize performance.

Lets talk about how to do this:

  • Drink liquids throughout the day! Bring a refillable bottle with you everywhere. You’ll be more likely to drink water if you get in this habit.
  • Drink liquids during training. Whether you’re a beginner and drinking water, or at a more elite level and have a well thought out training-drink with you, you should be ingesting 16-32oz of liquid/hour of hard training.
  • Drink liquids after training. I’d recommend using a 32oz bottle and a recovery-formula (opposed to chocolate-milk, protein-bars, or other common recovery strategies). This ensures you are getting the carbohydrate and protein you need for recovery, along with an adequate amount of water. The last thing you want to do is have something so dense or thick that you further your dehydration.
  • Be conscious of your hydration level. Are you thirsty? You’re probably dehydrated!
    Looking at your urine colour is a quick test to check hydration for swimmers. It should be clear or only slightly yellow. If it is darker then that, there is a good chance you are dehydrated!

If you want to be serious about swimming, you have to be serious about your hydration. Use these tips and come up with a system that works for you. There is a good chance your performance will benefit from it!


Written by Kevin Iwasa-Madge BASc, CISSN Owner of iMadgen Nutrition, and as a former top-5 finisher in the world as a freestyle wrestler, Kevin embodies the lifestyle of an elite athlete. Kevin completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in the Applied Human Nutrition Program. This clinically focused program allowed him the opportunity to address a range of diseases from a nutritional approach. After graduation Kevin attained a certification in sports nutrition from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. The CISSN is the premier certification in the field of sports nutrition and is recognized by the leaders in applied sports nutrition. This certification requires Kevin to earn Continuing Education Units, maintaining his development of relevant, cutting edge knowledge in the field of sports nutrition.

Athletically, Kevin has been an elite wrestler for over 10 years, competing for both the University of Guelph and Team Canada. Kevin is a former First Team All-Canadian, Academic All-Canadian, and Canadian Champion. While at the University of Guelph, Kevin was short-listed for the prestigious Student-Athlete of the Year award. He currently trains with and competes for the Guelph Wrestling Club and National Team, recently placing 5th at the FISU World Championships.

Kevin’s expertise has been acknowledged by progressive groups such as Swimming Science and Basic Motion Therapy, whom he writes articles for regularly. Lately, Kevin spends his time guest-lecturing at colleges and working with high school, varsity, professional and national/international-level athletes.

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