| Football
players should also eat a small meal containing at least
600 calories of carbohydrate about two hours before
competition. 600 calories is the approximate amount of
carbohydrate in three bananas and four slices of bread
(eaten together).Players should also try to 'taper' for a
few days before matches, reducing their intensity and
quantity of training in order to avoid carbohydrate
depletion.
During
the taper and during all periods of heavy training,
football players should attempt to ingest 9-10 grams of
carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight ( 16-18 calories
per pound of body weight) each day. 'Grazing' - eating two
to four daily high-carbohydrate snacks in addition to
three regular meals - can help players carry out this
high-carbo plan successfully. However, carbohydrate is not
the only nutritional concern for football players.
Fluid intake is also critically important. Various studies
have shown that football players lose - through their
sweat glands - from two to five litres of fluid per game.
Even the lower figure could raise heart rate and body
temperature during a match and might reduce running
performance by about 4-5 percent for an average player.
Fortunately, the sports-drink-intake plan described above
- coupled with sips of sports drink during injury
time-outs - can help to reduce the impact of dehydration.
Although water and carbohydrate must be taken onboard,
football players don't need to worry about replacing
electrolytes during play. Sweat is a dilute fluid with low
concentrations of electrolytes, and most players can
obtain enough electrolytes - including salt - from their
normal diets. However, the presence of salt in a sports
drink can enhance the absorption of water and
glucose. Most commercial drinks have about the right
concentration of sodium; if you're making your own
beverage, you should be sure to mix about one-third tea
spoon of salt and five to six tablespoons of sugar with
each quart of water that you're going to be using.
After all matches, players should attempt to ingest enough
carbohydrate-containing sports drink to replace all the
fluid they've lost during competition. After strenuous
workouts, water should also be replaced, and football
athletes need to eat at least 500 calories of carbohydrate
during the two hours following practice in order to
maximize their rates of glycogen storage.('Carbohydrate,
Fluid, and Electrolyte Requirements of the Football
Player: A Review,' International Journal of Sport
Nutrition, vol. 4, pp. 221-236,1994) |
