Nutrition holds a pertinent key to optimal performance and recovery on the football field. Vitamin and mineral packed power foods aren’t found in a can, a bottle or in the enclosed kitchen of a fast food restaurant, these foods are found in the produce area of your supermarket.
It’s crazy. We’re a society loving ridiculous chef competitions and cooking & food related television shows, though ironically, we’re more apt to cook canned and processed foods. Or eat out. But the tide may be shifting. McDonald’s corp recently posted poor sales results (uh oh!) which makes us wonder if the end of McDonald’s processed, preservative laced ‘foods’ is near. Families are better educated and making smarter decisions with their diets.
As coaches and parents of athletes that play youth football, it’s a necessity to stress the benefits of eating power foods such as nuts, fruits and vegetables. Mom and Dad- cook from scratch with your kid! There are so many benefits to doing this including pre-releasing that dependency to fast foods that your kid has or may develop. If we ignore proper nutrition, expect junk foods to do create a stronghold on your kid with obesity and health problems not too far away. Football athletes need to eat for strength, power, endurance and they will learn it from you.
We will eat with nutrition front of mind.
Eating foods that are fresh in-season is a big plus. While the fall months are my favorite months (official start of football season of course), unfortunately some of my favorite foods are going out of season. What I prefer to do is get one more trip to the farmer’s market for a final effort to buy some sun-kissed nutrient packed fruits and veggies. I’ll preserve them for at least one month by freezing them. These become perfect for as quick stir frys, oatmeal toppers or smoothies for your kids.
My top nutrition packed foods, typical for athletes and how to prepare them for freezing-
- Peaches and nectarines, pit these and cut in half.
- Apples, no need to freeze as these can last in refrigerators for quite a while.
- Corn, release the kernels and freeze
- Carrots, keep the skin, quarter slice each carrot for freezing.
Let’s get this right. Avoid fast foods, cook from scratch and, if you can, eat fruits and veggies in-season.
