Sports Nutrition for Junior

Feeding active kids

A guide for parents, coaches and team managers.

Getting Ready Foods
Before and after games and training sessions is a great time to offer an occasional “sweet treat” to top up energy levels. These include sports drinks, cordials, jelly and jelly confectionery.

Cereals
Breakfast cereals; rolled oats and other grains served hot or cold;
Bread & bread rolls; pita, Turkish and mountain breads; tortillas, tacos, lavash; crackers & crisp
breads; rice cakes; corn thins; rice; pasta ( including canned spaghetti); noodles; couscous

Dairy & soy foods
Plain & flavoured milks; yogurt; milk desserts
Calcium enriched soy alternatives

Fruit
All fresh, canned or dried fruits; fruit bars; fruit fingers; fruit juices

Vegetables & legumes (pulses)
Potato, sweet corn, sweet potato, peas, beetroot, pumpkin, baked beans, lentils, chick peas, soy beans, bean mixes

Extras – sweet snacks
Low fat cereal/muesli bars; muffins; cake; biscuits; fruit buns, fruit loaf, fruit scones; pikelets, pancakes, waffles; jelly confectionery, jelly, jellied fruits;
sports drinks, cordial

As well as eating and enjoying a wide variety of foods, it is important to make sure that junior athletes have enough protein in their diet.

Encourage them to include the Grow Foods listed above.

It is important that active children learn to eat according to their appetite – ensuring they eat enough but not too much, while remembering they often have great variance in their appetite from day to day due to factors such as activity,
tiredness and growth. It will be important to encourage them (especially the underweight child) to eat something at times when they feel too tired or busy to bother. But don’t panic if their appetite sometimes seems less than usual – that’s
normal! This is why eating healthy snacks is so important.

Encourage “active” recovery between training sessions and games by providing foods and drinks containing plenty of carbohydrate. Often fluids are more acceptable to children at this time with the best choices being sports drink,
cordial, fruit juice, and flavoured milk. Foods containing a small amount of protein with the carbohydrate are also great – try snack packs of canned fruit, fruit purees with yogurt, baked beans or spaghetti with cheese on toast, cereal
bars or fruit bars with a milk drink.

Remind children to keep up their fluid intake by drinking “mouthfuls often” during training and games, immediately after each period of activity as well as during the day at school or home. Water is the preferred drink but during activity a flavoured sports drink containing small amounts of sugar and electrolytes may
encourage greater intake.

The whole family may need to get organised for healthy eating – this can offer a great opportunity to change everyone’s food and fluid intake habits. Remember though, that the age and activity level of family members and friends will determine their required quantities ‘Treat’ foods do have a role to play in a healthy diet but encourage children to recognise treats as occasional, not every day. Discourage excess indulgences by explaining to kids that too much of anything can create problems and will certainly affect their ability to perform to their best. Preventing the development of a weight problem is easier than dealing with excess weight later.

If appropriate, use of one of the junior footballers’ favourite AFL stars as a good example of health and fitness. You can tell them that their heroes eat what is recommended here.

Grow Foods

Meat, seafood and eggs
Beef, veal, lamb, pork, turkey, chicken
Fish – fresh, canned or frozen; other seafood
Eggs
Dairy and soy foods
Milk, cheese and yogurt
Calcium enriched soy products – milk, yogurt
Tofu
Legumes, nuts and seeds
Baked beans; meat analogues (vegetarian foods); seed beans; nuts such as almonds and
cashews; peanuts and peanut butter; seeds like pumpkin and sunflower

A note about fats

All children require a small amount of fat (3 – 4teaspoons) in their daily food intake for normal growth and development. It is recommended that all Australians, including children, limit their intake of saturated fats (mainly animal
fats). Children, however, need to include plenty of the healthier unsaturated fats found in foods like fish, nuts, seeds and avocados.
Children under the age of five need to be eating full cream dairy foods to meet their nutritional and energy needs, however children over five years of age may be offered reduced fat dairy products.
If your child is overweight, a healthy diet and activity plan will help them.

Management of overweight children often requires expert help from your doctor or a dietitian. Avoid strict dieting or rapid weight loss. Parents can help by reducing the child’s overall energy intake and encouraging more
physical activity. Choose low fat foods for meals and snacks, avoid the use of fatty take away and convenience foods and replace high sugar snacks and drinks with water and more nutritious choices like fruit.
Healthy eating is the same for overweight and normal weight active children, although the amounts consumed might need to be different.

Fatty, salty snacks should be minimised for everyone and replaced by some of the healthy snack suggestions that follow.
In football there will always be a spot for the “bigger” child which is great to encourage their participation in sport! But they will enjoy it more when they feel fitter and carry less body fat

For those junior footballers wanting to gain weight or strength the advice is quite simple -
eat larger quantities of nutritious foods, and healthy snacks like nuts and dried fruit, and enjoy more nourishing drinks to provide the extra energy required to convert to muscle.

Smart Snacks
Bread, crumpets or English muffins with jam
A snack pack of canned fruit or fresh fruit
Sandwich with low fat cheese, honey or jam
Vegetable pieces with low fat dip
Breakfast cereal with low fat milk
Low fat yogurt
Low fat cereal/fruit bars
Pita chips, pretzels or crackers
Fruit bun or raisin toast with jam
Corn & rice crackers or corn thins
Scone, pikelet, pancake with syrup
Low fat smoothie with fruit (fresh or canned)
Low fat/quick cook noodles
Low fat milkshakes
Canned spaghetti or baked beans
Water with cordial for flavour
Home made popcorn
Fruit juice

Supplied by Sports Dietitians Australia with our sincere thanks and gratitude.
Ruth Logan BSc, Grad Dip Nut & Diet (SA), APD

Ruth is a member of Sports Dietitians Australia and Dietitians Association of Australia

Pages: 1 2