The Clackamas print., June 05, 2019, Page 12, Image 12

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Athl-eats diets vary by season
BY ÇEXI S H U LL '
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR .
Typically, the first thing that comes
to mind when discussing an athlete’s
success is their fitn ess. Som ething
that is often overlooked is what they
actually eat.
Imagine a juicy burger, a perfectly
cooked lobster, the cheesiest pizza
you could possibly dream of, or any
other food that appeals to your tast,e
buds. These are the kinds of foods that
make you want to sit back and relish
in the flavor. But what do they all have
in com m on? They’ re,com fort foods:
delicious tasting but typically bad for
your body.
Jennifer Nickell, a personal nutrition
and nutrition for nursing students
teacher at Clackam as, ¿aid the food
choices most people make isn’t based
bn nutrition.
“ A m ericans tend to base their
food choices on taste preference and
h a b its ,” N ick e ll said. “ H ow ever,
nutrition’s importance as a factor in
health is very clear to most Americans.
You can see this in the broad use of
terms like ‘ healthy’ and ‘ natural’ as.'
marketing schemes for food,” Nickell
said. “ These term s w ork because
Am ericans know that nutrition and
health go hand in hand. They want to
m ake healthy choices, but it can be
hard to know what is actually healthy. ”
Kevin Arizo, the athletic trainer at
Clackamas, said living situations can'
have a big impact oh what food choices
athletes make.
.
■ “ There’ s obviously a variation of
[athletes] who live at home and eat
better than [athletes] who live on
their own. There’ s hot a lot of athletes
that live on their own right now that
actually make good food.”
One particular sport that focuses on
diet and weight gain or loss is wrestling.
W restling coaches can require that a
player weighs a certain amount to be in
a certain weight class that would ideally
allow them to perform better against
an opponent of the same weight class.
. Freshman wrestler Greg Guzman gave
insight to the process of cutting weight:
“ Everyone is different in their own
way, we all have our own diet plans.
Honestly, we doh’t really diet, we just
cut out certain foods/’ Guzman said.
. “ [We cut out] processed foods, game because of how heavy it is in your
anything th a t’ s fat or th at stays in stomach, however, chocolate m ilk is
your body too long. Usually every other great for recovery. It’ s all about what
weekend after weigh in we’ll lose like you eat and what time you e at.”
It ’ S im portant for a th le te s'to be
15 pounds and gain it all back and then
conscious about what sort of foods
lose it all again.” ?
When you hear the word diet, what they are putting into their bodies that
comes to mind? Most likely cutting out will give them the right outcome for
foods, in order to lose fat or gain muscle. their sport. Not every athlete w ill
However, an athlete’ s diet is usually eat the same thing; cross country
increasedeating in order to make up for runners and w restlers-h av e very
the amourft of calories they are losing different performance expectations.
One requires an extended amount of
during vigorous exercise.
“ In season the biggest th in g is running, and the other requires brute
making sure you have what you need strength.
Landy Williams, a freshman on both
for practice and games,” said freshman
Ja m ie .Stu ll o f the m en ’ s basketball the soccer and w om en’ s basketball
team. “ Get your body right and eat the teams said, “ [Diet] plays a big role [in
proper nutrition,but also with such a athletics] because both sports I play
high calorie output you eat more than require a lot of running so if I eat bad
normal and that’ s qkay. Out of season then it’ s harder to stay in .shape. You
you lower the calorie count because also feel a lot better while playing when
you aren’t as active, but now it’s the you eat healthier rather than feeling
tim e to get bigger and stronger by groggy from junk food.”
Nickell talked about the best way to
lifting So you eat more protein. What
you eat affects how you play in many go about eating throughout the day.
ways. For example, it’ s common sense
“ Eating sm all m eals and snacks
to not drink chocolate m ilk before a! throughout the day that provide a
Photo Illustration by Jonathan Villagomez
sm all am ount of protein, com plex
carbohydrates and unsaturated fats
will provide consistent energy, protein,
vitam in s and m inerals throughout
the day,” Nickell, said. If an athlete
is p a rticip a tin g in an endurance
event such as a m arathon, they will
probably want to load up on complex
carbohydrates the day before the
even to ensure that they have Optimal
glycogen stores during the activity. It
is important to note thatathletes need
to know how many calories they need
and understand the im pact o f their
activity level on their energy needs.
Physical activity is the most variable
part of calorie needs as it depends on
muscle mass, age, gender and height.”
A common response to the kinds of
meals athletes at Clackamas eat during
season included chicken, rice, fruit,
turkey, vegetables and fish.O verall,
whatever an athlete decides to put into
their bodies both in season and out o f
season is going to have an effect on
performance, weight and muscle mass.
But the question still remains; how big
of a role does the fuel athletes put into
their bodies impact their performance?
Jamie Stull, a Clackamas basketball player, contemplates the struggle of being healthy or unhealthy in Randall Hall.
Clackamas Print
theclackam asprint.com
June 5, 2019