NUTRITION
SNACKS – What works best for you? Gillian Woodward
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HE practice of ‘snacking’ between meals may have been frowned upon in past generations when 3 meals a day was the norm. Nowadays, snacking has become a way of life, especially for some – toddlers or those with small stomachs, teenagers and those with busy schedules. Is snacking healthy or is it necessarily associated with ‘junk’ food? And how can you make those snacks really count as pre- or post- activity boosts? These are the questions to tackle in this edition. By definition, a snack is ‘a light meal - food eaten between regular meals’. The main purpose of a snack should be to provide additional energy enabling one to reach the next meal without a feeling of extreme hunger. In sports nutrition, snacks can be invaluable in providing TIMELY energy for physical activity needs. Not only can they be used before competition or training to improve performance levels, but snacks can be even more important after exercise to help repair and re-load muscles with essential fuel for future work-outs.
So what makes a healthy snack for orienteers? The major nutrients in snacks for any sport should be carbohydrates accompanied by some protein. A little fat is alright, particularly if it is the unsaturated type, but too much fat will retard the emptying of the stomach and hence delay the delivery of the carbohydrate energy source to the muscles where it is most needed. Of course, there will also be some vitamins and minerals in the snack food, and these will add benefits such as helping the energy from the food be released in the body (as do many B vitamins). Good examples of healthy snacks include: fruit (fresh, dried, stewed or canned), low fat milk products like smoothies, milkshakes, yoghurts, or cereals, cereal/fruit bars, sandwiches etc. High carbohydrate vegetables including potatoes, corn cobs, or legumes (baked beans, chick peas, lentils) are also very nutritious snacks. Even a sports drink can be considered a (liquid) snack as can a nutrition supplement drink.
compete? This is where organisation is the key point. You need to be prepared and pack a small cooler with flavoured milk or fruit drinks in hot weather. Hot foods/drinks in a thermos also need to be pre-planned and prepared in advance. You also need to consider the ‘crumble factor’. It is not easy to consume a biscuit or cake that is in several million crumbs when you get to eat it! A good wedge of solid moist fruitcake wrapped in alfoil might be a solution for this one. For compactness, an alternative to ordinary bread in sandwiches might also be a flatter (fit in the back pocket) variety such as pita/ Lebanese/tortillas/burritos with a sticky spread – peanut butter/ vegemite/jam/honey, wrapped in plastic or foil wrap. The best recovery snack combination will provide about 1-1.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram that you weigh. So if you weigh 60 kg, your snack, especially post exercise, should contain at least 60-90 grams of carbohydrate. In general, post-event snack foods should be: • High in carbohydrate (including some high GI ) • Moderate in Protein • Include plenty of Fluids • Foods/Drinks you enjoy and have practised using in training Examples of post-event snack foods with their carbohydrate (CHO) content: • 600 ml Sports drink + Fruit bar = 60 g CHO • Cereal bar + 500 ml Fruit juice = 65 g CHO • Sweet muffin + 600 ml Sports Drink = 70 g CHO • 2 Raisin toast with jam + 500 ml Fruit juice = 85 g Always use snacks that you have tried before and found suitable to your digestive system and body’s needs. The best time to try out post exercise competition strategies is after training sessions. Work out what suits you best. Everyone is different, so don’t just copy others – make sure your snacks are giving you the best possible performance benefit by keeping you feeling satisfied and full of energy. Gillian Woodward is a Practising Dietician and has been providing advice in the field for over 25 years. She has been an orienteer since 1984.
Snacks that are often classified in the ‘junk food’ category would include fatty things like potato crisps or other extruded snack foods, hot fried chips, pastries, cakes, biscuits and chocolate. (How often do you see these items as the only alternatives offered at sporting venue kiosks? But that is another issue!) Highly sweetened products like lollies and soft drinks might also be classified by some as inappropriate; however, many athletes have used these quite successfully as energy boosters either during or after competition. Despite the lack of valuable nutrients in them, they do provide ready carbohydrate energy and often if diluted (in the case of soft drinks) may be quite useful. Likewise, cakes that are modified to be lower fat (like many muffins or buns or pancakes) can also be very good snacks. For the orienteer, the main thing about snacks is their transportability. How do they travel both in the car and in the back pocket to these far-flung venues where orienteers train and SEPTEMBER 2007 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27
