Quarterback Snacks

Quarterback Snacks By Sarah Baird

If I were a professional football player, it’s safe to assume that my meal planning — and late-night snacking — would be over the top from the first day of practice. In my estimation, if you’re exercising constantly to build both brawn and stamina, why not dabble in some late-night trips to the refrigerator for a second helping of Rouses fried chicken, or have mac and cheese and mashed potatoes when grabbing lunch? And while I know in my heart of hearts that there’s a gridiron star in me — if only in spirit — I would not only never make it in the big leagues, but the New Orleans Saints’ director of sports nutrition, Jamie Meeks, would have some serious concerns about my potential nutrition regimen (or lack thereof).

Meeks, a New Orleans native who attended St. Mary’s Dominican and was a cheerleader for Archbishop Rummel High School, has been a pioneer in sports nutrition and athlete-centered dietetics, carving out a position that’s still relatively novel in the world of professional sports, with a mission to educate those in the upper echelons of football about how what they eat and when they eat it are every bit as important as the hours upon hours they put in running agility drills and lifting weights.

“I was about to try out for the Louisiana State University cheerleading team, and my coach recommended that I go see a dietitian to make sure that I was eating right; eating enough; eating for performance; eating for muscle — everything,” Meeks recalls. “I was just amazed at what I learned in one session. I literally went back and changed my major to dietetics. I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

The concept of both collegiate and professional sports teams having a dietitian on staff, though, was practically unheard of in 2005. “I knew in my mind I wanted to work with some sort of athlete population. I didn’t know this at the time, but that really wasn’t a thing. Most of the work for dietitians was in a clinical setting. So, when I was talking to my professors about what type of dietetics I would like to get into, and I said sports, they were like, ‘You can possibly do that on the side, but that’s not a real job. You can’t do that.’”

After completing the rigorous requirements to become a certified dietitian — including 1,200 hours of hands-on experience through rotations in hospitals, community settings, school food service and regular food service management — Meeks remained focused on sports nutrition as an end goal, enrolling back at LSU for a master’s degree in exercise physiology.

“I actually went to the athletic department and said, ‘I’m a dietitian. I would love to volunteer my time to counsel the LSU athletes. Anything y’all need?’ And they were like, ‘Sure, free labor.’ So, whenever they needed a nutrition consult for the athletes, they would call me up. It grew into providing team talks and getting more familiar with the athletic staff.” Eventually, a light bulb moment landed Meeks the role she’d been working toward since college. “One day, I was talking to my advisor, and she said, ‘What about making a business proposal for them to hire you full-time?’ And that’s what I did. My whole last semester of grad school, I put together a business plan for LSU to hire their first full-time sports dietitian. Once I graduated, they accepted it, and hired me in 2011.”

Being the first sports dietitian at LSU, however, wasn’t without its challenges. “We started from scratch. I kind of knew what I wanted it to be, but I didn’t really have that experience. LSU didn’t even have experience building a sport nutrition program! We all worked together,” says Meeks. “It was all new! They were used to someone in operations just ordering food, and everybody ate whatever. There was really no reason, no purpose, behind it. Now, there’s a purpose behind it. I won’t lie. It was tough trying to make change because it was always, ‘Well, we’ve always done this,’ and ‘We won with doing this,’ and ‘Why do we have to change it?’ It was not only changing those

habits, but changing those cultures, and it took time.”

On a national scale, the early 2010s marked a shift in how both collegiate and professional football programs began to approach nutrition. “You started seeing schools, one by one, hiring a dietitian here and there. It was right around when they deregulated all of the feeding rules that had tied our hands when it came to what we could and couldn’t feed players. Once we could feed them a lot more, in 2014, you saw colleges hiring dietitians to help. From there, the NFL followed, so the NFL was actually behind colleges on that.”

Meeks’ innovation, dedication to sports nutrition and unflinching ability to build a successful dietetics program, collaboratively, from the ground up was recognized in 2015 when she headed home to New Orleans to become the first-ever, full-time sports dietitian for the Saints, overseeing all facets of care and feeding for the NFL players as part of a tight-knit team.

“I work hand in hand with pretty much every department in this football organization. I work in the weight room a lot, so I’m always making sure that their body composition is where it needs to be for optimal performance and health. That means while they’re doing their workouts, I’m making sure they’re fueling themselves and recovering correctly. It’s the same thing with the athletic trainers and medical staff. If there are any issues, whether it’s an injury or even a medical condition that needs nutrition attention, they’ll tell me about it, and we’ll work together with the player to make some nutritional changes.”

The equipment and operations staff are also central to Meeks’ diligent work providing proper nutrition for the players. “They literally make the football world go round,” she laughs. From packing trunks with hydration and nutrition products when traveling, to loading up

snacks to get the Saints through their games, to setting all the goodfor-you foods out in the locker room, these staff members make sure everything is taken care of on the logistical side of the dietetic equation. “We’ll all work together with the hotel and airline staff to coordinate meals. I’ll develop menus, and they’re very, very specific depending on what our players need. There could be different food allergies, food restrictions or diet restrictions, and that’ll all come into play when we are in different stadiums, so I’m always in contact with somebody — no matter what.”

Developing a deeply researched and nuanced science-backed nutrition program for professional athletes has meant ensuring there’s plenty of data to support every (delicious) decision. “There is a performance purpose behind the types of food we feed them, the times of day we feed them, hydration, as well as proper and safe supplementation. Everything is important for these guys, and I make sure that it’s all backed by science, and effective and safe.”

This also means respecting, and understanding, a less evidencebased tradition: player superstitions around eating “lucky” foods before each game. “Some guys get superstitious, where they eat the same meal on game day. One of the coaches must have his big waffle in the morning as a game day meal, and that’s his thing. You’ll see a lot of players, if they eat something and we have a good game, they’ll make sure they eat the same thing the next week until, say, we lose — then they’ll change it up. Our former quarterback had a specific pasta that he always had to have the night before [the game], and it’s actually still on the menu — I dare not take it off!”

For game days at the Superdome, Meeks has developed a thoughtful and robust menu of dining options for Saints players before, during and after taking the field. A typical noon-game, day-of-eating bill of fare would look something like this:

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Breakfast

“A pregame meal is more of a buffet-style setup. We’ll have full breakfast items: omelets, breakfast potatoes, turkey sausage, bagels, pancakes, waffles, fruit — the whole nine yards. In addition, we’ll have some lunch items set out, like pastas, chicken, vegetables and filet. Some guys like a heavier meal before heading to the Dome or to the stadium, and others would rather have something lighter, but we do push to make sure that they get some protein in them and, of course, a good amount of carbohydrate. That’s what’s going to give them that extra boost of energy throughout the game.”

Snacks

“When they get into the locker room, I have a little nutrition station setup with all sorts of different snacks and hydration products — everybody has their own regimen. Sometimes, I’ll shake up certain drinks for certain players if they’re busy doing something and get them squared away. On the field itself, I’m on the sidelines helping the trainers hydrate the players. I also have some quick carbohydrates readily available to grab. If a player feels that he’s low, has a low blood sugar, or just needs a little boost of energy, I’ll have some quick carbohydrate options for them, whether it be energy chews, applesauce, light granola bars — things like that.”

Halftime

“When it comes to halftime, they go back into the locker room, and a lot of guys like to snack on Nutri-Grain bars, bananas, oranges, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels…real simple things. We’re not looking to make sure everything’s whole grain and high fiber, because that will mess up their stomachs. We just want something quick and appealing. Usually, Rice Krispies Treats are their favorite.”

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Post-Game

“We’ll have different hot meals set out for them in the locker room, whether it’s chicken sandwiches or burritos. Maybe it’s a pizza. Maybe it’s some sort of chicken meal. We also have a family area that’s fully catered for the players and their families to have a nice sit-down meal, and they can let the kids run around on the field after the game. It’s very family-oriented.”

It’s never far from Meeks’ mind that the care portion of “care and feeding” is every bit as important as the nutritional value of the food itself for building a holistic wellness program for the Saints players. After all, what’s more connected to a person’s mental, emotional and physical health than what they eat?

“Food is a very important thing for so many people — and not just us here in New Orleans. Food brings back memories. It can change your mood, and especially for these guys who have a lot of stress. They’re humans, too! They’re not just football players,” Meeks emphasizes. “It’s important to work within the stresses of the season to make sure that we are fueling them correctly, but also that we give them a nice comfort when it’s mealtime.”