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Lead Stories: Friday, August 29, 2008

Athletes with Eating Disorders: Tips for Coaches, Parents, Friends & Teammates

Posted March 14th, 2008 at 10:30 AM by Katie Drummond

Section: News & Results, Health & Fitness, Exercise, Weight Loss

Eating disorders can be devastating to not only teams but also to families. Coaches and parents alike want their athletes to eat well and be healthy. The struggling athletes just want people to stop policing their eating and exercise. The athletes have difficulty talking about why they struggle with food; they instead communicate unhappiness by starving or stuffing their bodies. This distracts them from the pain of feeling “not good enough” and other hard feelings.

Unfortunately, too many athletes struggle with food issues. A survey of more than 400 female collegiate athletes indicated they typically believed their bodies were not good enough and wanted to lose five pounds.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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Q&A: Does caffeine really improve athletic performance, or do you just feel more alert?

Posted January 24th, 2008 at 10:15 AM by Jeremy Sussman

Section: Nutrition, Supplements, Health & Fitness, Exercise

In endurance events, the first cause of fatigue is loss of muscle sugar, so athletes do whatever they can to preserve sugar levels. Caffeine causes the body to produce large amounts of adrenalin, which causes fat to be released from fat cells and float in the bloodstream.

This extra fat is taken up by the muscles and used for energy, thus preserving the body’s limited stored supply of muscle sugar. When muscles run our of sugar, the athlete requires more oxygen to do the same job, slows down, fatigues earlier, and has difficulty maintaining his performance.
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2007 Holiday Gifts For Your Favorite Runner: Books

Posted December 13th, 2007 at 3:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: Running & Training, Motivation, Books, Tools & Resources

If you are having trouble deciding on a gift this season for your favorite runner (or yourself!), here’s a hint: runners love running books. Training manuals, biographies of the legends they seek to emulate, nutrition guides, books that describe how to ramp up the mental aspects of a runner’s performance, fiction, there’s really no end to the range of books you can find nowadays. Here’s a few titles that will help you decide what book to get your favorite aspiring track or marathon star:

Pre: The Story of America’s Greatest
Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine
By: Tom Jordan

This is the ultimate inspirational biography. Steve Prefontaine is a legend in running, perhaps even more than ever even 37 years after his tragic death in a car crash. You can’t go wrong buying your favorite runner this book.

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The Power of Pedialyte

Posted October 12th, 2007 at 8:57 AM by Valerie Cerami

Section: Running & Training, Nutrition, Hydration, Race Prep & Recov, Supplements, Health & Fitness, Exercise

Next time you’re in the supermarket, take a stroll down the infant aisle. No, not to stock-up on Pampers or for that sale on sippy-cups…this walk on the tame side is for you.

If Motherhood hasn’t hit you yet, you’ve probably never ventured into the Gerber area. Yet, even if you’ve got a stash of Mother’s Day cards, visit (or revisit) this land-of-plenty with newborn eyes and with a novel toddler in mind: You.

A brand-spanking-new-view of baby paraphenalia is crying out, practically crawling off the shelves for your attention. The drink of champions (little and large, it seems), the nectar of the stars (athletes and your under-one-year-old), the elixir for all ages, is Pedialyte.

Long distance runners led the trend, beginning way back in the 1980s. Leaps and bounds ahead of the slower starters, marathoners …

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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Nancy Clark: Website nutrition for athletes

Posted August 4th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Bridget Sullivan

Section: Nutrition

The following article was submitted by sports nutritionist Nancy Clark. Nancy Clark, MS, RD CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels active people at her private practice located at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-383-6100). Her popular Sports Nutrition Guidebook, NEW 2007 Food Guide for Marathoners and Cyclist’s Food Guide offer additional information. They are available via www.nancyclarkrd.com. For online education and workshop information, visit www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

Whether you want to analyze your sports diet, get an answer to your questions about creatine, or find a new recipe for chicken, you can get an amazing amount of high quality food, nutrition and health information on the Web.The trick is, what’s quality information and what’s hokum? Here are some of my favorite websites; perhaps this information will be a helpful resource for you, as well.

Read the rest at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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Book Review: “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes” by Monique Ryan

Posted July 19th, 2007 at 12:06 PM by Katie Drummond

Section: Motivation, Books, Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Hydration, Race Prep & Recov, Special Features, TFS Reviews

While the most elite competitive athletes have the luxury of a team of coaches, advisors, and dieticians to consult with on a regular basis, the average endurance athlete preparing for an event isn’t so lucky. That’s where Monique Ryan comes in. A nutrition expert who has worked with professionals for over 20 years, Ryan has recently released an updated version of her book, Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes. The lengthy volume is a thorough, well-researched, and invaluable resource, with specific advice for athletes with a range of dietary needs according to their sport and level of training.

Ryan has divided the book into three segments. Part I has a broader focus, with an outline of general dietary needs, regardless of sport or the intensity of your training regimen. Ryan clearly outlines different macro and micro nutrients necessary for daily living, along with their roles in wellness and the best ways to incorporate them into one’s diet. But the guide doesn’t stop at food – hydration is a key element to prime health and elite performance, and Ryan offers substantive information on the intricacies of maintaining adequate hydration, from the ins and outs of caffeine to the problems associated with alcohol consumption. This section of the book is bolstered by a number of quick and easy-to-read charts and diagrams outlining nutrients, sources, and recommended intake levels, making the science of nutrition easier to digest.

Read the rest of this review at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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The Juice on Juice: A nutritional, medicinal, and flavorful guide to the perfect post-run drink

Posted July 10th, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Bridget Sullivan

Section: Nutrition, Hydration

The following article clip recently appeared in Runner’s World Magazine. Author Leslie Goldman, MPH, is a women’s health writer who regularly contributes to Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Shape Magazine, People, and the Chicago Tribune. Her highly acclaimed debut book, Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the “Perfect” Body, recently came out in paperback and is available at amazon.com. Leslie regularly blogs about body image and women’s health at ivillage.com.

It’s hot out, you’ve finished your workout, you’re standing in front of the mini-mart fridge considering your options. Water isn’t quite enough, and you had a pre-run sports drink. Here’s something new: a juice blend called pomegranate blue. Sounds refreshing and, as a bonus, healthy. But is it?

“All juices are not created equal,” says Princeton University sports dietitian Mandy Clark, R.D. “Are you getting nutrients or are you drinking sugar water?” Indeed, some fruit-juice products contain only 10 to 15 percent juice; the balance includes as much as 27 grams of high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, or even the healthful-sounding organic cane sugar. They may look like fruit juice, but technically they’re “fruit drinks,” and the distinction is important. Nutritionally speaking, fruit drinks are not much better than soda and should be consumed sparingly, according to the Beverage Guidance Panel, a group of health experts established to make recommendations on what and how much Americans should drink to stay healthy and control their weight.

Read the rest of this entry at: RunnersWorld.com

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS: Nutrition & Exercise

Posted June 21st, 2007 at 7:53 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Exercise

Here’s your chance to learn from two internationally known experts at this intensive workshop on Nutrition & Exercise. Sports nutritionist Nancy Clark MS, RD and exercise physiologist William Evans, PhD will be offering a 1.5 day program that is designed to help coaches, athletic trainers, exercise physiologists, sports nutritionists, sports medicine professionals as well as athletes themselves find answers to their questions about:

1. Eating for health, enhanced performance and longevity
2. Balancing carbs, protein and sports supplements
3. Managing weight and eating disorders.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com

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