The Athlete’s Kitchen

By Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD

“What percent of my calories should come from carbs, protein and fat?”
“Orange juice has 24 grams sugar. Isn’t that bad...???”
“I stopped eating peanut butter; the label says it has 16 grams of fat!!!”

If you are like many runners, you feel totally confused about what to
eat. You listen to a plethora of nutrition experts, read food labels,
and then try to piece the information together to build a better sports
diet. Yet, you end up with lots of questions, like what percent of
calories should come from carbs, protein and fat: 40-30-30% or 60-15-25%?
According to the American Dietetic Association's Position Stand on
Nutrition & Athletic Performance, percentages are not the way to
calculate a sports diet. Here's one example why:

• If you are a trying to drop five pounds to be lighter for a race and
are eating only 1,600 calories a day, 10-15% of calories from protein
translates into 160-240 calories of protein. That’s the equivalent of
40-60 grams protein. (There are 4 calories/gram protein.) That’s way too
little. The runner who weighs 140 lbs. would need almost double that
amount, because dieting athletes should target about 0.8 grams protein
per pound of body weight (1.7 g pro/kg).

Assessing your diet
Instead of getting overwhelmed by percentages of calories, I suggest you
envision a dinner plate. The goal is for 2/3 to 3/4 of the plate to be
filled with carb-based foods (such as brown rice and broccoli) and 1/4
to 1/3 filled with a protein-rich food (such as a piece of fish). The
plate-method is far easier than calculating grams of carbs, protein and
fat!
But, if you are curious about your food intake and want to learn more
about what you eat, you can track your diet on websites such as
www.MyDailyPlate.com, www.fitday.com or www.sparkpeople.com. One
critical key when assessing your diet is to weigh and measure your food
so you know exactly how much you actually eat and not just guess. (Hmm.
I guess that’s about 1 cup of oatmeal...) Be honest now; people tend to
change what they eat when they have to record it. Be sure to include the
Munchkin someone brought into the office, the Hershey’s Kiss from the
candy jar, the French fry you snitched....
By tracking your intake for three or four days, you'll get a good
snapshot of your training diet. Ideally, an runner who routinely trains
hard wants to consume about:

• 2.5 to 4.5 gram carbohydrate/lb body weight (6 to 10 g/kg)
• 0.5 to 0.8 gram protein/lb body weight (1.2 to 1.7 g/kg)
• the rest of the calories from fat (no less than 20% of calories from
fat).

If you are consuming more than 2,000 calories of day from primarily
nutrient-dense food, a diet analysis will help you discover you likely
consume abundant vitamins and minerals—and get more than 100% of the
Daily Value. (This may lead you to question if you actually need that
vitamin pill after all!)

Making sense of information on food labels
Here are some food label questions runners ask me about the carbs,
protein and fats in their diets. Perhaps this information will help
address your confusion as well.

Q. Is it OK to have 2% milk (with 5 grams fat) on my cereal instead of
watery skim milk (with 0 grams fat)? It tastes better and is more
satisfying.
A. Yes, as long as you budget the rest of your day's fat intake. That
is, if you enjoy 2% milk on cereal, then simply choose less mayo, cheese
and fatty foods at other meals. Even dieting runners should consume at
least 40 grams of (primarily healthful) fat per day.

Q. Should I avoid peanut butter because it has 16 grams of fat?
A. No! About 25% of your calories can appropriately come from fat. That
means the typical female runner can enjoy 600 calories (~65 grams) of
fat per day. Peanut butter can easily fit within your fat-budget. Plus,
peanut butter’s fat is health-protective. People who enjoy peanut butter
and nuts five or more times a week reduce their risk of heart disease
and diabetes by more than 20%. Perhaps you want to enjoy peanut butter
twice a day?!

Q. The label says 2 tablespoons of Skippy peanut butter has 3 grams of
added sugar. Isn’t that bad?
A. Three grams of sugar equates to 12 calories of sugar. This is far
less than the jelly that goes on a PB&J sandwich, as well as a fraction
of the sugar in sports drinks and jellybeans. A standard guideline is
10% of calories can come from refined sugar. That equates to about 240
to 300 calories (60-75 grams) of sugar for most runners. You can choose
how you want to spend those sugar-grams.

Q. Should I avoid orange juice because it has too much sugar?
A. All the calories in orange juice come from sugar, but along with that
(natural) sugar, you get abundant vitamin C (to boost your immune
system), potassium (to protect against high blood pressure), folate (to
protect against birth defects) and numerous other health-protective
nutrients. The sugar in orange juice (and any type of sugar, for that
matter) fuels your muscles. The nutrients that accompany that natural
sugar are like spark plugs and help your body’s engine run stronger.
While eating the whole orange is preferable to drinking the juice, any
form of fruit is better than none. That is, if you aren't going to make
time to peel an orange, grabbing a glass of OJ for a morning eye-opener
is a handy alternative—and is far preferable to grabbing just a
coffee-to-go.

Q. The label on my protein bar says it contains 20 grams of protein.
How many of these bars should I eat in a day?
A. What makes you think you need any protein bars at all? Most hungry
runners get the protein they need through normal meals and snacks.
Consuming excess protein is a needless expense for most athletes.
Athletes who might benefit from protein bars include vegetarians,
dieters or college students who eat limited meat from the dining hall.
If that’s your case, track your protein intake by using the websites
mentioned above to see if your protein intake comes up short. If it
does, make the effort to eat extra Greek yogurt, tuna or cottage
cheese—excellent sources of protein with a lower price (and better taste).

Q. How many grams of protein should I eat in a day?
A. For most runners, I recommend 0.5-0.8 grams protein/lb body weight
(1.2 -1.7 g/kg). This equates to a moderate serving of protein-rich food
at each meal (such as milk on breakfast cereal, sandwich at lunch,
yogurt for a snack, fish for dinner.) Even if you want to build muscle,
your need for additional carbs to fuel the heavy lifting is higher than
the need for extra protein. Be sure to enjoy carb-protein combinations
that allow you to fill up on carbs and enjoy protein as the
accompaniment. Filling up on primarily protein will leave your stomach
full but your muscles unfed. That means, recover with a fruit-yogurt
smoothie instead of a protein shake!

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports
Dietetics) counsels both casual and competitive athletes in her practice
at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA
(617-383-6100). For help balancing your diet, read her Sports Nutrition
Guidebook and food guides for new runners, marathoners, and cyclists,
available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also sportsnutritionworkshop.com.