Nutrition - Page 3

Best Bones Forever – Educating Girls on Bone Health

Osteoporosis is a pediatric disease with geriatric consequences. In terms of bone health, the stage is set early on: girls build close to 90% of their bone mass by age 18. Once they reach adulthood, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to make it up. Unfortunately, most adolescent girls do not get the calcium, vitamin D, and physical activity they need to grow strong, healthy bones.

That’s why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH) launched Best Bones Forever!, a national bone health campaign for girls ages 9-14. Best Bones Forever! focuses on friendship and fun–and encourages girls to “grow strong together, stay strong forever.”

The new campaign empowers girls and their BFFs (best friend forever) to build strong bones by choosing snacks and foods with calcium and vitamin D, and getting an hour of physical activity a day.

Campaign materials such as journals, posters, magnets, tattoos, book covers and a Web site (www.bestbonesforever.gov) get girls excited about growing healthy bones! Parents can get important bone health information from a brochure in both English and Spanish, and a Web site: www.bestbonesforever.gov/parents.

As a gymnastics coach I see girls with repetitive use injuries, injuries that occur from a small error and other injuries that I feel could often be prevented through better nutrition and conditioning. If you are a parent of an athlete, I highly recommend to take a look at the Best Bones Forever site and its sister site, GirlsHealth.gov to get more information on ways you can help your daughter get the proper nutrition and make the appropriate lifestyle changes to keep her bones healthy!

Recipes for Homemade Sports Drinks

By Dr. Lorraine Williams, aka TrackMom

Many parents of athletes ask ,”With prices on everything going up how do I provide quality sports drinks on a budget?”

I have written many times in the past about Homemade Sports Drinks. I frequently receive requests for these recipes, here are a couple of quick and easy recipes. Over the course of a year, you can save hundreds of dollars on sports drinks. (an average bottle of 16oz Gatorade can be almost $1.00 each.)

Sports drinks like Gatorade ™ can be very useful for longer runs and races. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive and full of High Fructose Corn Syrup (Gatorade no longer contains HFCS as I learned in my recent trip to the Gatorade HQ). I’ve found a couple of ways of making sports drinks that are effective and cheap. The ideas for the recipe, like most good running ideas, first came to me from The Dead Runners’ Society.

Gatorade ™ has worked hard to come up with what they feel is a good balance of carbohydrates and electrolytes for extended physical activity – it is actually the most researched sports drink on the market. Most researchers agree that the optimal concentration of carbohydrates in a sports drink is about 6%. This concentration actually allows the water to be absorbed more quickly in the body than plain water alone.

Gatorade has a formulation that gives the following for an 8oz serving:

14grams Carbohydrate (5.9%)
110 mg Sodium
30mg Potassium
52 calories

Assuming that is a pretty good formula, we can get close by using one of the following recipes:

Homemade Sports Drink Recipe #1

10 tbs. sugar (5/8 cups or 120 grams)
.75 tsp Sea salt (4.2 grams) or Morton’s lite
1 package of unsweetened Koolade mix for flavor
Water to make 2 liters

The recipe will give a total of 124 grams of solute which in 2 liters water gives a total of 6.2% concentration. For an 8 oz serving this gives:

14.2 grams carbohydrate (6%)
53 calories
103 mg Sodium
121 mg Potassium

You’ll notice that the amount of potassium is quite a bit higher than Gatorade, but the rest is pretty close. If you wanted to reduce the potassium, another option would be to use 1/2 tsp. each of regular sea salt and the Morton Lite Salt. This would change it to:

104mg sodium
40mg potassium

Homemade Sports Drink Recipe #2

If you wanted to reduce the amount of potassium, or simply didn’t want to buy some Morton Lite Salt, here is another option.

1/2 cup orange juice
9 tbs. Sugar
3/8 tsp Salt
Water to 2 liters

How Much Water Does An Athlete Need?

Guest post by Dr. Lorraine Williams, chiropractor turned TrackMom.

One of the biggest challenges for parents, athletes and their coaches is determining how much water an athlete needs at different times in their day and training.

If the athlete’s urine is dark and scanty, it is concentrated with metabolic wastes and the athlete needs to drink more fluids. When the urine is pale yellow, your body has returned to its normal water balance. Your urine may be dark if you are taking vitamin supplements; in that case, volume is a better indicator than color.

All athletes must drink water before, during, and after exercise. Follow the basic guidelines below to be sure that a child is drinking enough water throughout an exercise session.

Before Exercise: Drink 10 to 14 oz. of cold water 1 to 2 hours before the activity. Drink 3-6 oz.of cold water or diluted fruit juice 15 to 20 minutes before the activity.
During Exercise: Drink 3 to 4 oz. of cold water every 15 minutes.
After Exercise: Drink 2 cups (16 oz.) of cold water for every pound of weight loss. With no weight loss still drink the minimum of 8oz of water.

You must watch and see how much water a young athlete actually drinks. Supervision is essential because children do not instinctively drink enough fluid to replace body water losses. Children may not recognize the symptoms of heat strain, and they may push themselves to the point of heat injury. Young athletes can use non HFCS sports drinks, especially during activities lasting lore than 90 minutes (such as Football or Soccer). These drinks should contain between 6 and 8 percent carbohydrate or 15 to 18 grams of carbohydrate per cup.

Other tips include:

If products labeled “sports drinks” do not meet these guidelines, they may need to be diluted. Water is adequate for most children. However, some youth athletes are more likely to drink sufficient amounts if you give them flavored fluid; sports drinks or diluted fruit juice are appropriate choices.
Be sure to dilute fruit juice at least twofold: 1 cup of water for every 1 cup of juice. Tell children not to drink carbonated sodas or undiluted fruit juice as a fluid source during exercise. These beverages are too rich in carbohydrate (which can cause stomach cramps, nausea, and diarrhea).
Caffeinated beverages (such as tea, coffee, and cola beverages) will dehydrate the body even more.
Athletes can also replace their body fluids with foods containing a lot of water, such as oranges, watermelon, apples, grapes, and tomatoes, along with water. These foods provide water and carbohydrate, and they are good for replacing lost water and lost energy (glycogen) after exercise.

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