NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – The adage that you are what you eat may not necessarily be true, but nutrition choices can have a profound effect on how well student-athletes perform, not just on the field but in the classroom as well.

A Association-wide session at the Convention on Wednesday offered strategic approaches to ensuring that victory tastes as good as it feels.

A major theme of the session was viewing food as fuel – or, as Pittsburgh Medical Center Director of Sports Medicine Nutrition Lesli Bonci put it, looking at food as an important piece of athletics equipment. Without food and fluids, she said, performance suffers and the chances of injury increase. Consequently, institutions should make a concerted effort to ensure that student-athletes have access to food when they need it.

Fellow panelist Ingrid Skoog, director of sports nutrition at Oregon State, said in addition to making sure student-athletes eat, close attention should be paid to ensuring they eat enough and with a focus on fueling throughout the day, rather than waiting until the end of the day. Skoog also encouraged the use of a sports nutritionist (who at minimum should be a registered dietitian and be board certified specialist in sports dietetics) as a way of optimizing student-athletes’ performance.

In addition, the panel agreed that watching out for the best interests of student-athletes’ nutritional well-being is best accomplished through the coordinated efforts of multiple departments and individuals such as strength and conditioning coaches, athletic training staff, food services, sports dietitian and administrators.  

LaGwyn Durden, an assistant athletic trainer at Texas, and Buddy Morris, head strength and conditioning coach at Pittsburgh, also participated on the panel.