Athletic Performance Cuisine

Hello team!

This nutrition lab I currently am finishing up is all about the athlete. Compared to previous classes where we learn all about diseases and how to help cure/prevent them with food and straightforward guidelines, athletes are a completely different species!

First off, the range of how much they prepare for their sport, how intense their training is, and food preferences play a huge role. In this class, we were required to think outside the box and have a creative outlook on our assignments. I'm not going to go in depth, but I wanted to give you a little 'taste' of what this class involved.


#1. We had to come up with a smoothie. Sounds easy enough right? Okay how about only preparing 12 oz (if you made more and it overflowed a cup, points were deducted), 50% of the smoothie had to be carbohydrates, and it had to be 1,000 calories. That many calories in 12 oz is crazy! My group was able to do it, by using a lot of powdered protein, dry milk, fruits, oats, nut butter, and more. Luckily after doing a bunch of taste tests to make sure it tasted decent, the amount we made fit into 12 oz. Our chef told us this was an extreme scenario, but a lot of the focus in this class was to understand how to pack calories into a meal so the athlete has enough for their training.

#2. Our class went to our little shop on campus to randomly pick out meal replacement bars (calorie supplement, recovery, and more than 250 calories) and energy bars (for sustained effort and 250 calories or less). The bar my partner and I received was a Clif Builder's bar.  It was considered a meal replacement bar. With this assignment we had to replicate this factory produced bar. Looking at ingredients and amounts, it was a bit of a challenge but we made it! These bars tend to have that chalky mouth feel, and we were able to replicate it, but with even a little better mouth feel and taste, with the same amount of ingredients.
Here is our Clif bar. The left is store-bought, and the right is the one we made.

 

These are others the class made!

#3. Next on the agenda was breakfast! I was excited for this because what we produce = what we get to indulge in afterwards! We were assigned to make a pre-workout breakfast with 400 calories, 75% carbohydrates, 15% protein, and 10% fat. The reason for so many carbohydrates before a workout is because carbohydrates are the body's main energy source. If we don't have enough in our bodies before a workout, we will fade fast! So this was my cashew butter and banana french toast, which met the guidelines previously stated.

 The other breakfast item we had to create was an On-The-Go item that needed to consist of 800 calories, 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 20% fat. We decided to make a breakfast sandwich with ham, egg whites, cheese, and many different vegetables on an English muffin.

And here is a wide shot of everyone's production

#4. The last main part of this class I wanted to share was the training table. These are found for sports teams all over the world. They consist of foods to meet the needs of athletes and also to help them make smart decisions before a game or meet. The group of athletes we were assigned to make a training table was for the US Olympic Track & Field Team. We had to come up with a wide variety of foods that fit the needs for runners, shot putters, sprinters, etc. I was in charge of the salads, making a fruit salad, tuna salad, and green salad. The were full of antioxidants to help replenish cells and keep the cells from getting damaged while running.

We did a lot more case studies and fun activities in the class, but these were the tasks that seemed interesting to talk about! I have a few more pictures to show, that help depict all that the class accomplished!

 Catch ya next time! Good Eats!