The FIFA World Cup is bringing the world’s best soccer players to Atlanta this summer, and what they eat is just as important as how they train.
Dan Benardot, a professor at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Human Health and registered dietitian and nutritionist, has trained FIFA-certified physicians on the nutritional needs of elite athletes and served as nutritionist for several U.S. Olympic teams and the Atlanta Falcons. He shares what fuels World Cup performance and what everyday athletes can learn from it.
Q: What’s the biggest thing elite athletes understand about hydration that others don’t?
A: Professional athletes must be taught how to hydrate. People sweat much faster than they absorb liquid. One common mistake is waiting for thirst, an emergency response to low blood volume, to drink.
The goal is to maintain blood volume by continuously sipping. Professional athletes should quickly drink half a liter an hour and a half before an event. This accelerates gastric emptying to hydrate tissues faster.
Q: The physical demands of a 90-minute World Cup match are extraordinary. What does that level of exertion require from a caloric standpoint? How does that differ for recreational players?
A: People fixate on protein, but carbohydrates are the primary fuel for high-intensity activity; fat for low-intensity. Fat burns in a carbohydrate flame. Unfortunately, we don’t store carbohydrates well.
So, athletes must ask, “How can I eat the right carbohydrates, at the right time, in the right amount?” In normal conditions, blood sugar is sustained for about three hours after a meal, but exercise quickly decreases it.
My recommendation to professional athletes is, an hour and a half before a game, eat a white bread sandwich with a lean, fat-free cut of meat. This way, they start an event with normal blood sugar.
Credit: Jack Kearse / Emory University
Credit: Jack Kearse / Emory University
Q: Athletes in Atlanta this summer will face heat waves and humidity that can top 70%. What is the clinical difference between exercising in dry versus wet heat?
A: Sweat cools the body by evaporating the heat off the skin. In humidity, this cooling effect is challenged because it’s hard to evaporate moisture in the air into water.
When we sweat, we lose blood volume, which is determined by sodium, the primary blood electrolyte. Therefore, if it’s hot out, drinking just water without electrolytes won’t sustain or improve blood volume. Electrolytes are critical.
Q: The World Cup features players from dozens of countries, traveling from various time zones. How might sleep deprivation or jet lag influence someone’s appetite?
A: Visiting athletes experience disrupted circadian rhythms. To correct this takes a day per time zone crossed. Athletes from five time zones away should arrive at least five days in advance.
Poor circadian rhythms create abnormal hormonal levels (for) serotonin, which facilitates sleep; ghrelin, which controls appetite; and insulin, which delivers nutrients.
Credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Q: Is the adage true that athletes are supposed to eat a big bowl of pasta the night before an event?
A: One interesting thing about the liver, which sustains blood sugar, is that it only stores about 250 to 300 calories of carbohydrate at a time. Exceeding the carbohydrate storage capacity results in excess fat.
If a large bowl of spaghetti is perhaps 1,500 calories, I would say to an athlete: Have three small bowls, separated by an hour and a half to two hours.
Q: Elite soccer players have specific post-match routines. Is it really true that chocolate milk is one of the best recovery drinks, or is that a myth?
A: Glycogen synthase converts carbohydrates into glycogen — energy for later. We don’t store carbohydrates well, so we want to maximize how the liver and muscles store them.
Immediately after exercising, glycogen synthase is at its peak. Therefore, athletes should consume carbohydrates within 15 minutes of exercising, so the carbohydrates become glycogen, not fat.
Athletes also need muscle protein synthesis stimulators — something with leucine, an essential amino acid. For a recovery beverage, chocolate milk is great. In addition to leucine, it contains sodium, carbohydrates and more.
Dan Benardot, Ph.D., R.D., is a professor at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Human Health. He has been the nutritionist for several U.S. Olympic teams, including track and field (’04 marathon) and the U.S. figure skating team at multiple Olympic games. Additionally, he was the nutritionist for the Atlanta Falcons for several years, leading up to the 2017 NFC Championship. He also invented the app NutriTiming, which assesses real-time energy needs based on caloric and nutrient intake.
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