Sports Snacks: Food Suggestions for Fueling Hungry Runners
Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD October 2010
“What should I eat before I exercise?” That’s a key question—as well as what to eat during extended exercise—that runners commonly ask me, a sport nutritionist. While they know the words carbs, proteins and fats, they often don’t know how to translate those words into food choices. Hence, the goal of this article is to offer specific food suggestions to fit a variety of exercise situations. This is far from a complete list! Please be sure to experiment with new pre- and during-exercise foods to learn which ones settle best in your gut, don’t “talk back” and enhance your performance.
Pre-marathon carbo-loading dinner:
#1. Pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, green beans, French bread, low fat/skim milk, frozen yogurt with strawberries.
#2. Turkey with potato, stuffing, low fat gravy, winter squash, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, apple crisp with reduced-fat ice cream.
Pre-race breakfast:
1 to 2 hours before, let’s say, a 9:00 a.m. cross-country meet or 10K road race:
Wheaties (or other dry cereal) with low fat milk and banana; oatmeal with applesauce and brown sugar; cream of wheat with raisins; bagel or English muffin with peanut butter; poached eggs with two slices of toast; yogurt and granola.
Liquid “meals” if you have trouble digesting solid food
Fruit smoothie (milk, yogurt or juice blended with frozen berries, banana chunks), Carnation Instant Breakfast, Boost, Ensure, low fat chocolate milk, vanilla pudding, pureed peaches.
Brunch 4 hours before, let’s say, a Saturday afternoon track meet
• Heftier portions of any of the above breakfast options
• French toast with cinnamon sugar, berries, breakfast ham
• Pancakes with maple syrup, scrambled eggs, fruit cup
• Veggie omelet with non-greasy hash brown potatoes, toast
• Breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, low fat cheese, salsa wrapped in a flour tortilla) plus fruit cup and orange juice
Four o’clock pre-race dinner before a 7:00 pm evening race
• Any of the carbo-loading dinners or brunch suggestions
• Cheese ravioli, tomato sauce, peas, fruit salad, sugar cookie
• Grilled chicken (small portion) with baked potato/low fat sour cream, steamed carrots, bread, blueberry cobbler, low fat milk (or milk alternatives: lactose-free milk, soy milk)
• Turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, low fat mayonnaise, baked potato chips, vanilla yogurt and oatmeal-raisin cookie
• Wonton soup, stir-fried chicken with veggies, steamed rice, lo mein noodles, pineapple chunks, fortune cookie
Grab ‘n Go Snack: 100 to 300 non-perishable calories within the hour pre-exercise, stored in your desk or gym bag:
• Nature Valley Granola Bar, Quaker Chewy Bar, Nutri-Grain Cereal Bar, Fig Newtons, Teddy Grahams, graham crackers, Nilla Wafers, animal crackers, hard or soft pretzels, cinnamon raisin bagel, snack-box raisins, trail mix
• Energy Bar options to fit assorted dietary preferences:
• Good tasting, all natural ingredients: Zing Bar, Clif Nectar Bar, Lara Bar, Perfect 10 Bar, Odwalla Bar, KIND Bar, NRG-Bar, PowerBar Harvest
• Gluten free bars: Bora Bora Bars, Lara Bars, PURE Bar, First Endurance Bar, Hammer Bar, Wings of Nature Bar; Zing Bar
• Nut-free: Metaballs, AllerEnergy Bar ( www.peanutfreeplanet.com )
• Raw: Raw Revolution Bar, PURE bar
• Vegan: Pure Fit, Lara Bar, Hammer Bar, Vega Whole Food Raw Energy Bar, Clif Builder’s Bar, Perfect 10, ReNew Life Organic Energy Bar
• Yummy organic options by entrepreneurs who will appreciate your support:
• NRG-Bar ( www.NRG-Bar.com ; developed by an Ironman triathlete),
• Olympic bar (www.OlympicGranola.com; developed by a dad with eight kids),
• ZingBar ( www.zingbar.com; developed by two dietitians who believe food should taste great!)
Pre-run “quick fixes”
These choices lack nutritional value but are easy to digest, provide the quick energy the body wants, and when eaten five minutes pre-exercise, are unlikely to create rebound hypoglycemia (also known as a “sugar crash”).
Pop-Tarts, Nabisco Sugar Wafers, Rice Krispie Treats, toast with jelly, marshmallows, gum drops, jelly beans, licorice, York Peppermint Patties, Jello, marshmallows, sports drinks (Gatorade, PowerAde, etc.), fruit juice, sweetened iced tea, defizzed Coke, homemade “energy drink”*
*To avoid red dye and questionable ingredients, make your own energy drink. Simply add 7 packets (teaspoons) of sugar to 8 ounces of coffee. You’ll end up with 80 mg caffeine and 110 calories, similar to what’s in a Red Bull but at a fraction of the price!
Pre-long run high sodium snacks for marathoners who sweat heavily
Consuming a salty food before exercise helps retain water in your body and delays becoming dehydrated.
Pretzels, salt bagel, baked chips, ramen noodles, chicken noodle soup, canned broth (chicken, beef or vegetable), beef consomme (jellied); boiled and salted red potatoes or potato chunks, ham & cheese sub with mustard, V-8 Juice.
Fuel during runs that last for 2 to 4 hours
Buy sports clothes with pockets, so you can carry these with you.
Gummi bears, Starburst Fruit Chews, jelly beans, licorice, butterscotch candies, Peppermint Patties, Tootsie Rolls, Whoppers Malted Milk Balls, mini MilkyWay Bars, GoGurt
Engineered options: Gu, Carb-Boom!, Clif Shot, Clif Shot Bloks, Gu Chomps, Honey Stinger, Hammer Gel, Jelly Belly Sports Beans, Sharkies, PowerBar Energy Blasts
Fuel during ultra-runs that last >4 hours, such as a long trail run or adventure race
Any of the above snacks that you might consume during 2 to 4 hours of exercise, plus more substantial fare:
Peanut butter & jelly on bread, bagel or flour tortilla (wrapped “burrito style” to keep the jelly from oozing out); gorp (raisins, peanuts, M&M mixture), trail mix, ham and cheese in a pita pocket, beef jerky (for sodium), noodle soup, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate bars … any food that tastes good, settles well and helps you survive the event. (We’ll talk “good nutrition” at another time!)
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 more information, read her Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for new runners, marathoners, and soccer teams: www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.
© 2010 Savvy Runner Inc.
“Bennett Cohen (The Savvy Runner) and Gail Gould are the Founders and Presidents of the International Association of Women Runners. To learn more about this global community of women runners, visit www.iawr-connect.com.
Fundraising Tip
Some Fundraising Activities
Giant Book Sale
Many people just love books. Ask people to bring along any unwanted books from home. Everyone in the family can contribute towards this – mom, dad, aunties, uncles and grandparents. They can be magazines like car, boat, health or women’s magazines, nature magazines, or books of any genre. Roughly categorize them – fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, photographic books, classics etc and lay them out on tables. Advertise the sale well ahead of time, make the prices affordable and you’ll be surprised how quickly they will disappear. Have plastic bags handy for those buying lots of books.
If you want to make this sale even bigger ask for donations of CD’s as well as books.
Lucky Dip
Ask all the local businesses to donate one item as prizes but make sure they know what you are fundraising for. Whatever they are happy to donate is fine. It can be large or small. For example: a haircut, make-up, a set of glasses, a bottle of wine, a voucher, a book, a balloon ride, coffee and cake for two, dinner for two dance lessons, babysitting, plumbing service etc.
Be sure to tell them you will advertise their business when you give the prize and on the donation board. (Write a list of donating businesses on a large board and stand it alongside the table.)
Number each donated item, and list them. Use plastic counters and number them 1 to 100 (or as high as you wish as long as it’s more than the number of prizes). Players pay an amount to pick a number out of a barrel. If it is the same as a numbered item, they win that prize. Cross off each prize as it is won. If they know what the prizes are they will have more incentive to keep trying to win.
Sports day with a difference
Get people mixing and mingling by organizing a sporting day with a difference. It might be parents versus children, bosses versus employees, fathers versus mothers, fathers and sons versus mothers and daughters, the media versus politicians, teachers versus students. Organize fun games like egg and spoon races, three legged races, relays, baseball, human wheelbarrow race, spaghetti eating race, obstacle race, and a scavenger hunt. Charge by the team or family or individual.
Some tips for successful fundraising
Here are some tips that may help improve your fundraising events:
• Ask people to bring along a plate of food so you can reduce the costs or recruit volunteers to cook.
• Ask people within your group to donate the prizes.
• Get people to bid on anything and everything.
• Ask guests for donations but don’t make this the focus of the entire evening otherwise people may not come along to future events. Try to make it a fun night with the right mix of fundraising and pure enjoyment.
• Play some fun music as people arrive or hire a band or DJ.
*Article Source: http://www.merrimysteries.com/tmm/partytips/fundraising.htm