Every since the Hectic Kids started competing in sports, I’ve been interested in sports nutrition. Many a time I’ve been caught in the bleachers between active competition scouring the internet for information on fueling my athletes. Whenever a vendor was at a competition venue talking about nutrition, I would pick their brains. Since my kids have participated in a huge number of sports, I’ve had to gather information about feeding them for all sorts of different endeavors. My oldest son is currently an All-American Decathlete in college, so he has to have energy for both quick-response events as well as more endurance-style competition. It’s a fine balance to get everything right. I’ve also had soccer, wrestlers, swimmers, volleyball players, runners, and cyclists in the family. Talk about a broad range of nutritional needs!
Over the years I’ve discovered there’s a ton of misinformation out there. I’ve even been taken-in by some of the fads that rose and withered over the past 25 years. Layer on top of that my aging, diabetes, and constant battle to be able to keep up with the kids, and it’s not just their nutrition that I’ve tried to learn about…but also what’s best for me and Hectic Mom. Frankly, it’s an awful lot to try and keep understand.
A while back, I latched onto a copy of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, and found it to be one of the best general nutritional resources. Her writing style is very easy to read, yet she can dive deep into subject matter where it’s required. At no point did I feel like I was in over my head with this book. I certainly came away with a greater understanding of the impact that nutrition has on athletes, especially teens.
Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook is one of those books that leads a dual life. It’s a great reference book, where you can dip in and grab a piece of information. But it’s also a book you can read from cover-to-cover. Either way, it’s an excellent book!
This tome is broken into four sections:
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Section 1 Your Daily Training Diet
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Section 2 Sports Nutrition: The Science of Eating for Success
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Section 3 Weight Control
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Section 4 Recipes for Health and Fitness
The first section does a great job presenting the fundamentals you (and your student athlete) need to understand to maximize their ability to convert food into energy. Nancy Clark does a better job than I ever could explaining why breakfast matters. I’ve made several of my kids read this chapter to help them understand the importance of this meal. She also delves into the inevitability of snacks and outlines what foods makes sense and which ones to avoid (or at least keep very limited). The chapter on How to Build a Better Sports Salad is probably worth the entire cost of the book! It’s an excellent exposé on what you should pile onto your plate and which salad bar delicacies aren’t the best choices. Throughout the entire book, her approach is very practical. She’s never made me feel guilty for my choices, but certainly made the best options seem obvious. This section is probably the best 90 pages of nutritional information I’ve ever read.
The second section delves into the science behind sports nutrition. Sure, there are diagrams and tables galore, but there is a lot of prose that explains the contents brilliantly. If you’re a data nerd (I’m guilty on that score) this is a fascinating section…but not one that I’ll necessarily read every time I pick up the book. Nancy Clark does have excellent chapters on both Pre-Event Foods as well as Recovery Foods. While I knew a lot of the information already, I still learned quite a lot and the presentation is first rate! Her discussion of fluid facts, protein, and supplements were extremely enlightening.
The third section focuses on weight control, so it struck pretty close to home for me…as someone who battles excessive weight constantly. It’s also interesting to note there is a section on Weight Gain the Healthy Way that is fascinating. My two boys have, at various times, attempted to gain weight for their sporting endeavors. This was the one resource that helped us make sense of the options and provided enormously practical advice on how to go about this process. During their wrestling careers this section also provided invaluable information on how to maintain their weight without the all-too-often binge-bloat rollercoaster that wrestlers experience.
The last section contains a load of excellent recipes applicable to every athlete. They are exceptionally easy to prepare and from my experience are also very cost effective. Having had college athletes, I know they battle to get enough of the right foods into their bodies without breaking their meager budgets. These recipes have proven essential to making those two goals work together.
Overall, Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook is an excellent resource for anyone interested in nutrition, no matter their level of athletic involvement. It’s an especially useful book for parents and student athletes as they try to navigate the morass of conflicting information out there. If you’ve got one or more student athletes in your home this is a book that definitely belongs on your bookshelf!
