Introduction…  Research shows that, regardless of the sport, an athlete’s diet plays a critical, if not essential, role in performance.  Yet misinformation and misconceptions persist among coaches and athletes regarding what constitutes an adequate diet.  We will first examine available evidence concerning the dietary knowledge and practices of coaches and athletes.  Then we will examine dietary recommendations for healthy eating, including the roles of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Introduction…  Next, we will look at evidence pertaining to protein supplementation and other ergogenic aids.  Special attention will be given to the sport of wrestling, which has been plagued with the problem of athletes attempting to lose body weight rapidly by dehydration, and a simple method is provided to assess an athlete’s ability to rehydrate adequately.  We will discuss the relationship between nutrition and recovery from injury.  Finally, we will use our 3 day calorie tracker to incorporate into our fitness program in the computer lab A brief history of sports nutrition…  Specific text on the diet of ancient athletes are rare.  Human muscle energy metabolism began to be studied in the late 19th century  Milo of Croton – 6th century BC  Was the first Olympian  Would consume 20 pounds of bread and meat a day  = 16,000 calories/day  Nathan Zuntz – 1911  Was a psychologist who discovered you need to combine carbohydrates and fat together to help increase energy  Boston Marathon Studies – 1923  A group of scientist we called in to test marathon runners after their race.  Their conclusions found that the majority of marathon runners had low blood sugar levels after the race.  Low blood sugar levels = hypoglycemia  In the next Boston Marathon, a few runners were encouraged to consume high-carbohydrate food.  Conclusion = consuming high carbohydrate prevented lower glucose level and improved running time to complete the race  Harvard Dog Studies – 1932  Scientist took 2 sled dogs  Increased the sled dogs food for 4 hours, 6 hours, 17 hours, 23 hours  Provided more carbohydrates after the rest period  Dr. Robert Cade – 1965  An ephrologist (kidney specialist) who studied physiology of exercise  Came to University of Florida College of Medicine  Put together a team who began to work on answering the famous question asked about the football team  “Why don’t football players urinate after a game?”  At the time, basic exercise wisdom discouraged athletes from replenishing liquids lost due to sweating during the game  The team lost so much fluid, that they had none left to form urine  Dr. Robert Cade began to develop a hydration drink (combined with sugar and salt) that could be absorbed more quickly.  Thus, this became the basis of Gatorade  He first used Gatorade on guinea pigs(who were the JV squad)  Noticed that in the scrimmage during practice the Varsity would over power the JV team  After consuming the Gatorade beverage, in the second half, JV overpowered V Introduction…  Proper nutritional knowledge is imperative for all individuals, but especially for those involved in athletic competitions (Jacobson, Sobonya, & Ransone, 2001).  An athlete’s diet has a direct impact on performance, recovery from training and competition, resistance to environmental extremes, recovery from injury, and, to some extent, likelihood of injury.  In essence, diet influences virtually all aspects of sports participation.