Soccer Diet Guide: ALL ABOUT SOCCER DIET!

Soccer Diet Guide: ALL ABOUT SOCCER DIET!

ABOUT SOCCER

We all know that soccer, mostly known as football in most of the world, attracts a large number of children and youngsters towards itself. With two teams with eleven players each, soccer is played on a grass field that has two goals, one on each side. Starting from small kids’ leagues to professional and international teams, soccer is generally played on all levels and is loved by all. Perhaps the most famous soccer tournament is the World Cup.

It is held every four years, this is a tournament among different countries. This makes its name In the most-watched tournament in the world. The flexibility of football, including the area of play, becomes one of the most important reasons that it is preferred by many. All it needs is a flat large area and nothing else. Kids throughout the world will make up fields and goals just about anywhere and start playing the game. The game is also fun and competitive.

It keeps you healthy as it involves a lot of running for long distances. The sport is also a good test of dexterity and a great way to learn balance.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast:

You can go for grilled tomatoes and boiled or scrambled eggs, along with a low-GI cereal such as porridge complimented with semi-skimmed or whole milk. One or two slices of wholemeal or rye bread with a little fruit spread or yeast extract spread can also be considered good. Also, include plenty of water in your diet.

LUNCH

Lunch:

Go for light lunch if you have an afternoon match, including a low-GI carbohydrate such as wholewheat pasta or brown rice also add plenty of vegetables and proteins in your lunch, served with a little smoothie and plenty of water. If you don’t feel comfortable eating on the match days, you can replace lunch with a healthy smoothie, because we all know, liquid calories are easy to digest. Try blending 25g/1oz oats with 400ml/18fl oz rice milk or skimmed milk, half a banana, along with a small number of nuts or seeds and a teaspoon of honey.

PRE-MATCH

Pre-match:

Stay hydrated. When you play, you sweat out, and hence to compensate for this water loss, you need to drink plenty of water. But we tend to become aware of thirst late and feel we have drunk enough early, so our body cues aren’t always enough to go on. Even if you lose only 2% of your body weight because of your sweat loss, it will definitely affect your mental and physical performance in the wrong way.

POST-MATCH

After the match:

you must recover disoriented carbohydrates and fluids in order to make sure that the training can be continued at an adequate level during the week. Drink plenty of water staggered over a few hours. You also need solid food, ideally within 1 hour of finishing the play. For the next 24 hours, you should aim to eat about a gram of carbohydrate for every 1kg/2.2lb of your body weight every 2-3 hours. You should follow a healthy guideline for the rest of your meals.

HALF-TIME

Half-time:

After playing for more than one hour, you should drink some diluted fruit juice, made of 50 percent juice, 50 percent water with a small amount of salt (just a pinch).

A GENERALISED VIEW

Premier League football is a dynamic, powerful sport. Professional players need to be lean and athletic. For this, you need to eat a healthy balanced diet with a perfect mixture of carbohydrates, proteins, and other nutrients.

Good nutrition is the secret to success. The basic thing that we need to take care of is that we should stay away from junk food as much as possible. But what about mealtimes – are all lean meats and vegetables equally good for us, or are some healthier than others? To know if you are eating everything correctly for football or not, you should have a clear knowledge of what, when, and how much to eat.

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Soccer players train hard both on and off the field for their 90 minutes of play. In addition to perfecting plays building stamina and honing ball-handling skills, professional players’ training also involves attention to their nutrition. Most soccer players pay equal attention to the diet and their professional training. But some of them do not follow this.  Their meals are influenced by personal tastes, cultural differences, and how their bodies react to certain foods. Generally, most soccer players try to eat healthfully and focus on quality carbohydrates, such as oats, sweet potatoes, and quinoa; lean proteins, including grilled meats and fish; and healthy fats, including olive oil, avocados, and flax.

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During seasons, players increase their carbs and calorie intake to fulfill their increased energy requirements. Brandi Chastain, a former member of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, told personal trainer Ben Greenfield that she wouldn’t really alter her game-focused nutrition except to increase her intake of calories and carbs. Carbohydrate-loading may be an approach taken by the professional players in the days prior to a game, as they can be allowed to use between 200 and 250 grams of the nutrient during play. This entails increasing carbohydrate intake to about 3.6 to 4.5 grams per pound of bodyweight daily in the two to three days prior to a game.

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Carbohydrates play an important role on game day, especially before the event. Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney intakes a sugary cereal and a banana before a game in the morning. He’ll take that along with cereal bars and energy gels that are present in the stadium changing room. The International Association Football Federation, or FIFA, notes that eating very fewer carbohydrates right prior to a match can prove to be a bad effect on many players. FIFA suggests that professional and experienced players take cereal, pancakes, baked beans, and toast or yogurt before a match. post-competition, professional players focus, as should any athlete, on recovering energy and muscles with a snack consisting of carbohydrates and protein. A sports bar and an electrolyte drink, meat and cheese sandwich, or a fruit smoothie with whey protein are all nutrition filled post-match food.

Cut sports drinks:

Drinking a sports drink every time you work out may waste all the hard work you’ve done, as they’re often filled with calories and sugar.

“You need to be exercising fairly hard for at least an hour to make them worthwhile, otherwise you are effectively giving yourself an unnecessary dose of sugar,” John Brewer, professor of applied sport science at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, said.

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Whilst footballers still have sports drinks on match days which gives them a carbohydrate boost, they’ve cut down on so many which they used to take.

Eat beef jerky

Everyone knows that consuming protein is crucial for muscle recovery and there are so many snacks available in the market nowadays that promise to provide protein boosts immediately.

But there’s another snack appearing on the scene that footballers have been eating for a long time after their workout: beef jerky. It’s predicted to become an alternative to protein bars, shakes, and balls.

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“Beef jerky is a high-quality protein snack that provides your body with essential amino acids needed to build, maintain and repair muscle,” says Nancy Rodriguez, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Limit nightshades

Many people find including peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and potatoes – hard to digest.

And players are being asked to consume fewer tomato sauces as a consequence: “They contain compounds that block the absorption of calcium by the body and I always advise players to cut down on the number of times they consume tomato-based pasta sauces,” Vinci said.

Talking about footballers – Tom Brady American football player tries to cut out nightshades from his diet.

Not just a supposed superfood, blueberries – along with cherries and pomegranate seeds – are anti-inflammatory and thus help with recovery – they’re a big part of many footballers’ diets.

Increase the consumption of blueberries, cherries, and pomegranate seeds

Eating blueberries prior to the match is one of the best choices as they improve your immune system:  “These antioxidants can neutralize the free radicals produced during metabolism and protect the body against the damaging effects of these free radicals,” says Dr. Stewart Laing, sports and exercise physiology consultant.

Blueberries being a high source of carbohydrates should be eaten before exercising without even spiking your insulin level.

Manage carbohydrates in your diet

Footballers burn a lot of calories and hence needs a large number of carbohydrates in their diet. But they don’t “carb-load,” as many people think.

It’s essential to manage your carbohydrates intake based on the amount of work out you are doing.

Professional footballers need about 7g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight on match days to advance glycogen resynthesis, but on days of recovery, this drops to 2g per kilogram of body weight.

Consume Greek yogurt pre-bed

It is a great source of protein, probiotics, and calcium and also it helps to recover your body if you have some of it, 30 minutes before bedtime:

“The protein in yogurt and other milk products is almost entirely casein, which digests slowly in the body and is ideal for rebuilding muscle following any intense training session, but particularly a gym workout using weights,” Vinci says.

It’s a trick that could be helpful for anyone who does weight-training or resistance work.

FOR YOUNG SOCCER PLAYERS:

A young Footballers diet should revolve around carbohydrate-rich foods, from which 60% of the energy should be taken from the carbohydrate sources, between 12-15% from protein, and 25-30% from fat. The carbohydrate consumption needs to be changed according to the injury or illness of the player, to around 50% of total energy intake. Young footballers need to practice daily and hence their carbohydrate needs should be around 8-10g per kg of body weight(e.g. player with 40kg of body weight = 40 x 8g = 320 g per day).

An athletes’ diet should be rich in carbohydrates, moderate in proteins, and very little in fats,  this is enough to provide them enough calories and energy to grow train and compete. The suggestions are given below which tells what to be done before, during, and after the exercise and matches.

PRE-MATCH

  • Water (Note 1)
  • Moderate portions
  • Bread Rolls
  • Bananas
  • Muffins
  • Sports drinks

All footballers should drink water before, during, and after exercise.

Before exercise:

Drink 10-14 oz cold water 1-2 hours before the game. Drink? Litre of cold water 10-15 min. before the activity.

During exercise:

Every 15 minutes, take some amount of cold water.

After exercise:

Drink as much cold water as needed to quench thirst.

BREAKFAST

  • Muffins
  • Skimmed Milk
  • Wholemeal Bread
  • Fruit Juice
  • Cereal (without sugar)
  • Bread Rolls
  • Waffles
  • Water
  • Oatmeal

LUNCH

  • Cheese pizza
  • Lean ham
  • Turkey/Chicken sandwich (brown or wholemeal bread)
  • Fruit
  • Baked potato & chilli?
  • Bread Rolls
  • Vegetables
  • Salads
  • Yogurt/Milk Shake (skimmed or low fat)?
  • Pasta (careful of high fat sauces)?

NEED

To gain energy for cool or light training, the carbohydrates food should make up for more than 50% of the nutritional needs. Athletes training daily for long hours should have increased consumption of carbohydrates.

The amount of carbohydrates needed by the body also depends on the mass of your body. The giant your body is, the higher fuel you will need.  The following is a guide for the different activity levels:

6-7 grams of carbs/kg/day – ie 42 grams per week. Serious amateur athlete, (i.e professional youth players) some weight training, medium level exercise (~10hrs/week) – this is necessary.

50 gram serves of nutritious carbohydrate-rich foods: (Spread out over a week)

  • 800-1000ml sports drink
  • 500ml fruit juice or soft drink
  • 3 muesli bars or 2 cereal bars
  • 3 medium to large pieces of fruit
  • 2 cups of breakfast cereal and skim milk
  • 2 x 200g carton of low-fat fruit yogurt
  • A cup of thick vegetable soup and a large bread roll
  • 2 cups of fruit salad with? a cup of low-fat fruit yogurt
  • 1 large bread roll with banana filling
  • nutrition-triangle250-350ml fruit smoothie
  • 250-350ml liquid meal supplement (e.g.Sustagen)
  • 1 sandwich with jam or honey

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Comment (1)

  • Deepika Reply

    Helpful article

    August 10, 2019 at 8:25 pm

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