Like did you know that there is a food pyramid made especially for athletes? It was created by the Swiss Forum for Sport Nutrition to cover the extra needs of athletes. It's based on the basic Swiss food pyramid, but includes more energy and nutrients to cover the demands of heavy exercise.
This pyramid applies to any athlete who exercises for 5 or more hours per week at moderate intensity. "Moderate intensity" in this case means running at 5 mph, swimming at 1.6 mph or biking at 2 watts/kg of body weight. I bet that applies to a lot of you, right? I know I definitely fit into that category, so I was really interested in learning about this in class!
Click here to see a larger version on the Swiss Forum of Sport Nutrition's site.
So what's different about the food pyramid for athletes?
1. It includes extra fluid requirements. It recommends that for each 1 hour of exercise, 400 - 800 ml of sport drink be consumed. Water should also be consumed, or it can replace the sport drink.
2. It includes extra grain and legume recommendations. For each additional hour of exercise, 1 extra serving is recommended. When exercise reaches more than 2 hours per day, sport drinks can be used instead of food to meet these recommendations.
3. It includes more fat. For each hour of exercise, add 1/2 a serving of fat.
When this food pyramid was tested on athletes of varying activity level, it was found to cover 97% of the energy requirements and 100% of the vitamin and mineral requirements of these individuals, along with adequate carbohydrates and protein. So overall it seems pretty effective!
Anyways, I'll stop nerding out on you guys right now and fill you in on the rest of my life. I have some good news: my Greek yogurt crisis has been solved!
I ventured out to the grocery store bright and early yesterday morning and restocked my stash along with some other groceries. Of course my grocery store was out of my brand of Greek yogurt, so I had to drive all the way to another store just to buy it. Did I mention it was in the middle of a blizzard and I could barely see 5 feet in front of my car? Oh, the things I will do for food...
Later on I went out for fro yo with Meg, Cheryl and Andrea. It was the coldest and snowiest day of the winter so far, but we didn't let that stop us from indulging our fro yo cravings!
I got vanilla (which was just okay) and black cherry (which was awesome!) topped with berries and crushed oreos. Mmm!
I had the best time chatting with those girls. I always have so much fun with Meg and Andrea, but this was my first time actually hanging out for an evening with Cheryl. And she's just as awesome as she comes across on her blog.
Girls, if you're reading, thanks for the great evening!
What do you think of the athlete's food pyramid?
What do you like to put into your fro yo cup?
Do you have any real life friends who are bloggers? Have you ever met any other healthy living bloggers?
That pyramid is super cool, thanks for sharing it! And can I just say I want all of your froyo? It looks delish!! :D
ReplyDeleteSo true! Face to face interaction at last. I feel like I talked too much...STORY of my life.
ReplyDeletePS I love the nerding it up part of this post. Very interesting!!
Ah I am craving fro yo now- I need to go get some today, some things are worth the 30 minute drive :)! Berries and Oreos are my all-time fave toppings--> can't go wrong with that combo!
ReplyDeleteThat pyramid is really interesting! I love when we get to learn something interesting in class!
ReplyDeleteYour yogurt looks delicious, I can't help but put Oreos on mine every time I go!
I think it makes a lot of sense that there is a food pyramid for athletes...if you work out hard you need more nutrients! I love oreos and sprinkles...and too much other stuff in my froyo!
ReplyDeleteI want real life blogger friends! Unfortunately, I've never met up with anyone. Hopefully soon! The food pyramid is so interesting! I might try to remodel my diet around something like that, because I always have issues with conflicting views on diets.. This is more scientifically based, so I auto-like it more. I've never had froyo, but I want to soon. Your's looks so good!
ReplyDeleteHaha beverages aren't first on my list! Peanut butter is ;)
ReplyDeleteI really like the concept here....it is so important athlete's realize that these restrictive diets and corporate sponsored government mandated food requirements don't fit their particular needs. Thanks so much for posting
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