Blog Post 3
Austin T. Johnson
Dr. Jenkins
Blog Post #3
April 12th, 2022
Keeping a Balanced and Consistent Diet as a Student-Athlete
Juggling both academics and sports throughout a student's college career is difficult. Adding onto this pressure of balance, it is essential to have a healthy diet in order to keep the body and brain fueled. A consistent and healthy diet is important for a student-athlete because nutrition is the body’s resource for fuel. Lack of nutritional education, lack of time to prepare healthy meals, and lack of resources (only access to the cafeteria on campus) are a result of this problem. This is troublesome for student-athletes because maintaining a healthy diet is critical for success on and off the field.
I am mainly focusing on the Division III athletes' perspective of the issue, as I understand from a personal perspective that each student-athlete is faced with a challenging schedule. However, not all collegiate athletes are faced with these challenges to the same extent. Division I and II athletes, receive the assistance that Division III athletes don't. This creates many unhealthy habits that affect them in the short term and eventually in the long term. Division III athletes struggle to maintain the proper diet that high-level athletic performers need to have. Furthermore, the persistent degree of exhaustion endured by athletes causes difficulties in waking up to eat a nutritious meal before class or practice. The constricting schedules athletes must balance facilitates the proliferation of unhealthy choices like caffeine and nicotine addiction. The incessant need for decaffeination originates from a lack of sleep and energy, potentially due to malnutrition. This leads to athletes ingesting multiple energy drinks in a short time frame just to stay awake throughout the class, as well as make it through practice and film. Many also turn to nicotine to aid the stress that comes with balancing both school and sports. Furthermore, being a student-athlete is essentially a full-time job. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, athletes are tasked with the plight of busy practice schedules, on top of a plethora of schoolwork; therefore, it is nearly impossible to obtain an income through a part-time job. Due to a lack of financial resources, albeit parental support (which many do not receive), athletes are not able to purchase healthy, nutritious items. They either must buy cheap items that lack nutrients or resort to the school cafeteria, which typically has little variability or healthy options.
Without proper dieting athletes will not be able to recover properly between workouts, nor will they perform their best during and after a competition. This unintentional malnutrition prevents proper recovery from events, vastly decreases energy levels, and greatly weakens the immune system. The cravings, mood swings, hormonal imbalances, stress, and fatigue, specifically for college athletes can make it difficult to stay consistent in a diet. This is a major hurdle that people face when being on a weight loss or fitness regime. Caloric nutrition is not the only thing impacted by this- hydration is another factor in the success of the athletes. Proper hydration is difficult to maintain, yet is incredibly important in the sustainability of your bodily performance. For most college athletes, it is recommended to intake approximately 80 oz of water per day. However, due to busy schedules consisting of class, practice, etc, it is easy to overlook proper hydration. In fact, it is often impossible to fulfill this goal due to classroom beverage policies. Nevertheless, hydration is crucial for the endurance, performance, and success of athletes.
Division III athletes do not receive special treatment, specifically in regards to overall nutrition. For instance, you have an 8 am class then a 9:30 you have ten minutes to get to class and the night before you a two-hour film and then a two-hour practice you already didn't have the greatest dinner because of ending so late from the night before now you missed breakfast then you aren’t able to eat until 11:00 but the only options you have is whatever you can find in your kitchen which isn't anything because you don't have any money for food. Also, the school doesn't offer any healthy options to eat. A lot of schools have strict cafeteria times like our school’s cafeteria closes at 8:00 pm while our practices end at 8:00 on most days which gives us zero time for school food.
In the end, I feel like being a student-athlete is either you can’t do it or you can.. I believe there is not one solution to this problem, however, I think there are ways you can try and better yourself. For instance, division three schools should start offering an athlete meal plan, so they can get food after late practice. Another idea is to offer student-athletes special selections for class so they can plan around practices and meals. Schools should offer nutritionists for athletes to ask about how to properly diet and easy options for them to eat.