In a few hours, I'm going to start one of my team's lacrosse practices with a short presentation on nutrition. The high school I coach for is comprised of a poor-to-middle-class population of African-American students (92%, the rest is 5% white, 3% Hispanic, there are literally 2 Asian-American students out of 1,400). It's a magnet school in Baltimore and the kids are smart. But they are also incredibly ignorant of certain things, much like any 14-17 year old. And one area that's particularly lacking is nutrition. It's heartbreaking. Honey buns and Big Texases, McDonald's cheeseburgers sold in the hallways between classes, and sodas are staples of practically every kid on the team's diet. I asked the team for examples of healthy foods, and one kid said he drinks a lot of juice. When I asked what kind of juice, he said Tropicana Fruit Punch. There's a lot that I need to unfuck here. But I can't just tell them all to shop at Whole Foods. So I'm trying to strike a balance. Because this shit is important. A proper understanding of nutrition (which I won't be able to give in twenty minutes) is foundational to a lifetime of good health. But trying to condense this information to maximize the benefits to a section of the population is pretty much as Public Health as it gets (right kleinbl00?). So this is good practice.
Gah. That's got to be so hard to see. Good on you for trying, bootz. I had a friend who was well over 400lbs, and decided to get that shit sorted out. So he met with a doctor, and got some super basic education on calories. That's when he realized that a single Big Mac meal has half of the calories he needs a day. And he was getting two or three at a time. For lunch. He started changing his diet too late. Died that year from basically an over-taxed system. So if you get through to anyone on your lacrosse team, you have done good. I can imagine your team running sprints for 20 minutes, out of breath, asking to stop, and you say, "Nope. You've only worked off the first three bites of that Big Mac so far. You have 4 more hours of running. Now GO!"
Yea, people don't realize how calorically dense our foods are. And furthermore fail to grasp how efficient our bodies are at retaining those calories. I've heard that to burn off the calories of a peanut M&M (about 5 or 6 calories) you'd have to full-out sprint the length of two football fields.
I've been counting calories recently. I even bought a kitchen scale so I could reduce inaccuracy in my estimates (there's still some when eating out). The calories in just a little cheese were crazy. So I replaced it with avocado. I cut the calories in half and add more real food to my diet. I do think it's taken me fifteen years to figure out proper nutrition. You'll get through to a couple students, and a couple more will remember it later. You're doing good!
Thank you! And being versed in nutrition as a science seems like it could take a lifetime. But there is a Michael Pollan quote that's coming to me. Here he is discussing his reasons why he wrote (another) book, this time not on the ethics of our food chain but on personal nutritional decisions: Fair questions, though it does seem to me a symptom of our present confusion about food that people would feel the need to consult a journalist, or for that matter a nutritionist or doctor or government food pyramid, on so basic a question about the conduct of our everyday lives as humans. I mean, what other animal needs professional help in deciding what it should eat? True, as omnivores—creatures that can eat just about anything nature has to offer and that in fact need to eat a wide variety of different things in order to be healthy—the "What to eat” question is somewhat more complicated for us than it is for, say, cows.Yet for most of human history, humans have navigated the question without expert advice.To guide us we had, instead, Culture, which, at least when it comes to food, is really just a fancy word for your mother. What to eat, how much of it to eat, what order in which to eat it, with what and when and with whom have for most of human history been a set of questions long settled and passed down from parents to children without a lot of controversy or fuss.But many readers wanted to know, after they’d spent a few hundred pages following me following the food chains that feed us, “Okay, but what should I eat? And now that you’ve been to the feedlots, the food-processing plants, the organic factory farms, and the local farms and ranches, what do you eat?”
You're spot on about certain dressings totally annihilating any caloric deficit you're trying to run. And portion sizes are another thing -- family sized bags are just a trap to have in the house. Even large containers of healthier foods like nuts I get into trouble with. Our brains aren't geared for abstaining from food that's around us and immediately available, especially food that's salty or oily or sweet. It can definitely be that. But you're pointing her to a nutritionist? That's pretty suggestive itself lol.It's a touchy subject though, so I'm pointing her towards a nutritionist and they can be the messenger.
Damn. I knew Coca Cola was bad, but not that bad. Comparisons of familiar things are so so much more compelling than statistics. In school we were told that "one bottle of Coca Cola equals so many table spoons of sugar", but since we didn't have a good intuition as to how much sugar was acceptable, it didn't stick. I can't even remember how many table spoons it was! Junk food is terrifying because it's so easy to consume without thinking. Sure, it's also easy to mindlessly eat healthy food, but I've never eaten an entire fried chicken's worth of carrot sticks.
I had to see the statistics behind this. Not that I'm defending soda drinking - I'm just curious. My quick math from a nearby coke can tells me 140 cal per 12oz - that's 11.6 calories per oz., making a 64 oz BigGulp weigh in at 747 Calories. According to this, ONE pound of breaded, fried chicken is 506 calories. So maybe an entire chicken has a little more meat than a pound? I dunno - I actually don't love fried chicken... but I do know that a pound of it is more than I would ever want to eat. And the fact that a pound of it is LESS calories than a leg spreader Big Gulp (which I have had) is frightening. Thanks for the eye-opening reminder to cut the soda.
So, back to reality: http://www.livestrong.com/article/544545-nutrition-in-half-of-a-roasted-chicken/ That's a roasted chicken, not a fried chicken. It's also half a chicken. When I go here, A breast, a thigh, a leg and a wing come in at 970 calories. So I'm not sure how Livestrong is cooking their chicken if they come in a hundred calories hotter than KFC but there it is. Coca Cola agrees with you - 12 calories per oz. 765 calories in a 64 oz big gulp. Or, about a wing shy of half a fried chicken. So HEEUGE SURPRISE, the shock jock was exaggerating. BUT it sure switched me over to diet, I tell you what. And then I had some liver tests done and that effectively got me off cola. PROTIP: sodastream. Skip the syrups and just make yourself sparkling water. I drink that shit all day long and a $15 charger lasts me two months.After removing the bone, a half of a roasted chicken weighs 480 grams, or 17 ounces. It has 1,070 calories, 115 grams of protein, 64 grams of fat and 0 grams of carbohydrates.
I think that is how my mother in law describes me to her friends. So yah... The sodas... I don't drink much anymore. It's just not worth it. I have a mexicoke every couple days. I consider it my beer. I'll occasionally get a huge fountain drink when I'm driving for 5+ hours. But even then, tried little crystal light with caffeine packs are way more effective than the gut wrenching soda bomb. Even if the shock jock overestimated - who cares. It's a great way to think concretely about soda consumption.about a wing shy of half a fried chicken
If I had to guess I'd say it might be because KFC chickens tend to be on the small side anyway, and they don't include the full half-breast in their breast pieces (they get three pieces from the breast instead of two); but still seems hard to fathom (re: deep-fried vs roasted).I'm not sure how Livestrong is cooking their chicken if they come in a hundred calories hotter than KFC but there it is.
I had a certain friend (who is on hubski but I won't name names) who lived an entire year of high school having a diet coke for breakfast every day. Sometimes he would also have a snickers. Other than a fun anecdote - I'm not sure I have a point. I'm glad you are teaching them about nutrition. I hope they are at least made aware of their choices and can start to make conscious ones. Don't beat yourself up if the Big Texas cinnamon rolls and sugar drinks still flow. Educated, grown adults (myself included) make terrible decisions every day regarding nutrition. I've heard that the adolescent brain is nearly incapable of actually internalizing long term consequences. I don't know how true that is. I might wager that the human brain of almost any age isn't good at it. anyway - good on ya for working it in there. It's super important - especially for athletes who want to perform. I hope at least one kid takes it to heart. Keep making a difference blackbootz. You're the friggin man.
teenage brains don't have fully developed executive process functioning in their brains. this is the limbic system and usually develops in late teens early 20's depending on gender. i know this because i learned about it high school health while grounded or otherwise in trouble and came home to my parents and said "you can't ground me because of a developmental issue". they laughed in my face but now whenever some teen makes the news for doing something dumb we can laugh about that damn limbic system.
Thanks steve, I'm trying :) And great point about the executive function impairment/undevelopedness that you and arguewithatree pointed out. Anecdatally, my experience completely supports that. I physically couldn't imagine acting in my best long-term interest when I was 17.
I guess you can start by asking them what they think their Idols eat and why and then go from there. It should be easier with athletes since nutrition is one of the cornerstones of physical fitness and every major athlete is on some sort of diet plat. You cant really build consistent muscle mass without proper nutrition so part of their commitment to their sport can be a commitment to better nutrition (assuming they are actually committed). Shopping at whole foods is over rated, there is no nutritional difference between organic and not organic. One is fertilized with petroleum byproducts and the other one with human and other feces. Since You are working with athletes, a diet plan should be part of the workout plan so you can explain it in those terms. Give them some basics and then have them come back to you in a couple days with their diet plan. Give them some diet goals like 35g protein a day, less than 10 of sugar, etc and them have them come back to you and show you how they tried to achieve that. Many will miss but they can tell you why, then you can figure out what problems they are having and work towards solutions. Be careful of official government nutrition info it seems to be riddled with inadequacies and special interest lobbying (food pyramid). If you tailor your info to athletes and athletic nutrition you will be fine (although still tons of conflicting information).
I only brought up Whole Foods as an additional complicating layer in proper nutrition, namely that it's hard enough to know what and how much to eat, let alone how prohibitively expensive it can be. I'm going to introduce macronutrients and ratios, maintaining muscle mass, nutrient-dense and satiating foods, but the issue will be of presenting it as well as possible so that it's retained. It wouldn't hurt getting them to think about their idols that are successful athletes, if only as an appeal to an authority.
Awesome links, I'll definitely check out the video when I get some free time. I've heard of Kai Green before and have liked what I've heard. Thanks wonton