NDC Dairy: Food for Life Conference - Clarion Hotel, Dublin - 23 June 2009
The Role of Diet in Sport
Packie Bonner, Technical Director, Football Association of Ireland
Quote from Joseph Blatter, President of FIFA (2005)
“The food and drink that players choose to consume can affect how they perform in sport and help them to stay fit and healthy. All players should choose food wisely to help achieve their goals in sport.”
Getting nutrition right in sport means getting the best from training sessions, getting and maintaining an ideal body weight and physique, recovery within and between training and matches and the reduced risk of injury or illness.
Performance is all about mental state and body – it is all about the regime you go through.
Top performers need confidence, composer, focus and competitiveness. Good nutrition and diet is part of a player’s confidence because it effects how well well-prepared the player feels.
As an example participating in his 2nd World Cup in Floriday in 1994, Packie Bonner explained that he lost 10 ½ lbs in the
The approach to diet in sport has completely changed in recent years and dairy is part of that.
Key nutrients for performance in sport are readily available in milk:
- Carbohydrate – fuel for athletes before, during and after intense training or matches
- Protein – for muscle development and muscle recovery
- Calcium – for bone development
- B Vitamins – for releasing energy from foods and formation of blood cells
- Fluids – for hydration…
The FAI Consultant nutritionist, Richelle Flanagan, promotes grassroots education to encourage children to take “3 calcium rich foods a day” and teenagers to take “5” a day. This type of grassroots nutrition education is key to the health of budding Irish athletes. For the FAI this also involves educating their extensive network of some 19,220 coaches, 1,803 referees and 579 volunteers.