Good food, bad food: in moderation, even donuts can fit into an overall wholesome meal plan - column

So often when I'm counseling athletes or giving a sports nutrition workshop, I get bombarded with questions about the best foods for a sports diet: Are muffins good or bad? What about salt? Is fruit yogurt OK? Is margarine better than butter? Most of us, in our quest for longevity, are concerned about the health-value, are concerned about the health-value of the foods we eat, and hence want to make overall wise choices. However, some athletes get carried away. They scrutinize each food as being either good or bad, rather than looking at the whole diet.

Many athletes forget about the concepts of "balance" and "moderation." One runner limited herself to eating only shredded wheat, nonfat yogurt, oranges and broccoli. Granted, those are all "good foods." But when eaten to the exclusion of other items, they contribute to a "bad diet." In fact, her carefully selected menu was deficient in numerous nutrients, including protein, iron and zinc. Any food, in moderation--even chips and hot dogs--can fit into an overall wholesome meal plan.

Refined Sugar

Although sugar is reputed to be an evil that causes "sugar highs" and "sugar lows," the truth is only some people are sensitive to sugar's hypoglycemic effect; most can handle the sweetener just fine. Granted, refined sugar is a nutritional zero, offering no vitamins or minerals. For example, a can of cola costs you 150 nutritionally empty calories. In comparison, in 150 calories of orange juice, you'd get lost of vitamin C and potassium along with the sugar-calories. Both natural and refined sugars, nevertheless, fuel the muscles with the glycogen you need for exercise. You can carbo-load on either jelly beans or raisins and your muscles will detect no difference in energy value.

The U.S. government recommends no more than 10% of a person's daily calories come from refined sugar--that's 200 calories (50 grams, 12 teaspoons) for an active woman who eats about 2,000 calories per day. Hence, a sweet treat can appropriately fit into a meal plan without invoking guilt feelings. You can also enjoy lightly sweetened breakfast cereals, such as Wheat Chex or bran flakes, rather than restrict yourself to sugar-free shredded wheat and puffed rice. Even yogurt flavored with "fruit" (little more than sugar) can fit into a sports diet, as can maple syrup, brown sugar, honey and other sweeteners.

Fat

Of all the nutritional culprits, fat is the most health-harmful. Even a low-fat diet, however, need not be a no-fat diet. The American Heart Association recommends less than 30% of a person's calories come from fat; 10-20% of the calories if you're clinically ill with heart disease. I generally recommend a 20-25% fat diet for athletes. Hence, if you're an active woman who eats 2,000 calories per day, you could healthfully consume 25% x 2,000 = 500 calories of fat per day. Since there are nine calories per gram of fat, this translates into 55 grams of fat per day--the equivalent of about four tablespoons of butter, one-and-a-half cups of Haagen Dazs or four tablespoons of salad oil. Yes, that's considered to be a low-fat diet! If you're suffering through skim milk (0 grams fat), when you'd really prefer 2% milk (five grams fat per cup), a low-fat diet can accommodate that preference. If you avoid bran muffins from the bakery because of suspected fat content, figure a large muffin has about 10 grams of fat--plan it into your allowance. You can even have a tablespoon of lite cream cheese (five grams fat) on a bagel, or a pat of margarine (five grams) on a potato--moderation is the key. Note: Both butter and margarine offer the same amount of calories from fat and are equally bad for the waistline, but margarine is preferable in terms of heart-health since it has less saturated fat.

Salt

Canned soups, pretzels, some breakfast cereals and V-8 juice are commonly on the nutritional "bad list" because of their high-salt content. Many athletes mistakenly think salt causes high blood pressure. (In most cases, hypertension is either inherited or related to being overweight.) If you have high blood pressure, you should limit your salt intake. Since you lose salt during hard workouts, salt replacement is an appropriate part of a sports diet.

The National Institute of Health recommends 3,300 milligrams sodium as an appropriate target for the average healthy person--sweaty athletes may require more. By reading food labels, you'll discover even salty peanuts (150 milligrams per 1/4 cup), cheese (220 milligrams per ounce) and canned soup (1,200 milligrams per bowl) can fit into this allowance when eaten in moderation and balanced onto an overall wholesome food plan.

Moderation and balance are indeed the keys to nutritional success--and perhaps a sane sports diet!

Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D. is nutritionist at Boston-area's SportsMedicine Brookline.

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