NEWS - Qatar Olympic Committee

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FUEL FOR THE BODY DIET NOW GOES HAND-IN-HAND WITH TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONAL SPORT. QATAR SPORT TALKS TO THE DIETITIANS WHO ARE WORKING WITH QATAR’S ELITE AND JUNIOR LEVEL ATHLETES, WHILE TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF OBESITY IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY The demands of professional sport have become so great that athletes will do all they can to get an edge on their rivals. With most elite athletes training more than three times per week - and competing up to three times per week - the ‘fuel’ for exercise and recovery is of key importance in this quest for excellence. Dietitians from both Aspetar and the Aspire Academy in Doha’s Aspire Zone are dedicated to making sure that sports men and women are given appropriate dietary advice to do their absolute best. Significantly, the food and drink specialists are also using their expertise to educate Qataris in healthy eating and the benefits of exercise. “If an athlete’s diet does not provide adequate nutrients, fuel and hydration for exercise and recovery the athlete will quickly struggle to keep up with the pace,” Dane Baker, dietitian at Aspetar, tells Qatar Sport. “Fatigue, increased risk of injury, lack of motivation and delayed rehabilitation from injury are all side-effects from poor nutrition.” The experts agree that since every sport has different training and competition requirements - with varying training loads and intensity - there is no single or universal diet for sports. In fact, each diet needs to be adjusted according to the specific needs of the athlete, his stage of growth and the requirement of the sport. The basics of a training diet, however, are a combination of science and common sense: most athletes need to eat three main meals a day with additional snacks, the timings shaped by training and match schedules. Carbohydrates are important as they are the preferred fuel source for exercising muscle. The energy is derived from fruit, starchy vegetables, breads, pasta and rice, sports drinks and juice, all of which need to be eaten regularly throughout the day. The amounts and timing of the eating will depend on the particular athlete, sport and training regime. Protein is vital for the development and maintenance of lean muscle through foods such as meats, lentils, nuts eggs and dairy products. Most foods and, in particular, protein foods should be low fat to help maintain lower body-fat levels. Specialist foods or supplements can be used if athletes need more energy or nutrients than their basic diet can provide. These take the form of sports drinks and food supplements, such as milk-based drinks for those needing extra energy. Hydration is another key issue to the training diet. “It is important that everyone drinks enough to make sure they are well hydrated, not just in hot climates like Qatar, but everywhere in the world,” says Christine King, Sports Dietitian Senior Officer at Aspire Academy. A fluid loss of two per cent (1.5kg in a 75kg athlete), she says, can reduce an athlete’s performance by up to 20 per cent. Aspetar’s Dane Baker adds: “Everyone has different fluid requirements as some people sweat more than others and it also depends on how much you are exercising. It often seems too simple but the majority of athletes I work with in Qatar do not drink enough and are often dehydrated even before they start to exercise.” At the Aspire Academy - the Doha-based elite sports institute which develops athletes of secondary school age by integrating training with education and support - the student athletes train nine times per week. Christine King 30 QATARSPORT Q2.09
o o o o o o o o o HEALTH & SOCIETY works on a one-on-one basis with boys who have special dietary needs. They may require increased energy to support growth and training or require supplements to combat iron deficiency. Alternatively, they may need to lose fat. Christine King also has an educational role concerning nutrition and diet, working with the school curriculum to educate pupils while providing teachers with information. Working closely with the Aspire Talent Centre’s primary school age children’s programme which introduces children to the fundamentals of physical activity, she provides nutritional information, education classes and appropriate snack foods for training sessions. The ‘Aspire Active’ scheme was established to offer a broad scope of professional fitness and health-oriented exercise programmes to people in Qatar outside of elite sport. “In the community programme, they are working very hard with people to get people more physically active,” Christine says. “There is also a dietitian working in this programme promoting healthy eating as part of the healthy lifestyle. “The Women’s Fun Run just a few weeks ago saw the Aspire Active programme recruit the majority of competitors in a 4.2 kilometre run. I think there were over 1000 woman involved overall. I took part and it was great to see so many women out being physically active on a very hot morning!” Over at Aspetar - Qatar’s specialised orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, dietitian Dane Baker works to consult and educate Qatar athletes on a one-to-one basis on how to improve performance through better nutrition. Aspetar also works with the National Sports Medicine Programme and plans to spread the message of sports nutrition through visits to the clubs and federations of Qatar, as well as running education workshops at the hospital. Aspetar is currently assessing the health status of school girls in Qatar, which will provide valuable information to improve the health of the nation. Dane also works as the sports dietitian for the Qatar national football team, playing a vital role in the team’s quest to become a challenging force in global football. In addition to overseeing all nutritional services, the role includes assessing player-body composition, developing suitable diet plans for players and menu planning for team camps. Aspetar’s department of dietitians are also at the forefront of research into sports nutrition. “We are currently assessing the vitamin D intake of subjects as part of a larger study being conducted here at Aspetar to assess the vitamin D status of Qatar athletes,” says Dane. Of course, it is not exactly breaking news that in today’s society, diets are inclined to include bigger portions of fatty, processed food. Twin that with society not being as active any more, and obesity is a growing issue in many developed societies. The work of sports dietitians in the community is particularly important considering the obesity epidemic that is not only taking over the Western world, but is a real problem in Qatar “IF THE DIET DOES NOT PROVIDE ADEQUATE NUTRIENTS, FUEL AND HYDRATION...THE ATHLETE WILL QUICKLY STRUGGLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE PACE.” “We are facing the same obesity epidemic as the rest of the world,” adds Dane Baker. “With the economic growth and development of Qatar, the fast-food chains and highfat snack foods soon followed. There is a real lack of awareness in terms of how these foods should be eaten as part of our every day diet. It is not uncommon for fast food to be ordered daily by families. Obesity brings with it many complications.” Indeed, not only does obesity mean carrying extra weight, so too does it carry with it a host of medical problems. Overweight people are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes and three-to-five times more likely to have high blood pressure. There is also vast evidence that obesity is linked to heart attacks, strokes and certain cancers, including gastro-intestinal cancer and cancer of the uterus in women. But is Qatar’s obesity problem improving? “I don’t know that it is,” says Christine King, “In this climate people struggle understandably to be physically active. And there are also high-energy dense, highly-sugared food and drinks freely available in society. Certainly more people are aware, but international studies have also shown that people’s perceptions have also changed. Parents often don’t see their children as obese when in fact they are.” Contact: ASPETAR, Sport City Street, Near Khalifa Stadium, P.O. Box 29222. Tel: (974) 413-2000 Email: info@aspetar.com. Fax: (974) 413-2020 Students at the Aspire Academy are given dietary guidance from a specialist who works on their dietary needs and educates the wider school community about nutrition
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Page 3 and 4: QATARSPORT.Q2.09.CONTENTS 04 QOC Co
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Page 7 and 8: Q2.09.NEWS ASPIRE CHEERS FOR AC MIL
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Page 18 and 19: FOR THE GAME, FOR THE WORLD QATAR H
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Page 22 and 23: o o o o o o o o o SUpEr GraND PRIX
Page 24 and 25: THE NATURAL AMERICAN SPRINT STAR AL
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Page 34 and 35: 34 QatarSport Q2.09
Page 36: “” the big interview I remember

NEWS - Qatar Olympic Committee

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