Episode 132: Helping High School Athletes Eat Right

Jennifer Fields is an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at UConn and recently published a study about high school athletes and their lack of knowledge in nutrition. Fields knew that college student-athletes often turned to unscientific outlets, like social media, for nutritional information in the absence of formal education. Given this, she became interested in seeing if similar patterns existed for high school athletes. Fields found out it was, and she talks about the reasons why and how this lack of knowledge can hurt the high school athlete. One of the key differences between sports and regular nutrition is athletes’ calories and carbohydrate needs, and she discusses that with us. Fields also talks about what parents and families can do to help their high school athlete gain nutritional knowledge.

Listen to Episode 132 at Podbean

Mike: Well, hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the UConn 360 podcast. Mike Enright from University Communications joined by my coworker, Izzy Harris. Hi, Izzy.

Izzy: Good morning, Mike.

Mike: Izzy, have you been eating healthy lately?

Izzy: Well, I’ve been on vacation and today’s Valentine’s day. So, I’m probably going to eat a lot of chocolate.

So, I think the answer to that is no.

Mike: Well, our guests may give us a hard time about that. Probably not the right day to admit you’re not eating healthy.

Izzy: Well, you know what? There’s always next month, or maybe tomorrow. You never know. You never know.

Mike: So, we are pleased to be joined today by Jen Fields, who’s an assistant professor of nutritional science here at UConn in the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources.

She, along with some other researchers, recently published a study that shows high school athletes have some gaps in both their general and sport specific nutritional information. And hard to believe some of that lack of knowledge can be traced back to social media. I was shocked when I read that part. But she’s been here at UConn since 2023. She’s a certified sports nutritionist and a strength and conditioning specialist. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Maryland and has advanced degrees from American University and George Mason. So, Jen, thanks for joining us today on the UConn

Jennifer: Thanks so much for having me.

And you know what? Valentine’s Day is probably one of my favorite holidays because I love chocolate.

Izzy: Me too. Me too. I am going to eat so much, and I’ll probably swing by Munson’s on the way home because Why not? You need to treat yourself sometimes.

Jennifer: I will say I just tried Munson’s for the first time yesterday.

Izzy: Oh my goodness, you’ve never had it before?

Jennifer: Never had it, and it was amazing.

Izzy: Oh my gosh, that’s funny. My neighbor is actually Mr. Munson. He unfortunately passed away, but one of my favorite childhood memories is he would give out full size chocolate bars for Halloween. And so, sometimes when I was a little girl, I would literally dress up in different Halloween costumes and go to his house a couple times to get as many chocolate bars as I could.

Jennifer: Strategic.

Izzy: Yes. Yes. I was, I was smart from a very young age.

Mike: I’m guessing he recognized you and just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of saying something.

Izzy: You know, I’m not sure, and I’ll never know the answer to that.

Jennifer: It’s a good person to live next to.

Mike: A good Connecticut citizen.

Izzy: Oh yes, definitely.

Mike: So, Jen, you had done some research early in your career on college athletes and their nutritional issues, including eating disorders. What what made you move your research to the the high school athletic level?

Jennifer: Yeah, you know, it’s a good question, and I still do a lot with college athletes, and we had one pretty large study that we’re currently writing up, actually, for publication right now, and in that one, we found about, I think it was about 66 percent of All D1 athletes that we had surveyed were at risk of low energy availability.

And above that, it was like 80 to 85 percent had high levels of body image dissatisfaction, which was also tied to disordered eating behaviors. And so, we’re seeing a lot of that, you know, more commonly now in the research of the college populations. And I started in college because there’s research that shows habits that you develop throughout your college years are likely to sustain with you throughout adulthood.

And what we’re seeing now is especially with the rise in social media, a lot of these habits and behaviors and thoughts and feelings are starting earlier in middle school and high school levels. So, if we can, you know, go in and tackle it at the younger population, so that way we really set them up for success for when they get into their college years, hopefully we can help them be a little bit more healthy.

So, that’s kind of where the original idea for, okay, we know it’s a problem in college, but can we backtrack this a little bit further to prevent it becoming a problem in college?

Izzy: One of my favorite classes that I took in college was just, you know, a simple nutrition class where we kind of learn the basics about

And it was really interesting when I was learning about it because it was just things that I’ve never thought of. Like when it comes to Tracking macros and you know how carbs give you energy and like healthy fats are good for you and Protein is good and it’s not always about like the amount of calories.

It’s about what are you eating? What is the substance of what are you eating? And is it properly fueling your body?

Jennifer: Yeah, the quality of the food.

Izzy: Yes, exactly. And I can totally see with social media How it’s just easy to fall into this hole because so many younger athletes are looking up to other athletes that you see posts on social media that, you know, look perfect or have these bodies that, may not resonate with us because it’s just a different level of, I don’t even know what word I’m looking for here, but it’s just like they have access to things that, you know, you can always look good in a social media ad or so on and so forth.

Jennifer: Yeah, and I think the problem is, too, when if you’re a, you know, a softball player and you’re looking up to, I don’t know a cross country runner, like they have very different bodies, and so, it’s really hard to get all of that mixed media messages when You know, your, your demands and your requirements are very different. So, it can be really challenging.

Izzy: Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background? Were you an athlete in high school or in college and do you play any sports now?

Jennifer: Yeah. So, I loved playing sports growing up. I am, I was always a three sport athlete, although I had to give up basketball when I stopped growing cause I’m five feet tall and realized that was not the sport for me anymore.

But soccer, I’ve been. playing, you know, my entire life. I started pretty competitively when I was in about third grade. And then I had unfortunately had one of those experiences where I had a horrible coach throughout my early high school years and really made me hate the sport. And in fact, when I went to college, I, you know, I didn’t want to touch a soccer ball.

It took me probably a week. probably about eight years to just touch a ball again in a game of pick up because I had such a bad experience. So, I went to college not playing sports, but again, I loved being active. My parents were always active, so, I had that inspiration growing up. And I was like, gosh, what do I do without?

Sports, but I feel like a natural progression for athletes, especially in running based sports is to become a runner. So, I just started going out and training horribly. I’d run, you know, however long I could every day. I had no sense of progression or periodization in that I dealt with a lot of injuries.

But throughout that, I developed a lot of exercise, addictive behaviors, and a lot of disordered eating behaviors throughout that span as well. And one thing that has really shaped my passion for this type of research is because a lot of the negative habits that I was developing throughout my undergrad years has, you know, made more of a permanent impact on me now than I realized that it would when I was younger.

And so, for example, in grad school, I learned through DEXA scans that I was already diagnosed with osteoporosis just because I wasn’t feeling my body right and and giving it the nutrients that it needs. And osteoporosis is one of those things that’s irreversible. And once you’re diagnosed, it’s okay, let’s prevent it from getting worse rather than trying to cure it or really reverse it.

So, a lot of my passion now for the research has stemmed back to my experience with sport and food growing up.

Mike: So, Jen, tell us a little bit about what, what surprised you the most about high school athletes in your research. Was there, were the differences between males and females and some of the issues that they face?

Were there any differences in sports, whether it’s wrestling, or cross country, or football, or track, or anything like that? Yeah,

Jennifer: Great question. So, first off, no. No differences between sex. So, we found, on average, males scored about a 45 percent on their nutrition knowledge scores, and females scored 43%.

So, nothing significant there. We did not stratify by sport just because our sample was small. So, that’s something that, you know, definitely once we have larger groups to look at. But in other research, at least at the college level that is stratified by sport, you don’t see too many differences still there.

So, I think for me, the most interesting finding was just the lack of connection between what they perceive they need versus what they need.

So, based on some of their body composition metrics, we were calculating what their general requirements would be. So, for calories, and first off, for all of our nutrient recommendations, we use the number set for through the International Society of Sports. Sports nutrition. So, for overall calories, we recommend about 40 calories per kilogram of body mass.

So, for our sample, that was about 2, 800 calories that’s recommended for these high school athletes. They perceive that they only needed 2, 300 calories. From a carbohydrate standpoint, the ISSN, or International Society of Sports Nutrition, recommends six grams per kilogram of body weight. Which would be about 290 grams.

For this population, they only perceive themselves needing as about 200 to 215 grams. And then very shockingly with protein, our moderate intake of protein, we’d say, you know, if you can hit 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight. You’re probably okay. At least like that’s a fine starting point for our high school athletes.

So, that would put them at about a recommended intake of 101 grams of protein. They perceived that they needed 360 grams of protein. I mean, I’m kind of not surprised by that because everything in sports nutrition. pushes protein, protein protein protein. And to be honest with you, I do too. I think protein is one of the, you know, biggest macronutrients that I cover when I teach sports nutrition.

But you know, really over three times the amount of what they actually need. And then when it comes to dietary fat sources we recommend based again, based on this particular sample of about 64 grams of fat and they perceive that they needed about 200 grams. So, gosh, what is that with math? Three, three times the amount.

Izzy: Well, thank goodness for your research and that you’re able to provide some clarity to these numbers. The, the protein intake is really interesting because there really is like this huge push for protein. everything has protein in it. Protein coffee, protein yogurt, protein this, protein that. And it’s interesting to hear, you know, we might not.

need as much protein as, we see.

Jennifer: Yeah, and I’ll talk with athletes, and even at the college level, and they’re like, oh, you know, my go to before a game is, you know, chicken breast. Or, you know, I always have a chicken breast, or I have chicken nuggets, or something like that. And I’m like, okay, you know, why?

Why are you doing that? And they’re like, for the protein. And I’m like, okay, you know, sure, some protein before exercise has shown some, you know, benefit at preventing muscle protein breakdown, but our key is carbohydrates. That’s what we need. And so, there’s this, this really big misconception that protein is maybe this big energy source that can, you know, be helpful. And it’s not an energy source. We don’t want to use it as an energy source. And so, I think there. That gets a lot of mix up for sure.

Izzy: A bit earlier, I went on a rant about social media and how you know, it can be difficult for young adults to see different athletes and different, you know, shapes and bodies.

And I was wondering, how do you think that social media has

Jennifer: Yeah, unfortunately, I think it plays such a big role. I mean, I think back to when I was in high school, I think at that time, Facebook had just come out. You know, so, we didn’t have these. Influencers to look up to it was just whatever was on TV or billboards and now kids are getting access to social media in middle school and it’s no surprise.

We see the risk of eating disorders are there. They’re starting at a younger age and they’re increasing, and we even saw over Cove it a huge spike in young pre adolescent and adolescent eating disorders simply because just mawr more time on social media. And so, I think athletes and, you know, adolescents in general are looking to them to Look a certain way and get advice and it’s really hard to sort out fact versus fiction and I talk about this with my college students even all the time because I get a lot of questions where they’re like, Oh, I saw this on social media.

Is there any truth to this? I’m like, No, like think about the science that we learn. But in high school they don’t have access to, you know, a nutrition professor or someone that they can go ask about this information and people all over social media claim to be nutrition experts when they’ve Maybe taking one nutrition class in their life or have really no nutrition background, but it’s a diet that worked for them and now it’s all they promote.

So, I think it’s really hard to navigate even as an adult, right? It’s hard to navigate of where to look for good information. And I think there’s, again, just this big misconception about the way that. Their bodies should look and there’s a very big difference between eating for sport performance and eating for Physique and I think that’s where a lot of the mix up gets they want Oftentimes they want to look a certain way, but that’s not going to enhance their health performance in their sport

Izzy: You brought up a lot of interesting points and Something that stuck with me is, you know, you said there’s not a nutrition professor and I remember when I was in school We actually had access to a registered dietitian.

Wow, and that was like an amazing opportunity I was not an athlete in college by any means but just to learn a little bit more about like what foods I should be Eating at what times of the day and so on and so forth.

Jennifer: That’s incredible.

Izzy: Yeah, it was really cool. And I also thought your point was interesting too about you know that Middle schoolers are having access to social media, and it’s just so, different because, you know, they’re starting, I saw, I can’t name the statistic off the top of my head, but it was something that Young children are dieting at the age of like, I don’t even know, like 12 and that like the percent keeps going up every year.

And so, I can only imagine how detrimental that is for athletes, let alone, you know, just your regular child.

Jennifer: Yeah, gosh, I, I, I saw, I think it was Dove that had a campaign out. Shedding light on eating disorders and it was really powerful. It was like a few, I think it was like a three minute commercial or something like that that they had.

And it was a really young middle schooler who was obsessed with social media and would begin like doing circumference measurements of her arms and taping her legs to look skinnier and writing in her journal little bullets of like, don’t eat your fat. And even when I teach, I call it the F word because I don’t use that word. I think it needs to be eliminated. And it’s just it’s it’s it’s sad and scary in a world where, you know, we want to protect them. And we really can’t because social media is so prominent.

Mike: So, what can parents do? What is their role in this, especially for the high school athletes? The the You know, the large majority of them still living at home, obviously. What can parents do? What can they, what can they look for?

Jennifer: Yeah. So, I think the biggest thing that parents can do, number one is provide balanced meals and try to get their kids at an early age in the kitchen with them and cooking with them and teaching them about whether it’s food labels or just nutrient density involved in foods.

I mean, I’m giving. I know that’s more work on the parents and the kids, and it requires some type of education from the parents, but making it just a family involvement. And then another thing that I find extremely important, and I preach by this when I teach, is As a, as a society, we need to stop classifying foods as good and bad.

So as a parent, I strongly recommend avoiding saying, Oh, these are good foods and these are bad foods. Because what happens when we assign this good and bad, or even your healthy foods and your not healthy foods, that associates some level of guilt with eating the food. So, for example, if we teach our kids, Oh, cookies are bad foods. They’re really bad for us. And then we eat a cookie. Then we feel guilty about eating the cookie and we shouldn’t feel guilty about eating the cookie. It’s funny, we started off and you’re like, oh gosh, you know, I wasn’t eating healthy today. I’m, you know, not a good day to talk about nutrition, but I’m very much the person, like, I will tell you to go eat a cookie because we should be having more of a positive relationship with food where we don’t feel guilty about Eating certain things, and so by taking away the good and the bad, we can start to at least take away some of the guilt and the labels associated with those foods. Because like I said, if you eat the cookie, you feel guilty, and then it’s, oh, you know, I, I feel guilty, so I have to exercise double the amount today, or I have to cut out dinner to make up.

You know, to lower my calories since I had too much earlier with the cookies. And that’s not what we want to be teaching them because that’s really one of our, our first, signs of some sort of negative relationship or disorder with food. So, I, I think that’s really one of the biggest takeaways. And just teaching more about nutrient density of saying, Okay, this is a nutrient dense option because we’re going to get protein and calcium and vitamin D from this food as opposed to being like, this is a healthy, good food, incorporate it.

Versus never eat this one.

Izzy: Well. I’m going to have plenty of cookies later because one of my friends is a baker and she just sent me a package full of chocolate chip cookies and it was so, sweet. Fantastic. You know, it was awesome. I wish I had asked you this question a little bit earlier because we kind of touched on it already. When you were going through numbers about what High school athletes should be eating. How does that differ from just a regular high school student?

Jennifer: Yeah, so, and first off, high school is really a period of growth, so these kids need calories and carbs and protein and fat. But high school athletes in particular are going to need even more.

They need more of everything because their demands, you know, are so high. So, in a soccer game, they might actually be expending close to a thousand calories in a 90 minute game, for example. Versus, you know, maybe more of your sedentary high school student who’s not running around like that for that long.

So, more calories, even more carbs, even more protein, even more fat. So, it’s just more of everything.

Mike: Well, this has been very, very interesting today. I’ve learned a lot.

Izzy: I know. It really is. , I wish I could go back and, you know, hear some of this advice and tell my younger self like, you know, eat the right food and, you know, indulge in those, in those sweets if you want to.

Thank you. And I think what’s most interesting is about fueling your, body correctly, you know, and making sure that you have those nutrients, even if it goes above whatever calories, you know, I’ve always moved around a lot and I deserve those foods because I need that. My body needs them as fuel.

Jennifer: Exactly, exactly. So, reframing food and I think people forget this, right? The purpose of food is fuel, right? Food is literally our body’s source of energy. And so, once we kind of reframe food as, as how it’s going to give us fuel, then we can start to kind of rewrite this narrative about what role food plays in our lives of being more fueling, as opposed to being more, Detrimental because it’s going to make us look a certain way, for example, and I will say to you with back to some parenting strategies, just some things to look for.

I think one thing that’s really important to consider is if you have a daughter, if the daughter Isn’t getting regular menstrual cycles. That’s a really big red flag and a lot of times that’s not normalized and people often think Especially young girls and parents think okay Well, the the lack of menstrual cycles is because the exercise is just so intense and that’s normal.

It’s not a loss of a menstrual cycle is never a result of intense exercise, it’s a result of inadequate calories to support the intense exercise. So, that would be the first major sign, at least from a female athlete perspective if your daughter’s not having consistent menstrual cycles, that would be a sign that we need to up the calories a little bit.

If athletes are constantly getting injured or really slow to recover or feeling just tired and fatigued, those would be other signs that they need to consume more calories and nutrients. So, just keeping an eye out for, for some of those as well.

Izzy: I’m glad you touched on that, because I was going to ask about the difference between male and female and how, some different factors come into play.

But one last question for you before we wrap things up. What are the next steps in your research? Like, it sounds like you’ve already covered so, much ground, so, I’m interested to hear what is next.

Jennifer: Yeah, so, I think we’re at a good spot where We know nutrition is low. We know that, you know, some of these disordered behaviors are present, and I think the next step is really to get into schools and lead nutrition education workshops.

It’s a lot harder to do, of course, but We’re at a stage, like I said, where we know this is a problem. The next step is figuring out what’s, how do we solve this problem? And in that, in the, in that study, I think one of the biggest barriers that students reported to Eating Healthy was lack of knowledge surrounding the topic.

So, if they’re acknowledging that they don’t have the knowledge to do so, you know, to make these healthy choices, then How can we expect them to make those choices? And so, I think the the next step is really to, to, to help improve knowledge and, and make beha and make that translate into behavior change.

Mike: Well, Jen, you’re doing really, really important work here at UConn and you know, important work for the high school students all around the country.

Jennifer: Thank you so much.

Mike: So, thank you for joining us on the UConn 360 Podcast today.

Jennifer: Thank you for having me.

Mike: And Izzy, you enjoy those cookies later on.

Izzy: You already know I will, Mike.

Mike: Thanks for joining us today. And we’ll talk to you next time.