By Brianna Vaca, Staff Reporter
Proper nutrition is important for everyone, but essential for college student-athletes who hope to play at their best. Practice makes perfect, but without the right fuel, the time and effort students-athletes put into honing their craft is only half the battle.
“The demand on the body for a student-athlete is extremely high,” said Sherry Lin, a registered dietitian at CSULA. “If a student-athlete is not fueling their body properly to perform as either a student or an athlete, it can lead to definitely more injuries, prolonged injuries and underperformance.”
Different athletes require different foods to support their training, Lin told The Bulletin, adding that adequate nutrition includes quality fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. “A balanced plate with consistent timing of meals is more important than any restricting or strict dieting.”
The Bulletin spoke with four Toro student-athletes – Lauryn Bailey, Ian Pierra, Bailey Fuches, and Grace Ford – to learn more about how they satisfy their hunger off the field. (Editor’s note: Responses have been edited for clarity.)
How important is diet to athletic performance?
Pierra: I think it just depends on how you feel. I know some of my teammates eat whatever they want and they perform good. So I think later down the line, probably. Like if you want to stay being an athlete, at this age, I think you can get away with it more. So as long as you feel good, I would say do what you want.
Ford: I do not think it is important for an athlete to follow a certain diet, but keeping up with good eating and making sure their body is nourished, because I know a lot of people tend to forget to eat with the busy days we have, but making sure that their body is nourished throughout the day is good.
What does your diet typically consist of?
Pierra: I don’t know if I would call it a diet. I just try to eat clean foods. So I don’t eat a lot of sugar. [I] mainly stick to chicken, beef, rice, potatoes, eggs. I just try not to eat anything that I know is not going to help me feel good. Any added sugars or stuff like that.Bailey: I just make sure I fuel my body with the right things, but I do not really follow a strict diet day to day.
Ford: I have meal prep that I do, but it is not really based on a certain type of diet.
Fuches: Not really a strict diet, but I do make sure I get enough protein in and all of the good stuff, vegetables, fruit.
Do you find it easy to follow a specific meal plan?
Pierra: Yeah, sometimes. I think sometimes you want to eat right. I’ll have sweet treats, like cookies and stuff every once in a while, but I don’t want to eat it especially during the week or before training because it’ll make you feel bad. So sometimes it’s hard when some of your friends want to go get something, especially when you have training later in the day, you know that you can’t eat it. So it is not the worst thing, but sometimes it is hard.
Fuches: It’s not too hard. I think in the residence hall it is a little bit harder because you do not have access to your own kitchen, but in the apartments, it’s fine. You have access to everything.
Bailey: I think so. It goes along with my major, too. We learn a lot about that type of stuff, so I think I am able to find a schedule that I could stick with. Being an athlete, too, you always want to eat healthy. So I think it will just come naturally.
Ford: I feel like it depends within the meal prepping. I feel like it would be easy to maintain it because I prep the meals, but if I was just going about my day trying to eat what I have, it would be difficult to follow a certain diet.”
What do you normally prepare for your own meal prepping?
Ford: It would be some type of chicken or beef, like a protein, a carb like rice and then veggies.
What is your favorite thing to eat?
Pierra: That is a good question. Probably like a good pizza, pepperoni pizza.
Bailey: Before game days, I make sure I eat pasta with red sauce.
Ford: I feel like this is really general, but chicken.
Fuches: My favorite thing to eat is probably burgers. I love burgers.
Do you ever have a cheat day?
Ford: That would probably be the weekends or me and my friends also go to the pizookie Tuesday.
Fuches: Some days I will just eat whatever. I’ll get hungry and I will get some cookies and candy, but not everyday.
What is your favorite sweet food?
Pierra: Honestly, any warm cookie and ice cream. Perfect combo.
Ford: Me and my teammates make these dates and peanut butter and honey with chocolate over it and that is probably my favorite sweet thing.
Fuches: I love Crumbl cookies. But it is also good when you get sweet and salty at the same time.
