Football and Food

The eyes of the world will fall on South Africa tomorrow for a full month as the World Cup gets underway in earnest.

Training and playing at high altitudes as the England team will be doing in South Africa can dramatically alter how your body performs and copes during exercise – therefore having enough energy resources will play a vital role in the team’s training and match preparation routines.

 But as the England team know, fuel is a vital component of your training because if you haven't got enough energy in your body, you won't be able to complete your training at a high intensity. And therefore you won't experience any improvements in your fitness.

The key nutrients from your diet that give you energy are fat, protein and carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is the main fuel you will use during training and matches, and you need to try to have a high amount of this in your diet.

Foods containing large amounts of carbohydrate include bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and cereals. Carbohydrate is stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen, and in your blood as glucose.

However, your body only has a limited store of carbohydrate so it's vital you replace this following every training session and match.

Within one hour of a training session or match your muscles are still active and the energy you've used during training or matches will be replaced and stored more quickly in your body.

During this time, you should aim to drink 1 litre of fluid and eat at least one of the following carbohydrate foods:

• two slices of toast, crumpet, bagel or English muffin with jam
• bowl of cereal with semi-skimmed milk
• 2 bananas
• cereal bar

As soon as possible after this you should have a high carbohydrate meal to replace the remaining energy and nutrients that your body has lost.

Here are two menu plans that you should try to follow during a typical training day and match day.

The timings given are just a guide, you will need to adjust these to suit your own timetable, but remember to eat your carbohydrate snack and a pint of fluid within an hour of finishing your training. And have a meal 3 hours before kick-off on a match day.

Typical Training Day

Typical Match-Day (2pm Kick-off) 

For more information on Food and Sport visit www.eatwell.gov.uk