Athletic dieting and nutrition varied, personal

A well-developed diet for the Oberlin athlete requires a dedication to health and performance that often goes unrecognized, both by athletes and spectators. Because of this many Oberlin athletes have a personal diet that is often different from what other players eat and when they eat it.

Head Athletic Director Dan Hunsinger said that when athletes eat properly, "energy level is impacted, and performance level is impacted, not directly, but over a long period of time."

First-year Anne Greenberg, a member of the women's tennis team, disagrees, saying "I have yet to lose a [tennis] match because of my diet. Girls who have been playing for ten years and don't eat well are not going to play any worse than someone who eats well and has only been playing for two."

Oberlin athletics has no specific diet plan for athletes. No course exists that instructs students on proper nutrition. There are however pamphlets, xeroxes and plenty of words of advice from the athletic department on what to eat.

The one food that was repeated over and over again in interviews was pasta. "The Rat is too fattening, but I always load up at pasta night on Wednesdays," junior Robert Pinson, a member of the men's swim team, said. Though pasta, a high source of carbohydrates, is something athletes should eat, it is actually of little use if eaten right before an event. "The energy you use right now is not from what you ate this morning, it comes from what is in your body from two days ago," Soccer Coach Chris Barker said.

Eating a snack right before an event is not a good idea either, according to one student, because "then your body would be calling on different shorter term energies." The student cited caffeine or sugar as examples of snacks which have actually been shown to make people more tired after the short term energy is used up.

Greenberg had another idea about why it isn't a good idea to eat a big meal right before a practice or event. She said, "I feel weighed down by food, I complain that I can't run and feel like I am going to puke on the court."

Food in large quantities is important for athletes. Pinson said that during the swim team's intensive practice over winter term, "We were burning between 4000 and 5000 calories a day. Usually I had to eat three turkey sandwiches, four waffles, about three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, maybe 12 or so cookies and Taco Bell for a big dinner."

Demands not only differ between athletes and non-athletes, but, as one student pointed out, diets between men and women should differ too because, "women need to replenish more because of their menstrual cycle, they need more iron. Women also don't eat enough calories because they don't want to put on weight. This leads to a chronic breakdown, and when their body can't keep up with the physical demands, this makes them more susceptible to injuries like muscle strain and shin splints."

For an athlete, eating well is a year-round commitment. "It is a lifestyle, not just a season style," Hunsinger said.