Hard-working athletes look at food in a completely different way than many on-the-go Americans. Serious athletes look at food as fuel and because they are competitive they even work on tactics to make sure they have an advantage over the competition when it comes to fueling. Knowing what, how much and when to eat is critical for hard-working athletes to avoid illness, energy lows and exaggerated muscle soreness, all of which will hurt your chances of holding a spot on the depth chart. In the end, some sound Fueling Tactics (www.fuelingtactics.com) will help you out work the competition! And outworking the competition with the power of food can be as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Step 1) Anti-Oxidant Foods

Get some color on your plate to help avoid getting run down and ill. Student-athletes endure more stress than most of their peers due to the physical and emotional grind of their training, exposure to challenging environmental conditions, travel and lack of quality rest. Before there was medicine, food was our major defense mechanism to cope with all of these forms of stress. And while many Americans have become a bit sidetracked on the value of food, athletes make a science out of harnessing the power of foods that are loaded with anti-oxidants/anti-inflammatory activity (like natural sources of Vitamin C, E and Carotenoids). We are talking about the power of fresh produce like dark greens in your salad, grilled fresh vegetables like asparagus or red peppers or soups with tomatoes, carrots and herbs and spices. Fresh fruit is also a powerful source of anti-oxidants/anti-inflammatory activity. Some fruits like cantaloupe melon and grapes are great tasting and most beneficial when they are fresh! When it comes to getting the most from this list of foods fresh is better then frozen and frozen is typically a better option then canned. Even nuts, seeds and olives are loaded with these stress fighting benefits. Every athlete has room for healthy fats in their diet from these Vitamin E and Omega 3 fatty acid rich foods. In fact walnuts and green tea are one of our favorite snacks between meals for athletes both of which are great anti-oxidant sources.

Step 2) Carbohydrate Foods

More carbs when you need them. So it's old news about the role of carbohydrates for hard-working muscles. A carb fatigued muscle is going to perform poorly which can spell disaster when the quality of your work can make the difference between a win or a loss. That is why you see athletes consuming more liberal portions of carbohydrates on days when they are training or competing. Big servings of pasta, rice, potatoes and bread are a common sight in an athletic training table. These are all fiber rich sources of carbohydrate that digest a bit slower and give us some time-release energy. Certainly there is room in the diet of an active athlete for some simple sugars like we find in sports drinks, cereal with cartoon characters on the box and/or desserts, but that can't be the only type of carbs you eat! We let more of those simple carbs into the athlete diet during and right after hard workouts or games. It's not uncommon to find sports drinks, rice crispy treat like energy bars and bananas in most locker rooms along with water. When you utilize lots of carbs with long bouts of work or very intense workouts with short rest intervals, you can bet we are going to have room for some fast digesting carbs with the post activity meal. Athletes who try to survive the grind of their workouts and games on low carb diets will eventually lose a step and possibly injury themselves as a fatigued muscle is a tight muscle. In either case you fall behind the competition. By the same token you will need to exercise some precaution with your carbohydrate intake when inactive for multiple days, which we will cover shortly.

Step 3) Protein Foods

Mix your protein sources up to speed recovery of sore muscles. Most athletes think about protein as a chunk of steak or chicken breast. In addition to beef, pork, poultry, fish and eggs, which we can collectively call "Animal Proteins", we also need to think about diversifying our protein intake from "Dairy" and "Vegetable" protein sources. Why you may ask? Because the profile of each of these protein sources varies, with each bringing something to the table that will help a hard-working muscle recover faster. From red meats, we get iron to help us get oxygen to hard-working muscle and to our brain. From dairy, we get calcium, which helps strengthen bone and regulates muscle contraction. And from vegetable sources of protein, we get some properties that help minimize life threatening blood clots. In addition, each of these categories of protein deliver a mix of amino acids (building blocks of protein) that make up our muscle and other lean tissues of our body. So in addition to all the essential amino acids we find in animal sources of protein, we also find in dairy and vegetable proteins rich sources of amino acids that are very specific to speeding the rate of recovery in sore muscles. Bottom line: you have to mix up your protein sources when eating meals and snacks. Having something from each of these three steps is on your plate is the key to putting the power of food to work for you.