7 Nutrition Myths for Youth Athletes

Think nutrition is an easy topic?

Many parents and players have misconceptions about nutrition. Here are seven different nutritional myths that—finally—have been exposed. Help your child become a better soccer, football or basketball player by learning how to properly fuel their body.

You would think this is true, from reading the scientific literature on just what soccer players eat. Nutritional recalls from the 1970s to the present show that soccer players choose a diet that is around 40 percent carbohydrates, 40 percent fat and 20 percent protein.

Virtually every study on athletic performance, be it a team sport or an individual endurance sport, shows that a diet rich in carbohydrates improves running performance. The more carbohydrates you eat, the more and faster you run, especially late in the game.

What is discouraging is that in the very early '70s, the Swedes showed that soccer players with low muscle fuel (glycogen) walk about 50 percent of the game. And that was 30 years ago. What might be even more discouraging is that over half of a national team in the 1994 World Cup thought food had nothing to do with their game. Players eat what is put in front of them.