After children’s tournaments are over, it happens to see players eating pizza. In another case – they head to a fast food restaurant with their coach. Should we see something wrong in such actions? Or perhaps such situations should definitely not occur?.
Pizza after the tournament sounds innocent enough. After all – the kids have hustled on the pitch, lost a lot of calories, so the easiest and most pleasant way to make up for these deficiencies is with something… tasty. And what could be tastier for a child than delicious fast food?
Perhaps in an ideal world, young players would sit in a circle after a competition and eat vegetables together, but you can’t go from extreme to extreme. Can kids eat pizza with their coach after a game?
If we look at eating pizza in terms of recovery, then not necessarily. On the other hand, I am aware that in the community these products are simply associated with a reward. Maybe psychologically it has a reference, but food should not be associated with a system of punishment and reward. This distorts the child’s perception of the food. I think there should be other products – explains Slawomir Kula, sports nutritionist.
But isn’t it the case that after competitions, coaches say just such words? Haven’t any of us at least once heard after a match: “you deserved it”?
We build up the conviction that pizza or another hamburger are rewards for the effort put in. And the child over time, after competitions, tournaments and matches, even demands the coach to find space for another reward. It is then very difficult for children to refuse.
But on the other hand, nothing human is alien to us. Because who of us adults doesn’t allow ourselves to eat not quite healthy, once in a while? Everything is for humans. These are not forbidden foods, and one simply has to remember to exercise moderation in their consumption. Things are similar with sweets.
Whether an athlete, an adult or a child – the place for sweets is, of course, but the devil is in the details. It’s all about quantity.
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Eating a candy bar, candy or a few cubes of chocolate once in a while is fine. However, if there will be a regular consumption of, for example, chips and one packet will appear in the child’s menu every day, this is a most inadvisable action. In addition to the calories themselves, there remains the issue of ingredients that adversely affect the body. Such products must be limited – emphasizes Kula.
Well, but wait a minute! What about professional players, who also happen to eat something unhealthy after a match? What about Leonardo Bonucci, the star of Euro 2020, who, after the final won for Italy, drank at a press conference… coca-cola!
???? Professional athletes keep a dietary regime. This means that they 100 percent give up foods that are considered unhealthy, such as pizza, ice cream and French fries. They base their diets on so-called clean products. Sources of carbohydrates for them are various types of pasta, rice or yams. They also eat lean meat or lean fish, and supplement fatty acids with nuts and various types of oils. This type of diet serves the athletes as much as possible in their daily work. This approach makes them feel culinary deficiencies and the desire to eat something unhealthy, so introducing this into their dietary strategy is not a bad thing, and is even advisable – explains sports nutritionist Pawel Baran in an interview with Wisla Krakow club media.
So, on the one hand, we are writing about building a bad eating habit, and on the other – a wicket, even for professionals. In this case: in the end, is pizza and other such products after the match a good idea? It depends. Because if the children’s daily dietary regime is adhered to quite rigidly, and parents are not in the habit of offering them “junk” food, the post-match ritual will not harm them at all.
What’s more, some players specifically eat something unhealthy several hours before the match. Why? – We are talking about a meal that will strongly energize the body. We introduce into such a diet, for example, pizza, sushi or hamburger. Of course, if beforehand the whole diet is conducted in a clean way, and 24 hours before a very strong effort, such a pizza will be consumed then the footballer will not only gain the benefits of additional energy of the body and better partitioning of calories in the muscles, but it will also have a positive effect on the psychological aspect. And similar situations occur after a match, where the player, after prior supplementation, can indulge in one such meal to make up for the energy losses he made during the match,” explains Baran.
Do you remember Luis Nazario de Lima, or “fat Ronaldo”? Did you know that he ate pizza after every match? And although he didn’t let it show during his career, after it ended his negative eating habits made themselves known. It was thanks to them that he earned… a new nickname.
