Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete - Paperback

by Jill Castle (Author)

It's hard keeping up with the nutritional needs for kids, and even harder getting them to actually eat many of these foods. Learn how to get your athlete on the right track.

With athletic kids, there's even more to pay attention to! Most young athletes are not eating properly to compete--too many convenient but empty calories that are doing them more harm than good. As a result, these young athletes are losing energy when they should be increasing it, feeling deterred when they should be motivated, and decreasing muscle mass when they need it more than ever.

Fortunately, with the right nutrition, young athletes can increase their energy, bolster their motivation, gain muscle mass, overcome fatigue, and improve their performance. Registered dietitian and childhood nutrition expert Jill Castle has written this must-read resource for every parent of active kids ages eight through eighteen.

In Eat Like a Champion, parents will find help in:

• Tailoring diets for training, competition, and even off-season
• Finding the best food options, whether at home or on the go
• Addressing counterproductive or unhealthy patterns
• Understanding where supplements, sports drinks, and performance-enhancing substances do--and don't--fit in

Complete with charts, recipes, and practical meal and snack ideas that can help athletic youngsters eat to win, Eat Like a Champion just may be the difference-maker in your athlete's next game!

Back Jacket

Nutrition can be complex, even intimidating. Luckily, a new book has come out, Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete.... There's no doubt this is a must-read for athletes, and particularly parents....Swimming fast, just like having good nutrition, is about doing a lot of little things right. For more details on these concepts, order a copy of Eat Like a Champion...so you can get the full picture of how to help your athletes fuel for their dreams, by focusing on the small things that make up a champion's diet. --Garrett Weber-Gale, Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer, Splash magazine

Kids have their own nutritional needs--especially athletic kids. Yet most young athletes aren't eating properly to compete. Even if they're on a "healthy" diet, it's often a scaled-down version of adult diets or offset by convenient, empty calories that slow them down. Eat Like a Champion is a complete nutrition plan specifically geared to fuel the perform-ance of young athletes. With the right food at the right time, kids 8-18 can increase their energy, hone their focus, gain strength and muscle, overcome fatigue, and improve their performance. Real-life stories, practical meal and snack ideas, and an inside perspective from a child nutrition expert and sports mom help you: Tailor diets for training, competition, and even off-season - Find the best food options, whether at home or on the go - Address counterproductive or unhealthy eating patterns - Understand where supplements, sports drinks, and performance-enhancing substances do--and don't--fit in - And much more! With over 44 million kids competing in recreational, high school, and club sports, this nutrition program gives them the edge they need for optimal health and standout performances. Advance Praise for Eat Like a Champion "Who could be better equipped to offer helpful nutrition advice to parents of young athletes than a registered sports dietitian who has raised four active kids? In Eat Like a Champion, Jill Castle serves easily digested, practical information to guide parents and coaches in helping their young children to eat like champions."-- Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD, sports nutritionist; author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook "Eat Like a Champion provides athletes and parents alike with the 'nutritional tools' to enhance performance. I recommend this book to all young people who aspire to become elite athletes and perform at their best." -- Steve Hargis, Head Coach, U.S. Junior National Team Development, U.S. Rowing "Children's athletic performance, development, and growth depend largely on eating the right foods. Keep this book handy." -- Brooke de Lench, Executive Director, MomsTeam Institute of Youth Sports Safety Jill Castle, MS, RDN, CDN, is a registered dietitian and child nutrition expert. A contributor to Sporting Kid magazine, a representative to the Youth Sports Safety Alliance, and the mother of four young athletes, she writes about sports nutrition for websites and sports organizations. She is the coauthor of Fearless Feeding.

Author Biography

JILL CASTLE MS, RDN, CDN, is a registered dietitian and child nutrition expert. A contributor to SportingKid magazine, a representative to the Youth Sports Safety Alliance, and the mother of four young athletes, she writes about sports nutrition for websites and sports organizations. She is the coauthor of Fearless Feeding.