Meal Creation and Preparation Ideas

There are no set meals a player should have to stick to. There are many varying beliefs to what kind of diet would be best for a football player; high protein, high carbohydrate, low fat etc. The general consensus amongst the majority of people is that the diet should be high in carbohydrates and low in fat. Even so this does not mean that players must avoid their favourite meals or bypass the opportunity to try something new. Outlined below are a list of guidelines for how the serious competitor can adapt their usual diet to still eat the foods they love and not let it affect their recommended nutrient intake.

Cooking Methods and Recipes

Adapt conventional recipes and preparation methods to reduce the fat content. For example if meat is usually cooked in a frying pan with oil, prepare under a grill instead, while deep fat fried chips can be oven baked. Low fat ways of preparing cooked food include baking, grilling, steaming or microwaving.

Enhanced Flavour

Fat is used within dishes to help to enhance the taste and flavour of the meal. This extra fat should be reduced or altogether removed from the dish. Such dishes that use this process include mashed potato and scrambled egg (with extra milk and butter) and lasagne (increase oil). Reduce the high fat layers with more beneficial nutrients, for example with the lasagne reduce the amount of cheese layers and increase the amount of pasta ones, thus reducing the fat and increasing the carbohydrate content.

Substitutes

It is possible to use a low fat alternative to the outlined or core ingredients, for example exchange whole or semi-skimmed milk with skimmed milk. There are also many ready made low-fat options in ranges such as oils, yogurts and cheese that can be easily integrated into the meal instead of the more common alternatives.

It is also possible to substitute different quantities of the ingredients to get the desired nutritional intake. Like the lasagne example used earlier (where cheese was sacrificed for pasta) it is possible to use less meat and instead include more vegetables, pulses onions etc, so still providing a filling meal but no compromising on the nutritional content.

These are just some of the ideas that can be employed to positively affect the content of a dish so that it is providing the desired nutritional content. The majority of dishes can be adapted in such ways, therefore favourite dishes do not have to be a treat or ‘one-off’ but instead altered to be the basis for any diet, all that is required is a bit of innovation and adaptation.