The Dairy Council for Northern Ireland hosted our online Sports Nutrition seminar on the 10th November.
This was the 11th ‘Milk It’ seminar in the series and the audience of sports dietitians, nutritionists, athletes, PE teachers and coaches heard from Dr Nicholas Burd from the University of Illinois on food matrix effects on protein nutrition and the implications for athletes.
Dr Burd said that the ‘matrix’ of a food – the structure and nutrient content, and how these interact together – may be an important consideration when trying to develop optimal protein recommendations for athletes and for the general population. He discussed whether there may be a greater impact on muscle from protein contained in whole foods because of the nutrient–nutrient interactions in the matrix.
There were also practical sports nutrition insights from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics with GB para–swimmer Bethany Firth MBE and Ireland international hockey player Shirley McCay, together with performance nutritionists Lorna Cooke and Dr Julia Bone from Sport NI Sports Institute and Dr Sharon Madigan, Sport Ireland Institute.
The athletes and sports nutritionists discussed preparations for Tokyo and the food and nutrition at the Games, including where dairy foods fitted in to their performance plans.
There was also good advice for young athletes – both Bethany and Shirley said that an important sports nutrition lesson they had learnt was not to compare themselves to others and to fuel for performance not for image.
Watch the Sports Nutrition interviews here
Nutrition and Health Professionals can watch a recording of the Seminar here
Find out more about our ‘Milk It’ Sports Nutrition Seminars here
Pictured L to R: Lorna Cooke, Dr Julia Bone, Bethany Firth, Shirley McCay, Dr Sharon Madigan