Lacrosse Tip

The Sports Nutrition Challenge Hiding in Plain Sight

Xcelerate is delighted to partner with Greta Jarvis, MS, MPH, lacrosse coach and founder of the Center for Active Women, for this blog series. These posts are for educational and informational purposes only: we encourage you to contact Greta directly at hello@centerforactivewomen.com with questions or for individualized support.

It was around sophomore year of high school when my classmates, lacrosse teammates, and friends started restricting their eating: the Flat Belly Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, MyFitnessPal, and the like. Eventually, this felt normal, expected, and just part of being a disciplined, competitive athlete.

When I returned to my high school over ten years later – this time, as a coach – it’s easy to see that, unfortunately, not much has changed. Coaches are still not trained on how to discuss sports nutrition with their teams, and athletes still experience stress around what, when, and how much to eat. With most of my high schoolers on social media, nutrition misinformation and confusion abound.

The conversation around how we can better support our athletes nutritionally is vast (I spent years studying this as a graduate student and have dedicated my career to serving this population!), but understanding one core concept is a valuable first step.

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) occurs when an athlete is not eating enough to meet their body’s needs. REDs impacts a shockingly high number of athletes, with the International Olympic Committee estimating 23% to 79.5% of female athletes and 15% to 70% of male athletes experiencing this condition (we can credit the wide range of estimates to the different ways researchers measure and categorize REDs).

Your body requires a lot of food, every day, to function – especially as an athlete. Your beating heart and expanding lungs require calories. Adolescent athletes require calories for appropriate development and growth. Even digesting food and regulating body temperature require calories! Many athletes fear “eating too much,” but I almost never hear conversations about the very real risks of not eating enough.

The truth is that no number of “superfoods” can override the negative impacts of under-eating. Not eating enough, whether from intentional restriction or just not understanding how much food our body really needs, holds far too many athletes back from reaching their full potential. When we – coaches, parents, athletes, and beyond – better understand the signs and symptoms of REDs, we are better positioned to identify when an athlete may need further support.

The International Olympic Committee outlines the effects of REDs into two categories: health and performance. You can read their full consensus statement for a deeper dive, but here are some signs and symptoms that we commonly see:

Health:

• Compromised bone density (we often see recurring stress fractures in these athletes!)
• Irregular or absent menstrual cycles
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Urinary incontinence
• Mental health challenges

Performance:

• Reduced power and endurance
• Reduced motivation and focus
• Reduced muscle strength

Recognizing education and prevention as two of our most valuable tools, this blog series will offer bite-sized guidance around what it looks like to eat in a way that nourishes body, mind, and sport, as well as common pitfalls to avoid. Stay tuned to equip yourself with practical nutritional knowledge to feel and fuel your best, both on and off the field.

About the Author:

Greta Jarvis, MS, MPH holds her Master of Public Health in Health Promotion and Master of Science in Nutrition, as well as certifications as an Intuitive Eating Counselor and Integrative Health Coach.

As the founder of the Center for Active Women, the heart of Greta’s work is supporting women and girls in building peaceful and confident relationships with food, body, and movement. From customized workshops, classes, and lectures to one-on-one coaching and consultation, she equips students, parents, coaches, teachers, athletes, schools, teams, and organizations to navigate and prevent the all-too-common realities of under-eating, disordered eating, body image disturbances, and hormonal imbalances. This work fills a gaping hole causing women and girls lifelong, preventable harm.

Connect with Greta and learn more at www.centerforactivewomen.com

Citation:

Mountjoy, M., Ackerman, K. E., Bailey, D. M., Burke, L. M., Constantini, N., Hackney, A. C., Heikura, I. A., Melin, A., Pensgaard, A. M., Stellingwerff, T., Sundgot-Borgen, J. K., Torstveit, M. K., Jacobsen, A. U., Verhagen, E., Budgett, R., Engebretsen, L., & Erdener, U. (2023). 2023 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in sport (REDs). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(17), 1073–1098. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994