Swimmer's Diet

For the few days before a big meet the swimmers should be carb loading.  Your body takes considerably longer to digest proteins and fats than it does to digest carbohydrates. Your goal at the beginning of a competition is to have a fairly empty stomach, but high levels of energy. Eating a meal high in protein on the day of competition can result in food in your stomach and suffering possible digestion problems, but not having a sufficient level of energy. High levels of fat in a pre-competition meal will cause similar problems.

Go with foods that you know works for your child the day of a meet, regardless of whether it is a breakfast, lunch, or dinner. What is their favorite pre-swim meal? Go with it! It could be pasta, noodles, rice, cereal, toast, eggs, a sub-type sandwich, pancakes, waffles, even a sunflower butter sandwich - as long as it is a meal that hits the main food groups, is easy for them to digest, and is familiar to them. 

Get that main meal done two to three hours before swimming, then "keep the fuel tank topped off" with easy-to-digest, lighter foods - fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, raisins, pears, etc.), power bars, sports drinks, pretzels, pop-tarts, a simple sandwich (sunflower butter and banana, banana and honey, jam, etc.), low-fat pudding, rice cakes, applesauce, plain toast, etc. 

We are nut-free at swim meets so please keep that in mind for snacks.