She doesn’t have much time to be in the kitchen.

“It’s hard to eat good, healthy, quick food in class,” the Kansas University soccer player said. “It’s not like you can make yourself a healthy meal.”

Good nutrition is key to the health of all stressed-out college students.

But for Gault, a junior, and the more than 500 other student-athletes at KU, a proper diet takes on new importance. Not getting the right nutrients could lead to potentially serious ailments for their sometimes-overextended bodies. And it certainly could mean the difference between a win or loss on the field or court.

Bill Snead

That’s why, for the first time this year, KU has hired a full-time nutritionist to consult with players and teams about what they eat and drink. It’s a program designed to keep student-athletes healthy and, hopefully, gain a competitive edge.

“There are natural stresses of being in school,” said Randy Bird, the nutritionist who started in July. “The stress of college athletics compounds the situation. If they’re not eating right, they’re not going to perform up to their potential.”

Bird said he’s one of about 15 full-time athletic dietitians at universities across the country. Athletic Director Lew Perkins noted the rarity in announcing Bird’s hiring over the summer.

“We care very much about the total well-being of our student-athletes,” Perkins said in a statement. “Randy becomes one of the very few full-time athletics-department nutritionists in the country. We will improve the health care we provide our student-athletes in addition to helping improve their performances.”

High-carb diet

Nick Krug

Bird, a former clinical dietitian in Virginia and Pennsylvania, warns that most of the dietary tips he gives student-athletes don’t apply to “weekend warrior” athletes. The college athletes burn far more calories than the typical casual sports player.

Bird spends some of his time meeting with entire teams and coaches, explaining the basics of proper diets for college athletes.

Then, he meets with the student-athletes individually – between six and eight meetings a day – to help them with individual dietary goals.

The students keep track of their diets for three days for Bird to analyze. He sometimes accompanies them on a visit to the grocery store to help them make proper food choices.

For athletes during their season, a typical goal is not allowing their weight to drop while they’re seeing so much physical activity, Bird said.

“Really the biggest challenge is getting them to eat enough,” he said.

And a key to that is carbohydrates. Carbs have been cursed much with recent diet trends, but Bird said they’re crucial, especially for soccer and basketball players, distance runners and others who are active for long periods of time.

“Everything in the news is about low-carb diets and the Atkins diet,” Bird said. “We’re making sure the athletes don’t buy into that. Without the right carbohydrates, they’re not going to perform up to their potential.”

Bird said carbohydrates should make up about 60 percent of a college athlete’s diet, compared with around half of the everyday person’s meals. A 130-pound cross-country runner might eat 390 to 520 grams of carbohydrates a day, compared with 200 to 240 grams recommended for the average non-athlete.

Special focus is put on slow-digesting carbohydrates such as beans, fruits, oatmeal and whole-grain breads, rice and rolls. Fast-burning carbs such as simple sugars and white breads are discouraged.

Other tips

Bird also emphasizes eating plenty of fruits and vegetables to take care of basic nutrient needs. Special notice is put on iron because large amounts of exercise drop iron levels.

Unlike the general population, though, he said college athletes need a higher intake of sodium to make up for the salt they lose sweating.

For most, drinking sodium-high sports drinks such as Gatorade will do the trick. During two-a-day practices for the football team – when players are “sweating tremendous amounts” – he said he recommends players pile the salt on their food.

Other tips he gives most student-athletes:

¢ Eating protein and carbohydrates is essential within 30 minutes of lifting weights. The protein helps rebuild muscles broken down during lifting, and the carbs help store up energy for the next workout.

¢ Stay hydrated. He suggests athletes keep a water bottle with them at all times.

¢ Take a multivitamin daily. He said the vitamins must have been approved by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which reviews them for content and their ability to be broken down in the body.

¢ Avoid alcohol. Drinking leads to dehydration and other problems.

“An athlete could get away with a poor diet for a little while,” Bird said. “But over the course of a season, it’ll catch up with you. It would definitely play out, and they couldn’t perform up to their potential if they ate that poorly during their career here.”

Athletes such as Kelsey Archuleta, a sophomore soccer player, have started seeing results from the new emphasis on food.

Archuleta said she needed to lose some weight following a knee surgery 11 months ago. Eating the right foods five times a day, she’s managed to lose 3 percent body fat.

“There’s a variety of food,” she said. “I eat a lot of fruit now. And he’s actually convinced me to eat some vegetables. I feel a lot different. I feel a lot more energized.”