Sports RDs urge new NCAA feeding rules to make athletes 'whole'

CHICAGO, Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sports registered dietitians working in college and professional sports are asking the NCAA to toss out rules that restrict athletes to only one meal per day and instead permit unlimited interval feedings as needed throughout the day to fully restore athletes and make them 'whole again.'   

The Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA), founded in 2009 largely by sports registered dietitians (Sports RDs) working in major college athletic programs, published its first position statement today to encourage the National Collegiate Athletic Association to reform rules that currently allow schools to serve only one meal per day to student-athletes in season.  New feeding protocol for athletes is just one of dozens of reform concepts currently being considered by the NCAA. 

Efforts to regulate feeding were last updated by the NCAA in 1991, ostensibly to enhance "competitive equity" and to provide what the NCAA said was a free added benefit for athletes on scholarship or receiving financial aid.  Since then financially aided athletes are eligible to be served one meal per day from a training table, which is a planned meal served in a dining hall.  The training table is available to walk-on athletes who do not receive financial aid, but they're required to pay a prescribed amount for the same meal.  CPSDA recommends today that all college athletes, whether or not they receive financial assistance, be offered unfettered access without restriction to whole foods and, as necessary, dietary supplements, to replace nutrients, fluids and electrolytes expended while preparing for their sport.

"The financial impact will vary by institution, however sometimes you have to spend money because it is the right thing to do for the athletes," said University of Southern California Athletic Director Pat Haden, a Rhodes Scholar quarterback on two USC national championship teams and veteran of the National Football League.  "Feeding athletes throughout the day rather than in one large meal will help athletes' muscles to recover more completely and will teach them how to eat for a lifetime, not just for the four years they are under our care."

Current NCAA feeding rules are considered outdated by the CPSDA—in part because they fail to fully take into consideration reliable nutrition-related research—and because they require schools to calculate everything from the financial impact that food has on an athlete's financial aid package to when and what types of foods can be offered.  CPSDA Past-President Dave Ellis, a well-traveled veteran Sports RD of 30 years who pioneered sports nutrition programs at the University of Nebraska and University of Wisconsin, characterizes NCAA regulations as "silliness that consumes the day of a university compliance officer."

In the October 2012 issue of Athletic Business magazine, current CPSDA President Amy Bragg added, "Let's take all these questions...and just throw them away, and (simply) allow athletic departments to feed within their respective budgets and take care of the athletes.

"With one meal a day, we can't even make them whole again as far as what we take out of them," adds Bragg, a former Texas A&M Sports RD now in her third season as Director of Performance Nutrition for the defending national football champion Alabama Crimson Tide.  

Visit the CPSDA home page to read the full story at SportsRD.org or call 708-974-3153.

Click here to read CPSDA Position Statement on Feeding Protocol for all athletes.

SOURCE Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association