Food for thought
CHAMPS’ DIETS: Canadian helping U.S. athletes gain a healthy edge.
Jennifer Gibson is like a secret weapon for American Olympians, telling them how to fuel their bodies for peak performances. The Canadian dietitian is based at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where she’s one of six staff advising athletes on what to eat. She’s also a consultant to NFL players on the New Orleans Saints, and other high- profile clients, including basketball star Kobe Bryant, whom she spotted adding butter to his coffee.
Gibson got the job in Colorado after working with Canadian athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She has also worked with Canadian national team athletes ( tennis, soccer, snowboarding, skiing, softball) and Vancouver Whitecaps players.
A runner, hiker, skier and cyclist who competed in high school and college sports , Gibson’s interest in sports nutrition stemmed from her passion for athletics and wholesome eating inspired by her grandparents, who ate what they grew.
This is a condensed, edited version . The full interview can be heard on Pamela Fayerman’s Medicine Matters podcast.
Q People often confuse the terms dietitian and nutritionist. Can you clear that up?
A You have to undergo a specifi c educational pathway to be a dietitian. People who are registered dietitians have a bachelor’s degree and have done an accredited dietitian internship, passed a bunch of exams and are accountable to a licensure board. The word nutritionist can be used by anyone, so it’s more of a loose term.
Q Your Italian heritage and your grandparents were big influences on you. They were avid gardeners who ate what they grew. Have you followed in their gardening footsteps? Or is that impossible since you travel so much?
A I grew up in Toronto. My grandparents came from a town just south of Rome. I grew up eating the fresh fruits and vegetables from my grandfather’s garden. To this day, he still has the most amazing garden on the planet. That was a huge infl uence on my life and I do aspire to be like them. I live on a 10- acre property where I have a chicken coop. I’ve started my own garden and hope to maintain that legacy. My husband will hopefully look after the garden while I’m travelling with athletes.
Q How did a nice Canadian girl get lured ( in 2011) into the position of telling American Olympians what they can, and should, eat?
A After I got my ( dietetics) degree at Ryerson, Canada got the 2010 Winter Olympics, so there were a lot of opportunities out west for sports jobs. I moved to Vancouver ( 2006) to take on one of the only full- time sport dietitian positions in Canada at the time, with SportMedBC. From there, I went to the University of Victoria for my master’s degree and worked for Canadian Sport Centre Pacifi c through the 2010 Games. The opportunity came up to work in the U. S. with the Olympic Committee and I haven’t looked back since, I guess.
Q You advised Canadian Olympians in Vancouver and then you were working for the competition. Was that strange? Did you still fi nd yourself secretly rooting for the Canadians?
A It was a little bit strange. For me, it was more of a career choice in that I had put in nine years of schooling to pursue the fi eld. I put in all this time and eff ort into really becoming an expert and I wanted to go somewhere where I felt it could be completely used. When I got to Colorado Springs, I learned it is truly an international scene. The staff are probably about 30 per cent international, so you didn’t feel like an outsider.
Q Does the Canadian Olympic team have as many resources as the Americans when it comes to fulltime dietitians?
A Well, I actually think Canada does, yes. Canada has got fantastic resources now, and thankfully, this is a legacy of hosting the Olympics.
Q How do you manage to juggle your U. S. Olympic team job with the NFL ( New Orleans Saints) gig?
A That’s kind of a tricky one. I do a lot of after- hours work on the NFL side. Many players are only together in the same place for the ( football) season so they’re comfortable working remotely. I’ll visit on an as- needed basis. Right now, we are focused on new infrastructure, revamping the cafeteria and implementing a recovery centre. I’m overseeing some of those big changes.
Q What are the diff erences between Olympians and NFL players in their consumption habits?
A Oh, ( laughing) that’s a real loaded question! To be honest with you, there are similarities between all elite athletes, but it really comes down to individual needs. The biggest diff erence is the Olympians spend so much time travelling internationally. Their competition schedules are just absolutely outrageous, compared to the once- a- week games of NFL athletes. Q Is it important to develop deep knowledge about each sport in order to advise athletes?
A I’m assigned sport folios; I’ve got combat ( judo, wrestling, taekwondo, boxing) and acrobatic ( gymnastics, synchronized swimming and diving) sports. Although they don’t seem similar, they kind of use the same energy systems, physiologically. They also deal with weight management issues. You do have to know about each sport. The acrobatic and combat sports are all quickburst, high- intensity sports so we aren’t dealing with athletes having to carbohydrate load or use tactics of endurance athletes. In addition, they all have specifi c demands for body weight management, either because they have to make weight for a certain sport ( like boxing) or want to maintain a lean physique. Most of the combat sports can be interesting to learn. There’s a lot going on in wrestling, for example, and not necessarily a lot of easy ways to see what’s happening. It looks like people rolling around on the ground, but there’s a whole bunch of things that get people to that step. With judo, it’s even more diffi cult because a lot of the terms used for moves are Japanese. But you just learn by watching and often an athlete or coach will help walk you through it.
Q I can’t even begin to imagine how many countries you travel to each year, going to where athletes are training and competing.
A Last year, I logged 76 fl ights. In the last eight weeks, I’ve been on seven trips. So far this year I’ve been to San Diego, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tallahassee, ( Fla.), New Orleans and Switzerland. Later this year, I’ll be in China with the divers and Uzbekistan with the wrestlers. I’ll also go to Orlando and Wisconsin. Q Are dietitians like the food police? A People liken us to the food police, but we recognize that food is more than nutrients. There’s a whole emotional and social aspect of food as well. We have to appreciate and be fl exible with that. You can train through punishment and then create fear around food, or you can reward through positive reinforcement. We don’t want to give athletes negative connotations toward certain foods or have them be fearful of talking to us. Q You encourage organic food consumption as much as possible. Why? A We’re trying to take an organic, sustainable, local approach to our cafeteria because of the nutrition availability that those foods provide. If we can source fruits and veggies from local farmers that are just a few miles a way, then we’re probably going to get a better- quality product. Food doesn’t have to travel and ripen on a truck. You’re eating something native to where you’re living. Our athletes are conservative when it comes to use of dietary supplements, mainly from a doping risk perspective, so for us, food becomes the No. 1 source of nutrients. Q Do competitive athletes spoil themselves after winning a competition? A We tell them to have a celebratory meal and don’t even worry about it. Q You’ve said as many as 90 per cent of female athletes and 50 per cent of males have low iron levels when fi rst tested. Iron is obviously essential because it helps transport oxygen to muscles and all our organs. Are athletes more susceptible to anemia?
A The population I work with is a little more susceptible in that they have to watch their weight so their caloric intake of all nutrients is restricted. Athletes are turning over so much oxygen in their body, taxing their energy system out and utilizing more iron in the body so they are at increased risk for iron depletion. Q What about intravenous iron supplementation? A It’s defi nitely something that’s been adopted by the Australian Institute of Sport, a little bit more liberally. Our sport med department is still recommending oral supplementation and only if there’s evidence of anemia after blood work. If there was an individual needing faster repletion through an injectable iron, we’d have to go through the appropriate channels and get a therapeutic exemption form.
Q Is there a lot of pressure on you to be perfect, in so far as what you eat and how far you go to stay fi t?
A Maybe a little bit of pressure. Personally, I love what I do and I believe in what I do. Eating healthfully isn’t a chore, it’s in my blood and I really do enjoy sharing knowledge about food and living it, day to day. Q Do you have any parting inspirational words? A It sounds cliché but keep it simple. I’m a huge believer in fi rst- generation food. Know where it came from. Eat minimally processed foods, cook at home. Being involved in that process yields a better relationship with food.