Top 3 Things To Never Eat Before Practice
Three foods that ruin practice every time, exactly what they do to your body, and what to eat instead. Read this in two minutes and fix tonight’s session.
The 10-second version
Three things. Skip them and practice gets better today. 1. Energy drinks. 2. Fried food. 3. Heavy fast food combos. Here is what each one actually does, and the swap.
1. Energy drinks
What happens: a big sugar hit plus a big caffeine hit. You feel sharp for 20 minutes, then your blood sugar drops, your hands shake, your heart races and your touch goes. Many also carry a lot of sodium and artificial colours you do not need. Why it is worse for young players: less body mass, so the caffeine dose is proportionally much bigger. Swap: water an hour before, plus electrolytes if it is hot. If you genuinely want caffeine, a plain coffee is a smaller, cleaner dose — or a low-sugar option like Runa.
2. Fried food
What happens: fat slows down how fast your stomach empties. You go into sprints with food still sitting there, which is the heavy, sloshing, slightly sick feeling. It is also almost always fried in reused seed oils — soybean, canola, "vegetable oil". Swap: if you need food an hour out, make it small and low fat — a banana, toast with honey, plain oats. If you want crunchy in your bag, Siete chips or Jackson’s sweet potato chips are cooked in avocado oil instead.
3. Heavy fast food combos
What happens: the classic burger-fries-soda before practice is the perfect storm — high fat, high sodium, huge volume, plus carbonation and sugar. Cramps, bloating, reflux, crash. All four. Swap: eat a real meal 3 hours before instead — rice and chicken, pasta and eggs, potatoes and fish. If you are eating out, get grilled instead of fried and water instead of soda. That one change fixes most of it.
Your action items
1. No energy drinks on practice days. Full stop. 2. Nothing fried within 3 hours of training. 3. Real meal 3 hours out. Banana 1 hour out. Water 20 minutes out. 4. Pack the banana the night before so it is not a decision. 5. Eat protein and carbs within an hour after.
Keep going
- Read: What not to eat before a game or a run - Read: What Messi eats - Take the 2-minute quiz - Get one free swap tip a day