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Pressures of playing overseas
Dr Irons examines psychology of food intake
DANIA BOGLE, Observer staff reporter
Sunday, August 05, 2007
St George's players celebrate a goal against Granville FC during last season's Confederation Cup play-off series at Lynch Park in Buff Bay.
IT'S often an athlete's greatest desire and proudest moment to represent his country, but, never a rose without thorns they say, and oftentimes, along with the pleasure of the journey to a foreign land comes adapting to the climate, the culture and the cuisine.
Jamaica's senior netballers recently went on a four-game tour to Australia and New Zealand and, it seems, all was not sunny for the girls as at least one player struggled with the food 'Down Under', while on the Reggae Boyz's recent four-nation Asian tour, reports surfaced of a footballer who survived on a diet of mashed potatoes and Pepsi while in Iran, as he refused to eat anything else.
It's not the first time such stories have emerged, and consultant psychiatrist Dr Aggrey Irons explained to the Sunday Observer that the desire for familiar tasting foods shouldn't be too difficult to understand.
"The sense of taste is linked to pleasure and satisfaction, and it is one of the few pleasurable things the athlete can indulge in while they go through the rigours of training," he said.
"Anybody who works with Jamaican sportsmen knows that they are very choosy eaters... no matter how much we teach them the logic of it, they miss their home food and they get cranky."
National Junior 100m record-holder Yohan Blake shared with the Sunday Observer his experience of a seven-day stay in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Jamaica's Pan American Junior Championships team.
100m silver
The 17-year-old won a 100m silver and bronze with the 4x400m team, but said he was unable to perform at his best because he didn't eat properly.
"Every day is just beef and rice, sometimes it wasn't cooked (rare)... we couldn't adjust to that," he said. "When I was doing the 100m, I couldn't find anything to push through to finish. I had to be in one speed throughout the entire race. I was weak, I just couldn't find anything more," he said.
Blake was able to share the crackers which were brought along by teammate Schillonie Calvert, but that wasn't always enough: "Biscuit can't eat for breakfast," he said.
For 16-year-old netballer Christina Solmon, on her first tour outside the Caribbean, the difficulty in adapting to the New Zealand cuisine meant she was robbed of the opportunity to represent Jamaica at the senior level against two of the world's best.
"Christina is struggling with eating, she does not want to eat this type of food and she has to learn that it's not about her, it's about the Jamaica team," coach Connie Francis said at the time.
"I don't knock them for liking certain kinds of foods, but they have to know when to abandon those foods and when they can go back on it," Irons told the Sunday Observer.
The 30-year veteran said coaches and managers were sometimes accountable.
"Part of the planning team for a national team must involve nutrition. the rule is lots of carbohydrates before the game and maintain your appetite and diet with those other pleasantries way in advance and after the games," he said.
"The athlete is eating for fuel and not for style, and not very many coaches take the athlete through the business of the glycemic index of certain foods because they don't know."
own chef
Dr Irons pointed out that when the Reggae Boyz travelled for matches in the build-up to the 1998 World Cup in France they brought along their own chef.
"That is an essential part of what you're doing. You have to make food preparations before, because to be frank, unless you know the secret and carry Pickapeppa Sauce, and lots of ketchup, the food is not going to taste good because it is bland, and there is nothing worse than an athlete who is not eating."
Netball team vice-captain Simone Forbes, who was also in Australia and New Zealand, went on her first overseas tour to England in 2000 as a 19-year-old member of the Under-21 squad and said it was difficult for her then as well.
"The first time in England I wasn't used to the food," she said. "I found an alternative, but it's just something you have to get used to, once you're committed to the programme you know you're gonna go places that you're not used to and you're gonna have to eat things, you know nobody is going to poison you."
Dr Irons noted that female athletes have a particular problem with their menstrual cycles, which is sometimes affected by intense training.
"All of those hormonal things have to be medically managed way in advance, but many teams don't think about it and then you have girls having their periods or in the pre-menstrual state, getting bloated and fussy."
Planning for a trip months or weeks in advance, including how to adjust their hormonal cycle, he said, was one way to avoid those issues.
The doctor, who has also earned credentials from the American College of Sports Medicine and the prestigious Loughborough University for sports in the United Kingdom, warned that athletes tend to suffer from eating disorders which could be compounded on international duty.
Eating Disorders
"A lot of our athletes, more than we think, have eating disorders and when they get nervous it gets worse. women 10 times as much as men are prone to eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia) so particularly with ladies you look out for it," he said.
Dr Irons was Jamaica's team doctor to the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics and said coming prepared by keeping in touch with the embassies and diaspora overseas who can readily identify where to locate Jamaican delicacies such as oxtail is important.
"When you travel with a national team you have to travel with Excelsior Water Crackers, HTB bun... some of the carry-ables that remind you of home and keep things happy, especially with the schoolchildren.
"One of the reasons why the Penn Relays work so well is because people in Philadelphia make sure those boys and girls get home food when they come up there. It's a festival, they look forward to cooking for the kids and the kids look forward to the celebration of Jamaica overseas."
And, he pointed out, it isn't an issue unique to Jamaicans. Any athlete from any country is likely to experience these feelings.
"It's universal," he said. "In fact, we're just catching up with some of the problems and some of the solutions. when tourists come to Jamaica they want to eat the same things they eat at home. it takes a change of mindset to become adventurous."
He told the Sunday Observer that the key was for athletes to remind themselves of the nutritional rules, for sporting associations to have nutritionists counsel team members, coaches, and administrators before trips.
Dr Irons examines psychology of food intake
DANIA BOGLE, Observer staff reporter
Sunday, August 05, 2007
St George's players celebrate a goal against Granville FC during last season's Confederation Cup play-off series at Lynch Park in Buff Bay.IT'S often an athlete's greatest desire and proudest moment to represent his country, but, never a rose without thorns they say, and oftentimes, along with the pleasure of the journey to a foreign land comes adapting to the climate, the culture and the cuisine.
Jamaica's senior netballers recently went on a four-game tour to Australia and New Zealand and, it seems, all was not sunny for the girls as at least one player struggled with the food 'Down Under', while on the Reggae Boyz's recent four-nation Asian tour, reports surfaced of a footballer who survived on a diet of mashed potatoes and Pepsi while in Iran, as he refused to eat anything else.
It's not the first time such stories have emerged, and consultant psychiatrist Dr Aggrey Irons explained to the Sunday Observer that the desire for familiar tasting foods shouldn't be too difficult to understand.
"The sense of taste is linked to pleasure and satisfaction, and it is one of the few pleasurable things the athlete can indulge in while they go through the rigours of training," he said.
"Anybody who works with Jamaican sportsmen knows that they are very choosy eaters... no matter how much we teach them the logic of it, they miss their home food and they get cranky."
National Junior 100m record-holder Yohan Blake shared with the Sunday Observer his experience of a seven-day stay in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Jamaica's Pan American Junior Championships team.
100m silver
The 17-year-old won a 100m silver and bronze with the 4x400m team, but said he was unable to perform at his best because he didn't eat properly.
"Every day is just beef and rice, sometimes it wasn't cooked (rare)... we couldn't adjust to that," he said. "When I was doing the 100m, I couldn't find anything to push through to finish. I had to be in one speed throughout the entire race. I was weak, I just couldn't find anything more," he said.
Blake was able to share the crackers which were brought along by teammate Schillonie Calvert, but that wasn't always enough: "Biscuit can't eat for breakfast," he said.
For 16-year-old netballer Christina Solmon, on her first tour outside the Caribbean, the difficulty in adapting to the New Zealand cuisine meant she was robbed of the opportunity to represent Jamaica at the senior level against two of the world's best.
"Christina is struggling with eating, she does not want to eat this type of food and she has to learn that it's not about her, it's about the Jamaica team," coach Connie Francis said at the time.
"I don't knock them for liking certain kinds of foods, but they have to know when to abandon those foods and when they can go back on it," Irons told the Sunday Observer.
The 30-year veteran said coaches and managers were sometimes accountable.
"Part of the planning team for a national team must involve nutrition. the rule is lots of carbohydrates before the game and maintain your appetite and diet with those other pleasantries way in advance and after the games," he said.
"The athlete is eating for fuel and not for style, and not very many coaches take the athlete through the business of the glycemic index of certain foods because they don't know."
own chef
Dr Irons pointed out that when the Reggae Boyz travelled for matches in the build-up to the 1998 World Cup in France they brought along their own chef.
"That is an essential part of what you're doing. You have to make food preparations before, because to be frank, unless you know the secret and carry Pickapeppa Sauce, and lots of ketchup, the food is not going to taste good because it is bland, and there is nothing worse than an athlete who is not eating."
Netball team vice-captain Simone Forbes, who was also in Australia and New Zealand, went on her first overseas tour to England in 2000 as a 19-year-old member of the Under-21 squad and said it was difficult for her then as well.
"The first time in England I wasn't used to the food," she said. "I found an alternative, but it's just something you have to get used to, once you're committed to the programme you know you're gonna go places that you're not used to and you're gonna have to eat things, you know nobody is going to poison you."
Dr Irons noted that female athletes have a particular problem with their menstrual cycles, which is sometimes affected by intense training.
"All of those hormonal things have to be medically managed way in advance, but many teams don't think about it and then you have girls having their periods or in the pre-menstrual state, getting bloated and fussy."
Planning for a trip months or weeks in advance, including how to adjust their hormonal cycle, he said, was one way to avoid those issues.
The doctor, who has also earned credentials from the American College of Sports Medicine and the prestigious Loughborough University for sports in the United Kingdom, warned that athletes tend to suffer from eating disorders which could be compounded on international duty.
Eating Disorders
"A lot of our athletes, more than we think, have eating disorders and when they get nervous it gets worse. women 10 times as much as men are prone to eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia) so particularly with ladies you look out for it," he said.
Dr Irons was Jamaica's team doctor to the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics and said coming prepared by keeping in touch with the embassies and diaspora overseas who can readily identify where to locate Jamaican delicacies such as oxtail is important.
"When you travel with a national team you have to travel with Excelsior Water Crackers, HTB bun... some of the carry-ables that remind you of home and keep things happy, especially with the schoolchildren.
"One of the reasons why the Penn Relays work so well is because people in Philadelphia make sure those boys and girls get home food when they come up there. It's a festival, they look forward to cooking for the kids and the kids look forward to the celebration of Jamaica overseas."
And, he pointed out, it isn't an issue unique to Jamaicans. Any athlete from any country is likely to experience these feelings.
"It's universal," he said. "In fact, we're just catching up with some of the problems and some of the solutions. when tourists come to Jamaica they want to eat the same things they eat at home. it takes a change of mindset to become adventurous."
He told the Sunday Observer that the key was for athletes to remind themselves of the nutritional rules, for sporting associations to have nutritionists counsel team members, coaches, and administrators before trips.