IADMS Miami 2000   [back to the Category]

Nutrition: Liquid Assets; Iron To Keep Dancing   [read the french version]

Author :   Elizabeth L. Snell, R.D.

Author: Elizabeth L. Snell, R.D., Consulting Dietitian/Nutritionist, Canada’s National Ballet School, Toronto, Canada

How often do dancers take stock of their liquid assets? Dancers often fail to recognize the importance of consuming fluids throughout the day. The length and demands of performance, costumes, and hot lights increase the need for fluids.

Caffeinated coffee, tea, and cola beverages, in addition to alcohol, are dehydrating. Since dehydration causes fatigue and reduced energy levels, dancers must replenish fluids before, during and after exercise. The dancer should not rely solely on thirst, as thirst replaces only about 60-70% of the water required. Insufficient water may interfere with weight management; since, many people, unconsciously, think of food when they are thirsty.

Water has many important roles, including regulating body temperature. Water is the best thirst quencher and calorie-free. For many dancers, juices are not the best substitutes for water, due to their high calorie and low fiber content. A good rule of thumb is to drink water and eat fruit; do not drink your fruit.

An 8-oz. glass of orange juice contains 100 Calories, 8 oz. of pineapple juice has 140 Calories and 8 oz. of cranberry juice approximately 215 Calories. Compare these values to an orange of 60 Calories or an apple of 100 Calories. A can of iced tea contains 220 Calories and 14 teaspoons of sugar, without the balance of protein and sustained energy that a yogurt and fruit would contain, with fewer calories. Instead of three soft drinks, an adolescent female ballet dancer would she wise to substitute 450 Calories in calcium-rich skim milk to optimize bone health. Alcoholic beverages have a dehydrating effect, and pre-exercise alcohol can interfere with blood sugar control affecting performance, in addition to being highly caloric.

Take stock of your liquid assets for increased energy, peak performance, and better elimination and weight management.

Iron, a trace mineral, is critically important for adolescent dancers. Iron is an important part of hemoglobin, the pigment in red blood cells that carries oxygen; and myoglobin, which carries oxygen in the muscle, If a dancer is iron deficient, the result can be fatigue easily upon exertion, overall weakness, pallor and apathy. Many female adolescent dancers are not ingesting sufficient amounts of iron to meet their needs for growth and menstrual bleeding. Vegetarian female dancers exacerbate the situation, since all dietary iron is not created equal. The heme iron found in meat is the easily absorbable form with a 40% absorption rate; while the non-heme found in plants has an absorption rate of approximately 10%. Many female dancers do not consume sufficient quantities of iron due mostly to not ingesting red meat; thus an intake of lean red meat and the dark meat of skinless poultry three to four times a week will boost the iron intake. Vegetarian dancers must learn to ingest foods rich in iron, such as whole grains, fortified breads and cereals.

One strategy to increase iron absorption is to consume a food rich in vitamin C at every meal. Eat citrus fruit or cantaloupe with a fortified breakfast cereal, red pepper with humus and pita and tomato sauce with pasta and black beans. The use of iron pans increases the absorption of iron; the iron content of spaghetti sauce simmered in a cast iron skillet for three hours may increase from 3 to 88 milligrams for each half-cup of sauce. Since coffee and tea can interfere with iron absorption, drinking them an hour before a meal is better than afterward. The adolescent dancer must learn eating habits for healthy growth and peak performance.

This is the abstract of a paper presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, held 27-29 October 2000 in Miami, Florida, USA. All rights are reserved by the individual author(s).