Feeding the Young Athlete

Review By JACQUELINE BODNAR

As a parent raising two veg kids I am always a little skeptical when I come across books recommending food. You just never know what you will get. But I have two athletic children (and a very athletic vegetarian husband) and was interested in seeing what Feeding the Young Athlete had to offer.

The book is written in nice and easy terms and has a good layout that makes it appealing to the reader. It does offer some good information regarding being hydrated, making homemade sports drinks, and some snacks. But there are also a lot of messages in there that vegetarian and vegan parents may want to avoid sending to their young athletes.

Throughout the book there is really an emphasis on meat and eggs as the best protein sources. Eggs are especially promoted to the vegetarian athlete. Other plant-based sources are mentioned, but the overall message is animal products are superior. The author even goes as far when discussing amino acids as to say that eating a roasted chicken leg is cool because it contains all eight amino acids, while vegetarian athletes need to “combine certain foods to make sure they get all eight in their diet.”

Overall, this is not an ideal book for the vegetarian or vegan child. The message is tipped in favor of eating animals in order to feed the young athlete.

The publisher provided a review copy of this book.