Protein Shakes for Youth Athletes?

Costco has great affordable to go- protein shakes. My kids drink them for breakfast.

Updated

Costco has great affordable to go- protein shakes. My kids drink them for breakfast.

Updated

Costco has great affordable to go- protein shakes. My kids drink them for breakfast.

I would probably ask my pediatrician and possibly consult a dietician. It's possible the coach has a point, as running does burn a lot of calories. Your son is bound to be very hungry after running, and you want to make sure he is making smart choices. It's also possible the coach is (a little bit) buying into some hype. It's definitely something I would want to know more about.

I coached track years ago, and our runners would bring snacks with them to meets - nuts, fruit, sandwiches. They worked hard, but they often wouldn't get home for 2 or 3 hours after their run. So your son does need to have something to eat and drink after a meet. I don't know whether or not a protein shake is the right answer, but he definitely needs something.

I have a dietitian in my extended family (nutritionist who went on to specialize and do further education) who specializes in pediatrics.

She's been ab athlete and works out daily. Her children have been athletes - same with her husband. None of them take supplements nor shakes (nor ever have).

Her thinking is the same as yours - if that helps.

The only time she may differ her opinion is if blood work came back and there was a reason a person needed some kind of boost - then you'd work with doctor and dietician/nutritionist.

I am not a nutritionist or a guru in this area by any means. I did have 1 kid in cross country and 2 kids in track and 2 kids who also did gymnastics, wrestling, and football. I do HIIT and strength training 3 - 5 times a week, and I am currently training for a race in October. Generally speaking, yes, adding protein to your diet when you are working out 5 times a week is really beneficial. I feel SO much better when I protein load before a workout (I'm a believer that you can do protein before OR after and reap about the same benefits). I like it before my workout, my kids preferred to protein load after working out (and it was more convenient for them since they generally worked out right after school and then came home). My kids were really great eaters, not picky, tons of good protein in their regular diet, and they were all height/weight proportionate.

As far as HOW you get the extra protein, I do protein powder mixed in a shake/blender. My kids did powders, bars, shakes, you name it - I made sure that it was made in the USA and had no extra "enhancers" in them. Other than that, I really didn't care what they chose.

One other thing I kept on hand is low fat chocolate milk. We are big believers (right or wrong) about drinking a glass of chocolate milk after workouts. The combo of sugar/fats/carbs/protein is a great post-workout recovery drink with no worry about added junk you don't need. It's hydrating and cheap. I can't drink it because I'm lactose intolerant, but my kids all swear by it even as adults.

P.S. I'd worry more about shin splints and other runner issues than a couple of protein bars or drinks :)

Good luck!

Our 16 year old son runs cross-country and has run both XC and track off and on for several years. As far as I know, none of his coaches have recommended protein shakes either in talks with the team or to him individually (he has a classic distance runner's build--thin, wiry, somewhat short--and could use some bulk). They do emphasize eating 'healthy,' namely staying away from fast food and high-sugar, low nutrient foods. I'm sharing this point not to say that your son's coach is wrong, but rather to show that there are different philosophies out there. I'm no expert at all, however I would agree with you that if your son is getting plenty of protein now and he is performing well (running races faster as the season has progressed and reducing his mile time), there's no reason to change his diet. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That said, I have a couple thoughts on nutrition for these really active kids. You expressed concern about the protein bars because they have lots of sugar. That is true, however isn't that combination of sugar (quick energy), whole grains, protein, and fat is exactly what their bodies need when they are heading into an activity or recovering from one? If they're just sitting around the house, then the protein bars are not appropriate nutritionally, and indeed it's better for kids to develop the habit of eating real food, however my point is that protein bars may have their place in nourishing an active teen. Also, I will say that my kids have become very fond of smoothies in the past year, and they might be a useful addition to your kids' diet. I invested in an immersion blender and make various combinations of frozen fruit, plain yogurt, orange juice, avocado, frozen bananas, spinach, etc; everyone gobbles them up. If you want to try out the protein shake approach, it is possible to make protein shakes at home (I found LOTS of recipes on the web just now), and that way, you can adjust the sugar content to fit your kid's tastes. They seemed to involve purchased whey powder or protein powder, which gives you less control over the amount of sugar or other ingredients, but at least you can influence most of what goes into the shake more than if you buy them ready made. Anyway, good luck with it! I have become a big fan of cross-country as a sport and community. I hope your family has a great time with it.

My daughter was on the XC and track teams in high school and is going to college with a pretty good scholarship for the same. She is really into checking things out and seeing what the best things to eat are for everyday and recovery. She makes protein shakes after runs, whether heavy training days or meets. It is not necessarily immediately after but usually within an hour or so. She uses greek yogurt, muscle milk protein powder (just to add a bit more) and fresh or frozen fruit and almond milk. She sometimes adds peanut butter if she does not want the powder. If she is really out and about, she will have a Muscle Milk shake instead. I believe she said protein can help recover a bit faster and she believes it helps eliminate sore muscles.
In High School, she would carry cashews in her backpack to snack on.

If your son already eats meat and eggs on a regular basis then any sort of additional protein supplement I would think is over the top.
There's such a thing as too much of a good thing.
A drink after meets to hydrate and balance electrolytes is fine but an immediate need for protein right then and there seems odd to me.
I'd first listen to the coaches recommendation (heck, I'd get it in writing so I could show people exactly what it is he's asking for)- and then I'd discuss this with your doctor and a nutritionist.

There's often a lot of hype around what athletes need - some of it's good and a lot of it is nonsense.
Get your info from people who can separate sound knowledge/science from the snake oil salesmen (or anyone trying to sell you a supplement) and then decide what's best for your son.
An athlete might need a bit more protein - but there's a finite amount he can use - so you need to figure out how much that is and decide if a protein drink or an extra chicken breast at dinner time will fill his needs.

Not an expert on pros/cons of protein supplements (I'd ask your son's doctor), but here's a recent report on the natural/plant-based protein powders vs. others. My husband stopped using the plant-based ones because of this report from Consumer Reports.

https://www.consumerreports.org/dietary-supplements/heavy...

I was a XC mom (and winter/spring track) as well, through high school and college. My son has gone on to become a marathoner and a member of 2 running clubs. My husband is also a runner, although more at the rate of 5-6 miles per outing instead of 26.2!

I agree with you about most commercial products being full of sugar and little usable protein. Same goes for “vitamin waters” which throw a vitamin or two and some dye and some sugar into a bottle of water. There’s a huge industry built around emptying your wallet while not necessarily filling your body with nutrients.

Yes, we should get our nutrition from whole foods. But, it’s almost impossible to do so. That’s for a lot of reasons: whole foods not grown locally year round, foods picked weeks earlier and shipped across country (or halfway across the world) in the presence of gas to keep it from rotting. And who knows what the growing conditions were? Most of our foods in the US are grown in depleted soils beefed up with quick-grow fertilizers to get things to market faster – so the broccoli or peaches you buy now have less than 10% of key nutrients that they had in the 1950s. The AMA (which isn’t even made up of nutritionists) concluded over 15 years ago that supplementation was essential. But most of the products out there have a few vitamins (or 20 or 30) which is less than half of the nutrients the cells need.

You’ve got the added issue of a teen who’s going to be putting on muscle and subjecting his body to stresses. Hormones and growth spurts will kick in. My son’s coach did lessons with kids about everything from oxygen to lactic acid build-up/absorption and more, so there was a whole science to it. Everything done was approved by the doctor, by the way. But the doctor admitted that most have little experience in nutrition so it was best to go with the food scientists, so we did. I can’t tell you the progress my son made with a cellular nutrition base (it doesn’t matter what they eat – it matters what is in a form that the cells can actually absorb and utilize).

So, yes, excess sugars are a problem. So are poor choice fats and so on. Pre-mixed liquid shakes with emulsifiers are a bad idea (fillers, just there to increase shelf life, hard to digest). Vitamins/supplements with warning labels (potential for overdose) are a bad idea. Energy drinks are a terrible idea –lots of cardiac issues like arrhythmia with all that caffeine (ask EMTs for their stats on this – it’s awful). Things in pill form are not absorbed well at all, gummies don’t dissolve thoroughly. We worked with high absorption liquids, which are metabolized entirely as food, and with an eye to muscle health as well as proper hydration without the negatives of the typical sports drinks. We also found that this worked into our regular grocery budget instead of a bunch of additives. We also found that a natural dietary ingredient that reduces inflammation was a great thing for all of us, especially for muscles but also joint support for those knees taking a pounding.