Fueling Excellence: Dana White Offers Saints Insight on Sports Nutrition

In any sport, preparation is key. But recent guest speaker Dana White says there’s one form of preparation many young athletes may overlook.  “What I’ve noticed in being a sports dietitian at the collegiate level is how many high school athletes never get any sports nutrition advice,” she told students in Maguire Auditorium last week. “And so as you advance your athletic career at Canterbury, you have the opportunity to have an advantage that your competitors do not.”

Dana is a registered dietitian and athletic trainer who currently serves as the sports dietitian at Quinnipiac University. Her presentation, “Food is Fuel: Optimizing Performance with Nutrition,” comes after she met with Canterbury coaches and dining staff to offer advice on how faculty and staff can best support athletes’ nutritional needs. In speaking with students, she emphasized not only the importance of diet for athletic performance but also the need to find safe and reliable sources of information on sports nutrition.

“I find a lot of young athletes are getting nutrition advice on TikTok from influencers,” she said. “But according to one study, just 2% of that viral information is accurate.”

Prioritizing an informed diet can help athletes gain strength and endurance as well as prevent injury and illness, Dana explained. To that end, she detailed the kind of plate students should build during meals and the snacks that are most beneficial for practice, games, or training. She also warned against ineffective but popular fuels, such as caffeine-filled energy drinks and many supplements, which are not regulated by the FDA. 

She also pointed out that peak performance isn’t just about what athletes eat but when. 

“Sports nutrition is all about timing,” she explained. ”What I’d advise you to eat three hours before a game and one hour is different.”

But if students took one thing from her talk, she said, it was three basic rules: “I want you to eat more, I want you to sleep more, and I want you to calm down.”

Canterbury plans to continue working with Dana throughout the semester, and Colleen Cook, Director of Health Services, looks forward to this collaboration. “I appreciate that Dana is not only a dietician, but a certified athletic trainer, so she understands the needs of our young athletes.” With Dana’s mentorship, the School can help give Saints the edge they need to thrive, grow, and endure in their sport.