By John Harrington
The GAA today launched a new series of healthy eating videos in conjunction with the National Centre of Excellence for Home Economics, St. Angela’s College, Sligo and Recipes for Success.
Over the course of the next five weeks a number of videos and other resources will be published on the GAA’s e-learning platform and social media channels.
As well as tips on general healthy eating, the series will also feature videos on how to prepare simple but nutritious meals that are perfect for fuelling young athletes.
The recipes are based on the GAA’s Recipes for Success initiative which has been a big hit in secondary schools right across the country. This involved ‘hands-on’ food skills workshops, facilitated by Home Economics teachers, using the Recipes for Success Toolkit and has equipped hundreds of young Gaelic Games players with a good grounding in healthy eating and practical food skills.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions those work-shops can’t currently take place, so the upcoming video series will help fill the void.
Roisin Lydon is a lecturer in the School of Home Economics, St Angela’s College and is one of the authors of the Recipes for Success Toolkit.
Breakfast granola is the first recipe featured in the Recipes for Success video series.
She has also created the healthy eating videos and hopes they will prove to be a useful resource for young Gaelic Games players in the absence of the Recipes for Success kitchen-based workshops.
“We decided to create some resources to be made available for players to enable them to take part in this at home because those workshops can't take place currently,” Lydon told GAA.ie
“Healthy eating is so important for us all to provide us with the correct balance of nutrients we need on a daily basis but particularly for GAA players so that they are adequately fuelled for training and exercise. Players need the correct nutrition for energy but also for recovery and repair after games.”
Through Recipes for Success, we want to show players that healthy eating doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming; these resources are very practical and aim to provide players with easy to follow, nutritious recipes as well as information on healthy eating.
“Now more than ever, people are interested in the area of good nutrition and cooking, so it's all about bringing the resources to the players and to club members so that they have the knowledge and skills themselves."
Mullingar Shamrocks GAA, as part of its Healthy Club Project, took part in a Recipes for Success programme.
Resource sheets will be published every week to go with each video and recipe and Lydon is confident that anyone who decides to get involved and try the recipes themselves will find it’s easily done.
“It's all very doable,” she says “I think some people have the view that healthy eating and cooking is difficult. But when you break it down into simple steps it's very doable for players and anybody really. And that's essentially what we do in these videos.
“We want to impart the knowledge to empower players, in particular young players, so that they have these skills for when they're older, because cooking is a skill for life. It’s so important to develop these practical food skills in our young GAA players to help establish healthy dietary patterns throughout life.”
“We all lead very demanding lives and we really have to nourish ourselves as best we can with healthy, nutritious food.”
“The nutritional adequacy of an athlete’s diet is a hugely important factor in achieving success in sport whilst providing fuel for strength, conditioning and recovery.
“Research shows that good nutrition isn’t just vital for optimal athletic performance but also for growth, development, and overall health to everybody at different stages of life”.
You can view and download the Recipes for Success toolkit and other healthy eating resources below.