CPSDA Newsroom
8 Award recipients honored at banquet
May 20, 2013, St. Louis, MO--All the Registered Dietitians that work full-time in pro or college athletic programs ("Sports RDs") would fit comfortably on a Boeing 727. And most of them will be landing in St. Louis May 20th for the 5th annual conference of the Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. Click here to download full news release.
October 25, 2012--For years, big-time college athletes have been widely resented on college campuses, perceived by some as pampered and privileged, and maybe even corrupt. Every year seems to bring evidence of athletes taking free cars, being paid under the table, dodging rules. But some observers think the real problem with college athletes is that they are underfed. Yes, underfed.
“The perception, for the general public, is that the day they get to school and get their tennis shoes, they are getting this entry into a world where the horn of plenty is always there for them,” said Dave Ellis, a sports dietitian for 30 years, who has fed teams at Nebraska and Wisconsin.
This, it seems, is not the case. N.C.A.A. regulations limit colleges to one formal “training meal” a day for their scholarship athletes, whether the athletes are playing tennis, football or any other sport. A few snacks — nuts, fruit and bagels — may also be provided, as well as some nutritional supplements like energy bars. “Food is placed in the same category as a car in the N.C.A.A.’s eyes,” said Becci Twombley, who coordinates the meal plans for Southern California’s athletes.
One group is demanding action. The Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association, founded in 2009 by dietitians working mainly for college athletics programs, is asking the N.C.A.A. to do away with the one-meal-per-day limit and “instead permit unlimited interval feedings as needed throughout the day to fully restore athletes and make them ‘whole again.’ ” Click here to download full story.
CPSDA publishes Position Statement on 'Feeding Athletes'
October 25, 2012, Chicago, IL--Sports registered dietitians working in college and professional sports are asking the NCAA to toss out rules that restrict athletes to only one meal per day and instead permit unlimited interval feedings as needed throughout the day to fully restore athletes and make them ‘whole again.’
The Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA), founded in 2009 largely by sports registered dietitians (Sports RDs) working in major college athletic programs, published its first position statement today to encourage the National Collegiate Athletic Association to reform rules that currently allow schools to serve only one meal per day to student-athletes in season. New feeding protocol for athletes is just one of dozens of reform concepts currently being considered by the NCAA.
Efforts to regulate feeding were last updated by the NCAA in 1991, ostensibly to enhance “competitive equity” and to provide what the NCAA said was a free added benefit for athletes on scholarship or receiving financial aid. Since then financially aided athletes are eligible to be served one meal per day from a training table, which is a planned meal served in a dining hall. The training table is available to walk-on athletes who do not receive financial aid, but they’re required to pay a prescribed amount for the same meal. CPSDA recommends today that all college athletes, whether or not they receive financial assistance, be offered unfettered access without restriction to whole foods and, as necessary, dietary supplements, to replace nutrients, fluids and electrolytes expended while preparing for their sport.
Consumer Advocates: Athletic Business mag dials in on CPSDA
reasons Sports RDs formed the CPSDA
in 2009: deregulating the antiquated rules governing feeding of college
athletes; and creating more and better career opportunities for CPSDA members willing to work the
longer hours and acquire the specialized knowledge that sports requires.
Athletic Business writer Paul Steinbach knows what drives Sports RDs, and he knows what athletes need to succeed. Download Steinbach's two CPSDA-related stories here.
October 2012 issue of CPSDA Student Newsletter
Student Committee co-chairs
Rebecca Rick and Charles Hewitt publish the third issue of the CPSDA
student newsletter today, covering topics that include "listserv
etiquette, insight from Denver Broncos' Sports RD Brian Snyder, with
student features on Ashlee Eskelsen at Washington State and Beth Miller
from Tennessee Tech. Download the October 2012 issue of the CPSDA Student Newsletter here.
College football's top 25 competing for 'food coaches'
August 17, 2012, Chicago, IL—“Food coaches” are becoming as hard for colleges to find as accurate, strong-armed quarterbacks, but 14 of the nation’s top 25 college football teams in USA Today’s preseason coaches’ poll have hired at least one full-time sports registered dietitian (Sports RD) in recent years to shift the emphasis from feeding athletes to fueling them. Download full story here.
CPSDA survey: laying claim to where food meets the field
May 15, 2012, St. Petersburg, Fla.--The first survey of sports registered dietitians (Sports RDs) and students of dietetics
from the Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA) confirms that while the “science of nutrition” is trending steadily upward, it’s still perceived to take a back seat to strength training and injury prevention, the other two major factors that enable athletes to perform at their best.
CPSDA honors 6 with national awards May 18
May 17, 2012, St. Petersburg, Fla.--Six national awards recognizing special achievement in sports nutrition will be presented on the evening of May 18 by the Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA) to three sports registered dietitians (Sports RDs), two college students, and the Director of Athletics from the University of Missouri during the awards banquet at the 4th Annual CPSDA Conference and Symposium in St. Pete Beach, Fla. Download full story.
Student Committee co-chairs Kylene Guerra and Rachel Stratton came out just before the 4th Annual CPSA conference in St. Pete Beach, Fla with the second issue of their Student newsletter in May 2012. Download May 2012 (v2) issue CPSDA Student Newsletter here. Food & Supplement Security climbing FDA's priority list
by Dave Ellis, CPSDA Past-President
Those entrusted in the circle of care around athletes—sport coaches, strength coaches, sports medicine personnel and Sports RDs--learn early on how important it is to build a wall of protection around their players. Insidious agents of exploitation are never far away. But in an ever expanding food and dietary supplement supply system that now spans the globe, fortifying that wall of protection isn’t enough anymore. Sports RDs will soon be relied upon to take proactive measures—preemptive security measures—to prevent potentially hazardous events from occurring in the “feed to fuel” continuum. Download here for full story.
March 2012 issue of CPSDA Student Newsletter (#1)
Student Committee co-chairs Kylene Guerra and Rachel Stratton published the first CPSDA Student newsletter in March 2012 to bring more than 300 CPSDA Student members up to date. Download March 2012 (v1) issue CPSDA Student Newsletter here. BCS title game features best 2 teams of 2011
ever assembled in the BCS national championship game between the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide on January 9, dozens of major college coaches will be watching what only they and a few others know to be the two best “fueled” teams in history. Download full story. CPSDA "New Year" news brief January 2012
Start of the new year "News Brief" published by the CPSDA January 2012.
Download CPSDA News Brief.
College Football's Last Frontier: Better Food
Looking for an Edge, Top Programs Are Devoting Strategy, Resources to Nutrition
Sept. 29, 2011--This season, dozens of top college football teams are making the same expensive bet on one aspect of football taht old coaches from the leather helmet days never gave much thought to: sushi rolls, crab legs and hand-blended smoothies.
As college programs struggle to maintain their dominance in the face of increasing parity, the issue of how much the players eat during the season—and what they're eating—has been elevated from a running joke to a serious matter that includes teams of chefs, dietitians and volunteers, and that's becoming part of the way some teams prepare for games. Download full story.
New Breed of athletes seeking edge through food, not drugs
Arizona Republic, May 29, 2011--Most athletes enjoy a special bond with food. They eat whatever they want and still look good in the mirror. It's easy to abuse this relationship. Click here to download full story.
CPSDA's Dave Ellis goes 1 on 1 with Athletic Business magazine
When Dave Ellis began studying to be a dietitian at the University of
Nebraska in 1982, combining sports and nutrition into a full-time job was a fresh
concept. A student assistant strength coach for Tom Osborne’s football team,
Ellis saw his role expand substantially after the training table manager put
out a bratwurst and Braunschweiger feast on the same day the Huskers were scheduled
to run 440s. Click here to download full story.
