Christian Day - Put food-first this pancake day

UKAD Athlete Commission Member Christian Day knows how important food is to athletes.

During his time playing rugby, the former Premiership-winning Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks star learned about nutrition’s crucial role in helping fuel performance on the field of play.

Understanding the importance of food and nutrition is one of the reasons Christian developed a passion for cooking, something he put to good use during his time on Celebrity MasterChef.

To help athletes keep sport clean and promote a food-first approach to nutrition, Christian has filmed a super simple pancake recipe – just one cup of milk, once cup of plain flour and an egg – for Shrove Tuesday.

Pancake Day is an excellent opportunity to put food-first because pancakes are easy to prepare, can be used as a base for a nutritious snack and are just as great straight out of the pan with a splash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar. That’s why some say nothing stacks up - excuse the pun – to pancakes.

To help make the most of your pancakes, here are a few tasty, nutritious ideas:

Gone Bananas: Add chopped bananas to the batter, and once cooked, top with peanut butter.

The Greek One: Top your pancake with Greek yoghurt, peach slices, chopped almonds and drizzle with honey.

Black Forest: Add chopped dark chocolate to the batter, and once cooked, top with natural yoghurt, cherries, and dust with cocoa powder.

Holiday Memories: Mix chopped feta cheese into batter, and once cooked, top the  pancakes with olives, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of oregano.

Developing good nutritional habits now will help you in the future. Getting the nutrients your body needs from wholesome ingredients and enjoying preparing a recipe will satisfy a healthy appetite and help contribute to your physical and mental well-being.

Christian would advise any athlete to follow a food-first approach to nutrition as supplements may contain prohibited substances which can get you banned from the sport you love.

“Remember that as an athlete, you are responsible for ensuring that anything you eat and drink is safe and contains no banned substances.”

If you do need to take supplements for any reason as an athlete, always;

   assess the need...

...assess the risk...

...assess the consequences...

...before you take them.

Athletes can discover more about Food-First by visiting UKAD’s Clean Sport Hub with a dedicated eLearning module within the Compete Clean+ course, and downloading the 100% me app.

To find out more on the risks of taking supplements and how to manage them visit UKAD’s Supplements Hub.

For more recipe inspiration visit the English Institute for Sports Nutrition Hub.