Gamer nutrition – What should you eat and drink?

Consuming too much sugar before and during gaming is bad in two ways. On the one hand, it causes an enormous fluctuation in your ability to concentrate and, on the other, in your own emotional state. This means that you get upset more quickly and the risk of losing your temper increases.

When we gamble, we mainly consume sugar via the familiar sweet drinks. Energy drinks, cola drinks, but also juices or juice spritzers. Some orange juices, for example, can contain as much sugar as a cola. The best drink for a longer gaming session to stay focused is actually normal mineral water.

But cookies or chocolate also contain a lot of sugar and have a similar effect. Just a few cookies or wafers cover a high proportion of the maximum recommended daily sugar requirement.

The blood sugar level rises sharply for a short time, which gives us a certain high. We feel very good and efficient for a short time. But after a very short time, this effect is reversed. This is because the body starts to produce a lot of insulin due to the high sugar intake, which massively lowers the blood sugar level again after around 30-40 minutes. Far below the normal level. The result is After about 30 minutes of a sugar high, a long phase with symptoms of mild hypoglycemia follows. These symptoms are Concentration problems, tiredness and slight irritability.

This is not true hypoglycaemia, which only occurs with diabetes or other illnesses, but the blood sugar level drops below the level to which the person is normally accustomed.

Here is a small graphic of what this looks like over time with a very high sugar intake from a cola drink, for example:

This graphic is only intended to illustrate the effect and is not based on accurate data. However, the effect itself is sufficiently medically proven.

Of course, you don’t have to give up sugar completely. In particular, there is nothing wrong with fruit’s own fructose in fresh fruit in moderation. An apple, banana or pear can be good healthy sources of energy during a longer gaming session. With this type and dosage of sugar, the strong negative effect does not occur at all or only slightly.

By heavy food we mean, for example, a greasy, thickly topped pizza from the takeaway service or a bucket of deep-fried chicken pieces.

Eating large quantities of hard-to-digest food reduces your ability to concentrate enormously. This is because the body first has to put a lot of energy into digesting the food. This means that the stomach and intestines are supplied with more blood and work under high load. This means that all other bodily functions have less “energy” available. The brain in particular, which is dependent on good blood circulation and oxygen supply, goes into standby mode when we “gorge ourselves”.

Everyone is probably familiar with the feeling of just wanting to sit down on the couch after a very large holiday meal and not wanting to lift a finger. The same thing also happens to a lesser extent when we eat hard-to-digest, fatty food before gambling. Even if we don’t necessarily eat too much, the body still has more work to do with digestion than if we had eaten oatmeal with banana pieces and soy milk, for example.

Athletes who play very strenuous sports, such as soccer, always avoid eating too much right before a training session or game. This is because the negative effects are much more noticeable during such exertion. Nausea to the point of vomiting, abdominal pain and total lack of energy are usually the result. Even in the lowest soccer hobby leagues such as the district league, most players are careful not to eat too much and to eat the right food before exercise.

The ideal breakfast for concentration in the morning is oatmeal. For a better taste and a little extra energy, it is best mixed with a finely chopped banana. If you don’t tolerate dairy products very well, you can replace them with soy milk or soy yoghurt. This food fills you up for several hours, is not heavy on the stomach and provides you with the energy you need to concentrate until lunchtime.

Pasta with a sauce that is not too greasy is the ideal source of energy until the evening. Thomato sauce is particularly good for this. You should avoid the super thickly sprinkled Parmesan, but there’s nothing wrong with a pinch ;-). An Asian noodle dish is also highly recommended if you like the taste.

Now all meat lovers can rejoice. Chicken and fish are the ideal low-fat, high-protein meats for the evening! However, chicken in the form of half a chicken is also ok, but without the skin. Low-carbohydrate vegetables are recommended as a side dish. Broccoli in particular is a SUPER vegetable that can be found on many professional athletes’ menus. If you don’t like broccoli, you can also use cauliflower or spinach as an alternative.

• A varied diet – don’t eat the same thing every day
• Do not consume significantly more calories than you need (approx. 2,000 for “normal” adult men, approx. 1,800 for women)
• Avoid fast food such as MC-Donalds, pizza and kebabs as much as possible

In addition to a balanced, healthy normal diet, there are also various preparations on the market that can be used temporarily as a supplement or substitute. The most important thing here is to consume these products only temporarily and in the maximum quantities specified by the manufacturer. Pregnant women and children should generally refrain from using such substances. If they do, they should only use sugar-free variants.