A healthful change-up in what fills up the Phils

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The life of a professional baseball player revolves around food.

"The game is played, and the team will have a huge meal in the clubhouse," said Frank Coppenbarger, the Phillies' director of travel and clubhouse services. "Then they'll get on an airplane and be served food from the time the flight takes off, and then when they land, the guys will go out and get something to eat."

But there's been a change in what the guys are eating - at work, anyway.

Driven by older ballplayers who want to stay fit and younger athletes raised on nutrition information, the Phillies are joining other big-league teams in cleaning up their clubhouse menus. Nutrition, as one major-league veteran describes it, is "the next frontier as far as performance."

In most clubhouses, the box of doughnuts by the coffee machine is gone.

During spring training, the Phillies feast on healthful choices, including egg-white omelets, whole-wheat waffles, and Kashi cereal for breakfast; lean proteins at later meals; and low-fat yogurt parfaits and granola bars for snacks. There's fresh fruit, naturally, in the Grapefruit League.

After sharing a nutritionist with the Tampa Bay Rays last season, the Phillies hired Philadelphia dietitian Katie Cavuto Boyle to consult this year. She has twice visited the preseason camp here to talk turkey (as opposed to beef or pork), and tailors her one-on-one sessions to individual players.

"Base players," she explained, "have different nutritional needs than a bullpen pitcher." She reinforces the importance of eating breakfast, and explains how pregame meals should be low in fat and based on carbohydrates; how snacks should pair carbs and protein; and how additional carbs as well as protein work well after the game.

Among her clubhouse-recommended dishes are salmon with grilled vegetable quinoa, and cod with oven-roasted tomatoes and herbed whole-grain couscous.

Cavuto Boyle will meet with the players in Philadelphia during the regular season, and said she even would have a little chat with hotel kitchens they use on the road.

"We're giving them more diverse selections and healthy snacks, so when they come in [from the field], they're not grabbing for the chips and candy," says Cavuto Boyle, 31, who met Scott Sheridan, now the Phillies' head athletic trainer, after he helped her rehab a knee injury from high school gymnastics. She recently moved her personal catering business, Healthy Bites to Go, from West Chester to South Philadelphia.

That's not to say that the Phillies clubhouse at Bright House Field offers a spa menu.

Coppenbarger calls the emphasis on nutrition "an 80-20 thing. That is, 80 percent of the time, we try to follow the program. . . . If a guy wants a candy bar, he can still find one. We try to present more options and healthy options."

Clubhouse managers say the need for better nutrition stems from the fact that players spend more time at the ballpark than they did not too long ago. Players come in early to work out in fancy weight rooms. They hit in batting cages. They review video of their swings and pitches. Add in meetings, night games, and doubleheaders, and some days they're on site for 16 hours or more.

Phillies pitcher Chad Durbin, in his 14th spring training, recalls that when he first made it to the pros, "they wanted you to eat right, but they gave you no direction." Nutrition was the domain of the athletic trainer - "the guy who wraps your ankles," Durbin said.

The duty shifted to strength and conditioning coaches, who in turn began hiring nutritionists.

In 2007, the Phillies were among the first clubs to push nutrition education under a mandate from Pat Gillick, then general manager.

The team has been open to requests, said pitcher Brad Lidge. "I asked for soy milk last year [to obtain soy protein], and it happened the next day."

The team's veterans seem to be on board.

"When you're 18 or 19, you're trying to look bigger, to look like a man," said Durbin, 32. "Now the pressure is to lose weight."

"As I started to get older, I got more conscious of what I am eating," said second baseman Chase Utley, 31.

Utley and his wife, Jennifer, hired Cavuto Boyle to cook for them last year. "She'd make me three or four days' worth of meals and I'd take them to the ballpark," he said. "I spend a lot of time at the ballpark, and she made sure the food didn't get monotonous. She'd keep me guessing."

Players' wives - who seem to be bred for leanness - are especially keen on better eating. Durbin said his wife, Crystal, tries to source local and organic ingredients.

Lindsay Lidge, the pitcher's wife and a student of nutrition, recently partnered with the Food Trust, a nonprofit devoted to providing access to affordable, nutritious food, to working with schools, and to combating childhood obesity. Soon, she will begin writing weekly nutritional tips on the Food Trust's Web site (www.thefoodtrust.org).

"As nutrition becomes the next frontier as far as performance, players are taking more ownership" about what they eat, said Jim Malone, strength and conditioning coach of the San Diego Padres and president of the Professional Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society.

The challenge is the road trip, and hoping opponents' clubhouse staff will come through.

"We try not to create any animosity," Malone said. "We're helping to educate them. Year by year, we're making little steps. How about no sugary sodas, or baked potato chips, frozen yogurt instead of ice cream? If you have to give us pizza, make it with veggies and no meat.

"Baseball is a game of adjustments," Malone said. "We have to adjust to the weather, pitchers have to adjust to hitters."

And ballplayers are human, too.

Late on a recent morning, at Bright House Field, their spring training game venue, a clubhouse worker was spotted carrying five empty pizza boxes out to a trash bin.

A splurge.

Phillies dietitian Katie Cavuto Boyle pairs proteins with carbs to slow digestion and give you more lasting satiety.

1-2 tablespoons peanut or nut butter with:

A piece of fruit with:

A couple of tablespoons of hummus with:

To low-fat yogurt (especially Greek), add:

With 4-6 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese:

Meal bar (less then 250 calories and at least 7 g protein)

½ turkey sandwich

½-1 cup beans or edamame

1/4-1/2 cup trail mix

8 ounces milk

4-6 ounces low-fat cottage cheese and berries

2-3 ounces light tuna or chicken salad with crackers or 1 slice of bread

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Makes 4 servings

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Pint of cherry tomatoes

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided use)

4 cloves garlic, whole

Salt and pepper to taste

4 fillets of cod, 4 to 5 ounces each

Juice and zest of one lemon

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

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1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Cut the tomatoes in half. Toss them in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet, cut side up, and roast until soft and juicy, about 20 minutes.

3. While tomatoes are cooking, place cod on a baking pan. Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest, and remaining olive oil.

4. When the tomatoes have about 10 minutes of cooking to go, place cod in 425-degree oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh parsley.

5. Serve cod with roasted tomatoes.

Per serving: 244 calories, 23 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams sugar, 15 grams fat, 52 milligrams cholesterol, 71 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 8 servings

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For the quinoa salad:

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 cups water

1 cup fresh or grilled corn kernels (1-2 ears)

1 cup chopped bell peppers (use red, orange, or yellow)

1 cup chopped cucumber (leave skin on for green color)

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons red wine

   vinegar

Juice and zest of a lime

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon cumin

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1. Add rinsed quinoa and water to a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until water is almost absorbed. Remove from pan and cool.

2. While quinoa is cooking and cooling, prep the remaining ingredients and prepare the salad dressing: Combine all of the dressing ingredients and whisk together.

3. Once quinoa is cool add the corn, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Gently toss with salad dressing and serve.

Per serving: 155 calories, 4 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 7 grams fat, no cholesterol, 8 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.EndText