Sporty Bird: All About Sports and Healthy Diet

We have been covering various camps and trainings since the beginning of summer.  Today, we visited a different kind of activity, one where young athletes are learning how to prepare healthy meals that will keep them fit and energized when they are competing in various sports.  Visiting celebrity chef Art Smith and his business partner, rugby athlete Lucas Cancelier, are leading the sessions organized by Ambassador Shabazz.  We stopped by OURS Café and Lounge this morning where healthy cuisine is the order of the day.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

 

Ismar Vasquez, MMA Fighter

“As soon as I heard this, that it’s a cooking class and it’s dedicated for athletes, it’s more on the education for sports side of things, I was excited so that’s when I knew I wanted to come for it.”

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Nutrition plays a crucial role in supporting athletes’ performance and overall health, as they engage in intense physical activities that require more energy than the average person.  A well-balanced diet provides the necessary fuel for training and competition.

 

Lucas Cancelier, Former Athlete/Chef

“All my life I did sports and I know that doing sports, it all depends on what you do during the day it’s what you will need, more proteins, more carbs.  So my idea here is teaching them, it all depends on how they feel and what they need to eat and knowing what you have in the fridge too.  We all don’t have the possibility to have everything in our fridge, so we need to know what we have and what are the properties of what we have in the fridge.”

 

 

 

Different sports have varying nutritional requirements.  Endurance athletes may focus on carbohydrates, while strength athletes prioritize protein intake.  Adequate nutrients support muscle strength, endurance, and power.  Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are essential for optimal performance.

 

 

 

 

 

Ismar Vasquez

“I like that they are emphasizing how important the vegetables are that any meal that you want to do as an athlete, you want to start off with your vegetables.  It helps with your digestion and, as well, you know, it adds to the food, the flavors and the healthy aspect of it.”

 

 

 

 

Ismar Vasquez is a young athlete who has transitioned from the sport of rugby to mixed martial arts.  Along with several other sportsmen from various disciplines, he is learning the importance of a nutritionally adequate diet which is the foundation for an athlete’s success.  They are learning from renowned American chef and restaurateur, Art Smith.

 

 

 

 

Art Smith, American Chef

“Sports and food, there’s very few places that actually have excellent food and there wasn’t a noted chef behind food and sports.  And so, Oprah once said, Quincy Jones said this, the great Quincy Jones, the producer, he said, “If you can see it, you can be it.”  And I saw the need for a chef and so, together, working with Sporty Bird and Lucas Concelier and others.  I just met with the president of the Chicago Bears and as a way of bringing food and chef-driven food to the stadium because a lot of it is fast-food.”

 

 

The sessions attended by these athletes are part of a series organized by Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of Malcolm X.  She has been friends with Chef Art for the past thirty years.

 

Amb. Attallah Shabazz, Organizer

“We’re at the OURS Café and Lounge, and OURS means, Our United Reclamation Shared.  So it has a sensitive and dedicated component to it and so while we have a restaurant and special events, host special events and the like, when my visiting chef series comes in they are responsible for Monday to Monday.  During that Monday to Monday, they get to know Belize personally, we identify areas that are associated to them such as this one which is sports and food and nutrition, the power of food.  Then on Sundays, following, we always end with a special community brunch for everyone to participate here.”

 

 

In 2020, Lucas Cancelier, a rugby player, was on his way home to Argentina after a playing a season in Spain when he took a detour to visit Smith in the United States.  When the pandemic struck, he was unexpectedly quarantined in Florida.  Their time together resulted in Smith losing seventy pounds.  A new concept for sports and healthy eating was also born.

 

Lucas Cancelier

“I always had the idea to mix sports and food because I like to teach people [about] what is right to eat.  So we started doing some media together.  After that, I told him, why don’t we mix your fried chicken, because he is so famous for fried chicken, with my Argentinean Milanese.  I had my mom’s recipe that is pretty good, and he said, “Let’s try it.”  So we tried it, people loved it and we started putting some stores, the name is Sporty Bird.  So we have a Sporty Bird in Chicago and we are expanding to other states now.”

 

Together, Cancelier and Smith are teaching Belizean athletes how to eat healthy and excel in their respective disciplines. Isani Cayetano for News Five.