The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Ex-EMU track star teaches healthy eating
Teacher holds degree in human nutrition
By Brian Cox, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: February 1, 2007
Juan Lauchu, a former member of Eastern Michigan University's varsity track and field team, has a particular interest in fostering better nutritional habits among student athletes.
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As a teacher at Saline High School, he sees students with poor eating habits suffering from anemia, hypoglycemia, even eating disorders.
He sees teens who had a Pop Tart for breakfast or skipped the important meal altogether. He sees kids eating a slice of pizza, a cookie and chocolate milk for lunch.
Talk with Lauchu for a time and he does not paint a healthy picture. He estimates one in three students do not eat breakfast.
The well-publicized outcry over childhood obesity, he believes, is prompting an opposite reaction in some students who are choosing to eat less, leading to an alarming rise in eating disorders in girls and boys.
A member of Saline High School's first-response team, Lauchu was once called to three instances of students suffering from hypoglycemia in a single day.
As a chemistry and physiology teacher with a master's degree in human nutrition, Lauchu is dismayed by what he sees and passionate to do his part to change it.
His human physiology class, which he pioneered six years ago, is designed to teach nutrition from a science perspective, to look at what people should eat and why. When his students learn the "why" behind good nutrition, Lauchu says they are much more inclined to make better choices in their diet.
"The No. 1 thing that makes me happy about this class is when I sit down with parents and they say my kid loves your class and they're eating better," Lauchu said.
He draws immense satisfaction teaching nutrition because he knows he can positively impact the daily lives of his students.
"If there's one thing these kids are going to do every day, it may not be chemistry but they are going to eat," he said.
Lauchu, a 1990 Saline High School graduate who has coached a range of sports and competed in the javelin and hammer events as an EMU athlete, has a particular interest in fostering better nutritional habits among student athletes.
For a time, coaches would often call upon him to speak briefly to their teams about nutrition, but Lauchu became frustrated by the ineffectiveness of a 15-minute spiel. He needed more time. He wanted the opportunity for more dialogue such as he had in his class.
Toward that end, Lauchu has developed a two-part seminar through Saline Community Education titled "Nutrition for Athletes," in which he will discuss with athletes and their parents what they should eat and why.
The first two-hour seminar is "Fueling Performance," and will focus on what athletes should eat prior to, during and after a competition. The second seminar, "Issues and Insights," will explore prevalent issues detrimental to heightened performance such as anemia, weight gain and loss, eating disorders, and the use of supplements.
Lauchu will stress what he calls the three Rs: Rest, Repair and Recovery.
Student athletes, he said, are increasingly specializing in a sport. In addition to practicing and playing on a varsity team, they are playing on travel teams outside of school. Many leave little time for their bodies to recover from the exertion. Coupled with a poor diet, the stress on the athletes' bodies can have short- and long-term effects.
"We are starting to see more and more overuse injuries," Lauchu said, citing a senior athlete he knows who has suffered two anterior cruciate ligament injuries in his high school career. "Every year there are more over-training issues. They think more is better."
Often, Lauchu said, the answer to better performance isn't harder training or more games. It's as simple as better nutrition.
He hopes to deliver that message at the seminars.
"If students and parents could leave this seminar with one new piece of information, I'll be happy," he said. "I'm hoping this is something that gets a good turn out that I can try again next year."
The seminars are open to students in seventh through 12th grades and their parents. They are independent of one another and students may attend one or both.
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