Pages: 237

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 22

The food consumed daily by active individuals is capable of sustaining training quality, enhancing recovery and bolstering physical performance. In this chapter, we discuss traditional and contemporary views on nutrition for sport and exercise, and explore the rationale for a new approach of ‘integrative sport and exercise nutrition’, which considers food as so much more than just ‘fuel’ for training. The importance of the dynamic, interconnectedness of our physiological systems underpins the core philosophy throughout this book, such that a body that functions optimally is central to peak performance. In doing so, we will consider how far sports nutrition has come and how evidence-based and scientific practice supports our understanding of the mechanistic nature of nutrients in optimising physical, physiological, biochemical and even psychological performance. We conclude this chapter by discussing the challenges faced between evidence-based thinking and translational applications. For both the practitioner in the field and the athlete themselves, daily life revolves around the concept of n = 1 and raises the need for athlete-focused nutrition while learning from scientific discoveries. In doing so, this chapter aims to raise conceptual awareness around ‘integrative sport and exercise nutrition’ as a core focus throughout this book.

Pages: 26

As we enter the ‘genomics’ era, scientists and practitioners are becoming more aware of the role that an athlete’s genes may have on their health, training and performance. This chapter therefore aims to develop a broader understanding and appreciation of the role that genetics plays in sport and exercise performance, how a personalised nutrition approach may be utilised to support individual health and performance and to optimise recovery. Scientific evidence on nutrigenomics (‘the study of interaction of dietary components with the genome and the resulting proteomic and metabolomic changes’, Subbiah, 2007) and nutrigenetics (the study of ‘gene-based differences in response to dietary components’, Subbiah, 2007) is still developing, yet it is clear that the influence of nutrition and lifestyle on genetic expression is a complex, personalised subject.

Pages: 27

Despite research reports of gastrointestinal (GI) symptomology in athletes since at least the 1980s, GI health has not received sufficient interest in sports nutrition until recently. The incidence of GI symptoms is most frequent in endurance sport participants, especially runners, but it has also been reported in other sports, including team events. Reported causes include hypoperfusion of the GI tract during exercise, due to splanchnic redistribution of blood flow, causing gut ischaemia, which can result in disruption to the intestinal barrier. It is also important to understand why athletes experience GI symptoms at rest, which may relate to nutrition and lifestyle patterns, stress, the use of certain medications and other factors. The human microbiome is a vital part of GI health, which ‘cross-talks’ with the brain and mitochondria and many other aspects of an athlete’s physiology. Microbial diversity has been shown to be improved with exercise participation, but stresses of training and competition can, conversely, deplete microbial health. Many nutrition and lifestyle strategies for improved GI health are already in use within integrative health practices and can be applied to a sport and exercise context, as demonstrated in a case study of a recreational trail runner.

Pages: 29

The concept of detoxification with relevance to nutritional support is an often overlooked (and under appreciated) area in sport and exercise nutrition. Unfortunately, this term can be confused with ‘detox diets’ or fasting, involving acute and often extreme dietary approaches, and lacking in scientific validity; which this chapter is NOT about. Instead, we focus on the innate physiological processes of detoxification, which includes the associated antioxidant enzyme systems, the methylation and sulphation pathways and others. Detoxification describes the physiological removal of exogenous toxic substances and end-products of metabolism from the body, encompassing a process known as biotransformation, whereby fat-soluble substances are converted to water-soluble molecules to facilitate elimination from the body. It is an essential, yet complex, process that occurs continually throughout the body, which may be heavily burdened during sport or exercise in certain individuals, particularly those who undertake strenuous or ‘excessive’ training. As such, it is important for a health practitioner to be able to determine the detoxification load of an individual athlete, plus understand the nutritional resources available to support biotransformation within the body. This chapter provides an overview of the main detoxification processes, along with a comprehensive review of nutritional and lifestyle considerations to support an athlete’s inbuilt detoxification processes.

Pages: 26

Physical activity has been shown to have positive or negative effects on immune function, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise. In this chapter, we explore the relationship between exercise, immunity and illness in athletes. Discussion is based around the important role that nutrition plays in shaping this relationship and the consideration of practical applications that can help support a healthy immune system in athletes including the importance of general nutrition, hydration, supplementation and lifestyle. By understanding how exercise and nutrition impact immunity, athletes should be able to optimise their training and performance, while maintaining overall health and wellbeing. What’s more, avoidance of overtraining, excessive lifestyle stressors (‘life load’) and insufficient nourishment is also discussed in the context of dysregulated immune responses, including allergies and autoimmunity. We conclude that when supporting an athlete’s immune system, a food first approach should be followed as much as possible, while also acknowledging that specific nutritional supplements may have a place in certain scenarios. Importantly, we must recognise that the research base is always evolving and practitioners should follow an evidence-based practice approach, personalised to the context of the individual athlete.

Pages: 35

Mitochondria are more than simply energy-making ‘factories’ within our cells; they are descendants of ancient bacterial species that integrate with the health of all body systems, most notably the gastrointestinal microbiome. They run on macronutrient ‘fuel’ from the diet, along with micronutrient co-factors for enzymatic facilitation of the energy pathways and are heavily reliant on antioxidant membrane protection. When athletes exercise, the redox capacity of their enzyme antioxidant systems increase as part of the adaptive training response. However, this process is reliant on sufficient dietary nourishment, and if training load becomes excessive, and recuperation strategies insufficient, the resultant oxidative stress can overpower these innate antioxidant systems over time. This can lead to cardiovascular pathology, as can be seen in some cases of masters with heavy training loads. However, by paying attention to overall life load, training and recovery balance and deep cellular and mitochondrial nourishment (including awareness of micronutrients and polyphenols), athletes should be able to maintain better health, support their athletic performance and look forward to longevity in their sport and life.

Pages: 37

This chapter aims to tackle the topic of physiological balance for sport and exercise through the lens of the neuroendocrine (nervous and hormonal) systems. All the body systems reviewed in Section 1 of this textbook are subject to imbalance during prolonged periods of training load and stress, but the neuroendocrine systems represent quite an obvious barometer of change that can be clearly addressed via dietary, mental-emotional, lifestyle and exercise interventions. Physiologically, a lot of insight into these systems can be gained by understanding and assessing the hypothalamus-pituitary (HP) axes and their target glands, including the adrenals, thyroid and gonads, plus associated nervous system functioning. Additionally, research interests into allostasis and hormesis provide us with an extra layer of awareness of how an athlete’s life, or ‘ecosystem’, can impact on these physiological systems, both positively and negatively. Nourishing and restoring imbalances that may have occurred are vitally important to enable an athlete to achieve optimal health alongside sporting fulfilment. Interventions can include recuperative activities between training sessions, adjustment of training load and the employment of nutritional strategies that are replete with macro and micronutrient density, including carefully targeted supplementation.

Pages: 33

Musculoskeletal injury is a significant consideration in an athletic career and appropriate nutrition is fundamental to the recovery process. This chapter outlines the phases of tissue healing and summarises the current literature around nutritional support to connective tissue structures at different stages of recovery. It also explores the evidence for supplementation of micronutrients and enzyme cofactors as well as anti-inflammatory foods and botanicals. Timing should be considered for certain interventions, such as the use of bromelain, omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin and ginger, to ensure that healing inflammation may occur acutely as required, followed by unhindered resolution of tissue injury. Ensuring a whole food, low glycaemic, protein-rich diet should support resolution of inflammation and help to minimise loss of lean muscle mass during any periods of prolonged inactivity or immobilisation. This chapter highlights the importance of avoiding nutrient and energy deficiency in the injured athlete and a case study provides a working example of how this may be assessed and managed, plus detailed nutritional support applied. Personalised care, understanding the foundational lifestyle factors that impact each athlete, and their genetic uniqueness, is crucial in supporting their physical and psychological recovery and return to training.

Pages: 238

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 25

Unbeknown to most sport and exercise practitioners, the concept of Calories stems from very early science. The classic ‘calories in versus calories out’ energy balance equation still forms the basis of many sports nutrition strategies today and is generally taken as a static approach. While it is clear that physical exercise (particularly when performed at high intensity) increases energy expenditure, and therefore increases the need for higher dietary caloric requirements, the energy balance equation is both complex and recognisably flawed, with notable errors when quantifying both energy intake and expenditure. Therefore, for a sport and exercise practitioner to optimally support their athlete’s potential, they are encouraged to critically evaluate these fundamental nutrition concepts on an individual (n = 1) basis, in line with the athlete’s lifestyle, behaviours and goals.

Pages: 33

When it comes to sports nutrition, the focus is typically placed on the big players, the macronutrients, often resulting in the crucial micronutrients being overlooked. In this chapter, we have purposefully flipped our thinking towards an emphasis of whole food nutrition, which provides quality nutrients that are at the heart of athletic performance. Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are used as co-factors for biochemical processes, driving everything from metabolic pathways to optimal recovery. This chapter starts with the practitioner in mind, introducing factors to consider when assessing an athlete’s micronutrient needs, with a key focus on the sportsperson’s gut health. A framework is then provided to help the practitioner assess and correct potential insufficiencies or deficiencies, if identified. Synergistic and antagonistic micronutrient interactions are briefly mentioned before key vitamins and minerals are reviewed, looking at their roles in a select number of physiological functions that are highly relevant for an athlete, including energy metabolism, thyroid function, immunity and others. The second part of the chapter introduces polyphenols with regard to how their documented antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties may be relevant for sport performance. Again, with the practitioner in mind, important considerations and strategies involving the increase of overall intake and bioavailability of polyphenols through food and supplementation are discussed, with a primary objective of supporting an athlete’s health-based performance.

Pages: 40

It is commonly established that macronutrients are categorised into carbohydrates (CHO), proteins and fats and are required in larger amounts compared to other nutrients. This chapter considers the supply and metabolism of macronutrients within the context of substrate (or ‘fuel’) utilisation during exercise, taking into account current sports nutrition guidelines. Alongside this, we consider the growing interest in personalised nutrition in relation to macronutrient balance, and how this relates to the integrative health needs of the athlete, based on their life and exercise demands. This chapter closely aligns with considerations around caloric needs for sport and exercise (Chapter 9), requirements for maximising muscle hypertrophy (Chapter 13) as well as the concept of nutrient timing (Chapter 14). While CHOs are regarded as vital for sustained or repetitive high-intensity performance, attention to both quantity and quality of foods are important practitioner considerations in order to optimise athlete health and training benefits, including recovery. Similarly, with long-term interest in high fat or protein strategies to modify metabolic or adaptive responses to training, low-CHO high-fat and ketogenic diets are discussed, as well as high protein strategies. Also considering the translation of research information, it is important to note that most athletes do not (and should not) live at dietary extremes, so practitioners should be mindful of contextually applying relatively balanced dietary macronutrition to their athletes.

Pages: 33

For the average person, achieving a healthy body composition is crucial for overall health and wellbeing, but for an athlete it is paramount to performance. However, with so many conflicting messages about the best dietary and lifestyle approaches for optimal weight management, it can be challenging for a sports person to know where to start. The objectives of this chapter, therefore, are to explore several strategies for achieving a healthy body composition through nutrition, exercise and lifestyle choices. Key differentiations are made between weight and body composition strategies for differing sport and exercise scenarios. In addition to addressing the standard approach of caloric balancing, we also examine physiological contributors to body composition, including genetics, blood sugar regulation, hormonal health, inflammation, stress hormones and detoxification. Some of these physiological concepts of body composition are then brought to life by the case study of an Olympic sprinter who was transitioning from a period of off-season into a heavy winter training block.

Pages: 27

Skeletal muscle is a highly adaptable tissue, responding significantly to well designed resistance training programmes with the aid of nutrition. While research on skeletal muscle hypertrophy is a vast area, this chapter aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how to support the growth and maintenance of this tissue from a health-based performance perspective. The chapter starts by delivering an overview of factors that determine skeletal muscle hypertrophy, as well as the drivers and mechanisms that produce hypertrophic adaptations to help understand and support the adaptability of this tissue. A comprehensive discussion around energy and protein needs for skeletal muscle hypertrophy is provided, while recognising that integrative body health is also vital to support an athlete’s anabolic/catabolic balance. In this context, consideration is given to contemporary theories of the gut-muscle axis, and how it applies within a sporting context. In addition, the concept of the athlete’s ecosystem will be introduced and brought to life with a case study that showcases integrative thinking.

Pages: 24

Nutrient timing represents a strategic dietary approach, where specific nutrients are consumed at precise periods around training sessions to enhance both acute performance and chronic adaptations. Early investigations in this field primarily focused on the impact of acute carbohydrate (CHO) intake on exercise performance and the replenishment of glycogen stores, crucial for sustaining energy levels during moderate to high-intensity aerobic activities (Karlsson and Saltin, 1971; Gollnick et al., 1973, 1974). Subsequently, attention shifted towards understanding the effects of acute protein consumption on performance, recovery and adaptation, following both endurance and resistance exercise regimes. Initial research findings, alongside established acute bioenergetic, biochemical and endocrine responses to exercise, laid the groundwork for Ivy and Portman (2004) to construct a theoretical framework of nutrient timing to facilitate long-term adaptations to training stimuli. However, there remains a paucity of chronic interventional studies exploring the broader implications of nutrient timing on performance metrics, recovery processes and overall adaptation. In conjunction with the innate variability between nutrient needs and responses of individual athletes, this presents challenges for practitioners working with the nutrient timing requirements of an athlete.

Pages: 22

When it comes to sports nutrition, athletes often prioritise their macronutrient intake, viewing hydration as secondary and only focusing on their fluid and electrolyte needs if issues start arising. In this chapter, we discuss the evolutionary basis for why exercising humans sweat so much, how this has the potential to lead to levels of dehydration that can significantly impact an athlete’s performance and therefore why hydration should be considered a priority in the planning for training and competition. Hydration can be a confusing topic for athletes, with many conflicting views and evidence published on what, when and how much athletes should be drinking. To help athletes and coaches navigate this ‘debate’, this chapter reviews both historical and recent research and advice on fluid and electrolyte use for hydration. Recommendations for hydrating before, during and after exercise bouts are provided, taking individual factors and exercise outcomes/goals into consideration. Case studies and practical tips are included to help athletes and practitioners understand the individuality of sweat losses and personalisation of hydration strategies, along with different methods to do so. The potential role of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance in the development of exercise-associated muscle cramps is also discussed.

Pages: 26

The consumption of sports drinks has become commonplace within the environments of performance sport, fitness and health-based settings, with most populations using them to boost energy, enhance performance, maintain hydration and aid recovery. These beverages are typically formulated to address the needs of athletes, offering a balance of hydration, energy, electrolyte replenishment and even caffeinated stimulation. However, while sports drinks may offer several benefits, it is important that they are used mindfully and tailored to the specific needs of the individual and their level of activity. Additionally, we must also question whether there are any potentially harmful effects when regularly consuming commercial sports drinks, and investigate whether more natural, whole food derived options can be used to provide similar, plus added, benefits. This chapter will evaluate the evidence for the use of sports and recovery drinks by athletes and exercisers, and explore highly nourishing ways to make and consume these beverages for the potential betterment of health and physical performance.

Pages: 6

“Integrative sport and exercise nutrition is about understanding our athlete and the synergistic interactions between their body systems; by putting nutritional health at the core of their personal care, we can begin to optimise their physical performance.”