Use of dietary supplements in sport: part 2

Ergogenic nutritional supplements to increase athletic performance

The second category includes the so-called ergogenic substances that can improve athletic performance, recovery and the synthesis of new proteins. This group includes most nutritional supplements for athletes, which are characterized by strong propaganda and cyclical periods of greater and lesser popularity.

In fact, there is only a handful of these active ingredients with scientific evidence, and currently only five of them meet the criteria that allow us to say with a high degree of certainty that they provide only marginal benefits in competitive athletes. These are creatine (in the form of monohydrate), caffeine, beta-alanine, baking soda and nitrates, which are precursors of nitric oxide, e.g. beetroot juice. In addition to these five, in certain situations, such as thermally demanding conditions or in situations where athletes are limited by fluid intake and exposed to high humidity, the use of glycerin, which retains water and thus reduces dehydration, is also useful and scientific proven.

For all other substances, such as various derivatives and metabolites of amino acids and fat burners, we do not have clear scientific evidence to improve physical performance or protect health. Some supplements may even be potentially harmful or contain molecules that are banned in sports, such as prohormones and hormones. The useful value of ergogenic substances depending on the type of sporting discipline can be seen in the table below.

Tabele 3