The use of nutritional supplements in sport: what, when, why or at all?

Author: Dr. Leon Bedrac

Athletes are exposed to many nutritional supplement products that are marketed with “tempting” claims to support health, optimize recovery and enhance performance. However, the evidence for many of these claims is limited and always depends on additional factors, while the effectiveness and safety of many products are questionable.

Certain nutritional supplements can play a small and not insignificant role in an athlete's nutrition plan, as products containing essential micronutrients, sports nutrition, performance supplements and general health promoting substances have the potential to provide benefits. Some supplements, when used correctly, can help athletes achieve their goals. However, it takes a lot of effort and knowledge to determine which products are appropriate, how to incorporate them into a nutritional plan, and how to ensure that the potential benefits outweigh the potential negative side effects.

Introduction

If you've ever visited a sports supplement store, you've probably received a lot of advice about which supplements you need and in what quantities. This list is often very long and often a big burden on our wallets, because according to “experts” dozens of different preparations are needed to optimize an athlete’s diet. At the top are protein and carbohydrate powders in powders, capsules and other dosage forms that contain isolated amino acids and their metabolites, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and other anabolic substances, and last but not least the so-called “boosters” that improve metabolic processes.

However, when we take a closer look at the effectiveness of these supplements using professional and "evidence-based" literature, we can quickly see that this seemingly endless list is much shorter and easier on the wallet than we thought when we left the store. There are some basic supplements in an athlete's diet that are useful and can improve athletic performance and overall health. If we consume them in combination with a high-quality basic diet at the right time and depending on the type of training, we can expect faster recovery of glycogen stores, stronger muscle growth and therefore more effective regeneration and better success in competitions. The purpose of this work is to examine the most popular sports nutrition supplements in athletics, as well as their effectiveness and benefits depending on the discipline.

Definitions and categorizations

Athlete supplements are defined and categorized in a variety of ways in the scientific literature, and although none of the classifications are entirely satisfactory, they can generally be divided into four main categories: a) sports nutrition (gels, bars, energy and isotonic drinks), protein (and combined powders), b) vitamins and minerals, c) herbs and botanical plant extracts and d) ergogenic nutritional supplements. In addition, there is also a category that includes weight loss supplements, libido-enhancing products, and functional foods that do not contain common allergens such as gluten and lactose.

The category of herbs and botanical plant concentrates, functional foods, etc. superfoods are very difficult to study and define due to their complex composition and heterogeneous content of biologically active ingredients, but this category has become very popular in recent decades. One of the reasons is the general belief that natural equals healthy, and on the other hand, everything that is obtained in the laboratory through chemical synthesis is a substance that is dangerous to the organism.

In fact, contrary to this naive perception, it is precisely certain natural substances that consumers' health and sporting performance can be seriously jeopardized and in some cases can even lead to the failure of doping controls. For this reason, many experts in the field advocate stricter regulation, better enforcement of existing regulations and greater awareness among consumers, i.e. athletes.

Categorizations:

  • Sports nutrition: sports drinks, gels, bars, liquid meal replacements

  • Ergogenic dietary supplements: caffeine, beta alanine, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) nitrates, creatine

  • Therapeutic nutritional supplements: vitamins and minerals, probiotics, immunomodulators

  • Functional nutrients and superfoods: herbs and plant extracts, spirulina, fiber, juices, chia seeds

  • Other dietary supplements: metabolism boosters and weight loss products, agents to increase libido and energy