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Are nutritional supplements needed to boost athletic performance? - by Doug Cook
Is eating right and training more intensely enough to improve athletic performance? Or do you need to take nutritional supplements to give you that extra power that could make the difference between winning and losing?
The growing awareness of the interaction between diet and physical activity has fueled an expanding interest in the valuable role that micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) nutrition can play in achieving one’s true potential in physical performance.
There is the impression that most physically active people are simply unable to meet their vitamin and mineral requirements through diet and food alone and that this somehow results in substandard training and impaired performance. Another perception is that exercise increases the requirements for vitamin and minerals due to increased metabolism. These opinions encourage the use of supplements to improve physical performance, even though scientific evidence to support the generalized use of nutritional supplements for this reason is lacking.
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins are compounds found in small amounts in foods, and are referred to as nutrients because they can not be made by the body and therefore must come from what we eat. Vitamins are essential to support health and well-being and are central to the metabolism of energy production through the digestion of food: protein, carbohydrate and fat. Because the rates of these metabolic processes increase during physical activity, an adequate supply of vitamins is needed to promote optimal physical performance.
Minerals likewise are essential nutrients and must be obtained from the diet. Unlike vitamins, there is more of an impact on performance with suboptimal intake of minerals. Magnesium, iron, zinc, copper and chromium are components of enzymes, involved in energy production and with the transportation of oxygen.
Studies have shown that vitamin and mineral deficiencies are rare in the general population when a balanced diet is consumed but eating enough to prevent deficiencies versus getting enough to optimize exercise or one’s health potential are two different things. People who regularly engage in exercise and sport have increased energy requirements and therefore will increase their total food intake. Provided there is a conscientious effort to choose minimally processed, whole foods more often, most individuals will meet the nutrient requirements associated with increased activity.
People who may be at risk for inadequate vitamin and mineral intake are those who are trying to lose body fat and who may be restricting their food intake or those who are involved in sports that may have an emphasis on lower body weight and or body fat such as gymnasts, boxers, and wrestlers etc.
Taking a broad spectrum multivitamin/mineral that meets but does not exceed the recommended daily intake may be recommended as a preventative measure but it will not enhance performance; that will require discipline and hard training.
Doug Cook, RD MHSc CDE is a clinical dietitian working at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and in private practice. Visit his website www.wellnessnutrition.ca