NTS Athletic Development

Fat-Soluble vitamins: large storage capacity in the body, daily consumption not required

A (retinal, beta-carotene): necessary for healthy eyes, skin, and linings of the digestive and urinary tracts and the nose. Inadequate levels lead to eye problems, infections, and blood cell deficiency. Vitamin A is found in milk, and in dark green vegetables as well as orange and yellow fruits and vegetables.
D (cholecalciferol): needed for calcium and phosphorus metabolism and for healthy bones and teeth. Inadequate levels lead to muscle cramping, and pain in the joints. Vitamin D is found in all dairy products, dark green leafy vegetables, and canned fish.
E (tocopherol): necessary for nourishing and strengthening cells. Inadequate levels lead to shortened red blood cell life and can be related to premature problems with eyes. Vitamin E is found in oils of vegetable origin, nuts, and seeds.
K: necessary for blood clotting. Inadequate levels prevent blood from clotting properly. Vitamin K is made from bacteria in the gut, but small amounts are found in green vegetables and milk.

Minerals

Calcium: component of bones and teeth, needed for muscle and nerve activity and blood clotting. Inadequate levels result in poorly developed and deformed skeleton, and growth stunting. Sources include all dairy products, tofu, dark leafy green vegetables, and legumes. .
Phosphorus: needed to maintain the right acid/base balance of body fluids. Deficiency is only seen in conjunction with the intake of certain drugs. It is present in all foods of animal origin and in legumes.
Magnesium: needed for nerve activity, activates enzymes involved in energy and protein formation. Inadequate levels may lead to muscle weakness, convulsions, and growth failure. It is present in nuts, legumes, whole grains, seafood, and dark leafy green vegetables.
Fluoride: component of bones and teeth. Deficiency increases the risk of developing dental cavities. Found in fluoridated water.
Iodine: component of thyroid hormone that help regulate energy production and growth. Deficiency symptoms include fatigue, low body temperature, and weakness. Iodine is found in dietary salt, but is also in seafood.
Selenium: acts as an antioxidant in conjunction with vitamin E, needed for thyroid hormone production. Food content is based on the selenium content of the soil and water where food was grown.
Copper: component of enzymes involved in the body’s utilization of iron and oxygen, functions in growth, immunity, cholesterol and glucose utilization, and brain development. Inadequate intake contributes to iron deficiency anemia. Copper is found in meat and most drinking water.
Manganese: needed for the formation of body fat and bone. Deficiency associated with skeletal problems. Copper is found in whole grain wheat, seeds, nuts, and legumes.
Molybdenum: component of enzymes involved in the transfer of oxygen from one molecule to another. Deficiency is very unlikely. Molybdenum is found at varying levels in foods depending upon the soil where the foods were grown.
Sodium: needed to maintain the right acid/base balance in body fluids, helps maintain an appropriate amount of water in blood and body tissues, needed for muscle and nerve activity. Deficiency leads to muscle cramping and lethargy. It is present in salt, and is high in most fast foods and in many preserved foods. Excessive levels lead to hypertension.
Potassium: needed to maintain the right acid/base balance in body fluids, helps maintain an appropriate amount of water in blood and body tissues, needed for muscle and nerve activity. Deficiency is associated with weakness, paralysis, and confusion and is often seen in conjunction with dehydration. Potassium is present in meats, poultry, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
Chloride: needed to maintain the right acid/base balance of body fluids, helps maintain an appropriate water balance in the body. Inadequate intake may lead to growth retardation in children, as well as cramps and lethargy. It is present in table salt, and in preserved foods.
Iron: transports oxygen as a component of hemoglobin in red blood cells, component of myoglobin, needed for certain reactions involving energy formation. If you are iron deficient, you are likely to fatigue easily upon exertion. Athletes at risk of developing iron-deficiency anemia are: female athletes, athletes who eat no red meat, marathon runners, endurance athletes, and teenage athletes.
Zinc: required for the activation of many enzymes involved in the reproduction of proteins, component of insulin and many enzymes. Inadequate levels lead to growth failure and poor healing of injuries. Found in most high protein foods such as red meat, fish and poultry.
Chromium: required for the normal utilization of glucose and fat. Deficiency is seen with frequent intense exercise and high consumption of simple sugars and is associated with poor blood glucose control. It is found in whole-grain foods and meats.

Although vitamins and minerals are very important for the athlete, it is not good to overdose on them with supplements. Most athletes can take in the RDA for vitamins and minerals with a balanced diet. Too much of some vitamins and minerals can become toxic on the body, as well as interfering with the absorption and benefits of other vitamins and minerals.

Supplements

Ergogenic aids refer to substances that make claims to be performance enhancing. Some common ergogenic aids and their “claimed” benefits are listed below:

Carbohydrate (glycogen) loading: The classical regimen for carbohydrate loading achieves maximal muscle glycogen stores by first completely depleting the muscles of glycogen. Usually seven days before the competition the athlete performs exhaustive exercise and consumes a low-carbohydrate diet to deplete carbohydrate stores. After this depletion phase, the athlete tapers exercise to almost nothing and consumes a high-carbohydrate diet to replenish carbohydrate stores. Although this type of regimen has been shown to be useful in supersaturating tissues with glycogen, the depletion phase is dangerous. Athletes have found serious disturbances in heart rhythm and glucose metabolism from this depletion phase. So it is often not recommended.

Creatine monohydrate: Creatine is a compound made from three amino acids that joins with phosphorus to make phosphocreatine. It is believed that saturating muscles with creatine will enhance our ability to maintain the high-energy compound ATP and delay fatigue in high-intensity activity. Many athletes are taking creatine supplements and there is evidence that creatine supplements enhance anaerobic power and anaerobic endurance. While creatine is synthesized from three amino acids in the body, the creatine monohydrate supplement is the commercially synthesized form of creatine. Athletes should know that long-term safety hasn’t been tested. And it has been linked in some cases to renal damage.

Glycerol: Glycerol is a three-carbon simple lipid that is metabolized like carbohydrate. It is the three-carbon unit that holds dietary fatty acids together to form triglycerides. Glycerol is used as a means of super hydration because of this capacity to hold water, as well as glycerol’s ability to be easily metabolized for energy. This aids to prevent dehydration that may occur during exercise. A drawback of this additional water is that it will make you feel stiff; so many athletes complain that at the beginning of competition they feel stiff and sluggish.

Bicarbonate: Sodium bicarbonate buffers the acidity (lactic acid) created by anaerobic metabolism, allowing for prolonged maintenance of force or power. It would appear that athletes could derive a benefit from sodium bicarbonate consumption for sports involving mainly anaerobic metabolic processes. However, some studies show that well-hydrated athletes show no benefits. There are negative side effects from taking sodium bicarbonate, including potential for gastrointestinal distress and nausea, which should give athletes caution.

Proteins and amino acids: Many athletes take protein supplements and believe that this helps them build muscles. Assessments of their diets indicate that the added protein supplements are providing the calories needed to support the larger muscle mass desired. These same calories could be provided from carbohydrates. Having too much protein will force the body to either burn it as energy or store it as fat. Burning protein as energy is undesirable because it creates nitrogenous waste that is toxic that must be excreted.

Carnitine (L-Carnitine): Carnitine is involved with transporting long-chain fatty acids that reside inside cells into the mitochondria of the cells, where they are metabolized. Carnitine increases blood flow by improving fatty acid oxidation in the artery wall, and it detoxifies ammonia, a by-product of protein breakdown that is associated with early fatigue. The safety of this supplementation has not been adequately tested.

Omega-3 fatty acids: These fatty acids are found in cold-water fish as well as supplementation, and have many benefits. These benefits include reducing muscle soreness, improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients to muscles and other tissues, and improved aerobic metabolism due to better delivery of oxygen

Medium-chain triglycerides: MCT have many properties valuable to athletes. These benefits include providing a quick source of energy, aiding in mobilizing body fat stores for energy, increasing metabolic rate, and sparing lean body mass

Supplementation can cause many problems because athletes don’t what the possible negative side effects are, but they are willing to try anything to improve their performance. Common problems with the "try anything" approach to supplements include positive drug tests, taking larger doses than needed, using as replacement for training and a good diet, as well as spending too much money on supplements that may not really have any benefit. So athletes must be very careful if they choose to take a supplement. Make sure that the supposed benefits truly would be beneficial to your specific sport, and that it outweighs the possible consequences.

Sports Bars

Sports Bars are designed to provide a compact source of energy for the demands of athletes on the run. Although the size and composition of bars varies, the carbohydrate content is typically 30-50 g per bar. Most bars are low in fat (2-3 g per bar) and fiber. These characteristics make them ideal to eat during exercise or immediately after exercise when other solid foods are not well tolerated. The protein content of sports bars ranges from minor (<5 g), to substantial (10-15g+). Most sports bars are fortified with vitamins and minerals, so that an intake of 1-2 bars typically provides the daily-recommended intakes of these micronutrients.

Sports bars provide a more concentrated source of carbohydrate than sports drinks and provide a substantial fuel boost when consumed during or after exercise. They also provide an easily chewed and digested form of solid food to help satisfy hunger during prolonged exercise (i.e. road cycling). However, they are not designed to be used as a general snack or as a replacement of daily meals. Substituting wholesome foods such as cereal, fruit, sandwiches and low-fat fruit yogurt with sports bars is an expensive option for an athlete and may prevent the athlete from meeting requirements of nutrients and that are not provided in the sports bar. Therefore, while sports bars can play a specific role in the athlete's sports nutrition plan, they are not intended to play a general role in meeting dietary goals.

Sports bars are best used as a purpose-built food to meet specific sports nutrition goals. A number of situations when the use of sports bars would be most appropriate include:

Vitamins :

Tissue function - encourage specific chemical reactions to take place in the cell

Immune function - maintain health, fight off colds and diseases

Energy metabolism – aids in the ability of cells to derive energy from carbohydrates, protein, and fat

Nutrient absorption

Nervous system maintenance

Antioxidants that protect body cells from the damaging effects of oxidation

Minerals:

Skeletal strength - resist fractures

Nerve function - serve as bridges for electrical impulses that stimulate muscular movement and coordination

Control of the body's pH- physical activity lowers the pH level in the body, therefore having a body system that controls the acid-base balance is critical

Oxygen transport

Control of the body's water balance

Energy metabolism- controls fuel that is being burned at the cellular level

Water-soluble vitamins: no storage deposits in the body thus requiring daily consumption:

Fat-Soluble vitamins: large storage capacity in the body, daily consumption not required

Minerals

Supplements

Sports Bars

Caffeine

Sources