Sports Nutrition: From Lab to Kitchen by Asker Jeukendrup

Author:Asker Jeukendrup [Jeukendrup, Asker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports/Nonfiction
Publisher: Meyer & Meyer Sport

Although it is not known whether hard training increases the need for dietary antioxidants – as the body naturally develops an effective defense with a balanced diet and endogenous antioxidant defenses actually improve with exercise training – some recent evidence suggests that regular intake of relatively high doses of antioxidant vitamins can also reduce the cortisol response to prolonged exercise (Halson et al. 2004; Gleeson, 2006). These studies have used combinations of vitamin C and E (Fischer et al. 2004), or vitamin C (Davison et al. 2006) alone, and provide a possible mechanism to explain earlier findings of a benefit of vitamin C supplementation in reducing the incidence of URTI symptoms in individuals who took part in ultramarathon races (Peters 2000). The body’s tissue stores become saturated with regular vitamin C intakes of 200 mg•day -1, so this amount, should in theory, be sufficient. Excessive supplementation with other antioxidants cannot be recommended because there is little evidence of benefit, while it is known that over-supplementation can actually diminish the body’s natural antioxidant defense system and may even impair or diminish some adaptations to training. Ensuring that the diet contains plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables is probably the wisest option. However, nutrition is just one of a number of strategies that can help to reduce infection risk in athletes (see Table 1 ).

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