Nutrients

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Athletic Performance

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Stephen P. Bailey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Physical Therapy Education, Elon University, Elon, NC 27244, USA
Interests: mental fatigue and physical performance; the impact of sensory activity on physical and cognitive performance; exercise training in patients with long COVID; the value of caffiene mouth rinses to improve physical performance

Prof. Dr. Bart Roelands

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Human Physiology and Sports Physiotherapy Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
Interests: mental and physical fatigue; sports; environmental stressors; placebo effect
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over recent decades, notable research on the role of nutrition in athletic performance has been conducted. Nutritional recommendations focused on maximizing people’s athletic performance and health are continuing to evolve.

Macronutrients (carbohydrate, fat, protein, and water) and micronutrients (caffeine, nitrates, anti-oxidants, and probiotics) have been used to optimize athletes’ acute performance, prepare them, facilitate adaptation, reduce the negative impacts of the exercise stimulus, and to improve the impact of exercise on their general health. Specific nutritional strategies have been developed for endurance athletes, power athletes, shooting athletes, and ultra-endurance athletes. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Dieticians of Canada profess that nutritional strategies need to be personalized to the individual athlete and account for how they specifically and uniquely respond to various nutritional strategies.

This Special Issue of Nutrients welcomes original research and reviews covering nutritional strategies designed to improve athletic performance. The scope of this issue includes preparatory research evaluating the physiologic consequences of specific dietary behaviors and population-based studies examining the efficacy and effectiveness of specific dietary approaches on athletic performance.

Prof. Dr. Stephen P. Bailey
Prof. Dr. Bart Roelands
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

macronutrients
micronutrients
carbohydrate
fat
protein
antioxidents
probiotics
personalized nutrition

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers

Editorial

Jump to: Research

5 pages, 240 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Athletic Performance

by Ampe Toon, Stephen Bailey and Bart Roelands

Nutrients 2023, 15(21), 4498; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15214498 - 24 Oct 2023

Viewed by 2092

Abstract

The search to comprehend the fundamental physiological factors that contribute to the exceptional endurance performance of elite human athletes is a long-standing endeavor within the field of sports science research [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Athletic Performance)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

20 pages, 3193 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Synergistic Effect of Quince Fruit and Probiotics (Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium) on Reducing Oxidative Stress and Inflammation at the Intestinal Level and Improving Athletic Performance during Endurance Exercise

by Karen Marlenne Herrera-Rocha, María Magdalena Manjarrez-Juanes, Mar Larrosa, Jorge Alberto Barrios-Payán, Nuria Elizabeth Rocha-Guzmán, Alejo Macías-Salas, José Alberto Gallegos-Infante, Saul Alberto Álvarez, Rubén Francisco González-Laredo and Martha Rocío Moreno-Jiménez

Nutrients 2023, 15(22), 4764; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15224764 - 13 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2923

Abstract

Endurance exercise promotes damage at the intestinal level and generates a variety of symptoms related to oxidative stress processes, inflammatory processes, microbiota dysbiosis, and intestinal barrier damage. This study evaluated the effects of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) and probiotics of the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium on intestinal protection and exercise endurance in an animal swimming model. Phytochemical characterization of the quince fruit demonstrated a total dietary fiber concentration of 0.820 ± 0.70 g/100 g and a fiber-bound phenolic content of 30,218 ± 104 µg/g in the freeze-dried fruit. UPLC-PDA-ESI-QqQ analyses identified a high content of polyphenol, mainly flavanols, hydroxycinnamic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids, flavonols, and, to a lesser extent, dihydrochalcones. The animal model of swimming was performed using C57BL/6 mice. The histological results determined that the consumption of the synbiotic generated intestinal protection and increased antioxidant (catalase and glutathione peroxidase enzymes) and anti-inflammatory (TNF-α and IL-6 and increasing IL-10) activities. An immunohistochemical analysis indicated mitochondrial biogenesis (Tom2) at the muscular level related to the increased swimming performance. These effects correlated mainly with the polyphenol content of the fruit and the effect of the probiotics. Therefore, this combination of quince and probiotics could be an alternative for the generation of a synbiotic product that improves exercise endurance and reduces the effects generated by the practice of high performance sports. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Athletic Performance)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1305 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intermittent Fasting Promotes Weight Loss without Decreasing Performance in Taekwondo

by Ronaldo Angelo Dias da Silva, Leszek Antoni Szmuchrowski, João Paulo Pereira Rosa, Marcos Antônio Pereira dos Santos, Marco Túlio de Mello, Lucas Savoi, Yves Ferreira Porto, Francisco de Assis Dias Martins Júnior and Marcos Daniel Motta Drummond

Nutrients 2023, 15(14), 3131; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15143131 - 13 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2918

Abstract

Intermittent fasting (IF) is commonly used by combat sports athletes for weight loss. However, IF can decrease performance. This study aimed to investigate the effect of IF on total body mass (TBM) and Taekwondo performance. Nine athletes (seven male, two female; 18.4 ± 3.3 years) underwent 4 weeks of 12 h IF. TBM, countermovement jump (CMJ), mean kicks (MK), and total number of kicks (TNK) were compared weekly. Performance was measured in the fed state (FED) and fast state (FAST). Results showed decreased TBM in week 1 (62.20 ± 6.56 kg; p = 0.001) and week 2 (62.38 ± 6.83 kg; p = 0.022) compared to pre-intervention (63.58 ± 6.57 kg), stabilizing in week 3 (62.42 ± 6.12 kg), and no significant change in week 4 (63.36 ± 6.20 kg). CMJ performance in week 1 was lower in FED (35.26 ± 7.15 cm) than FAST (37.36 ± 6.77 cm; p = 0.003), but in week 3, FED (38.24 ± 6.45 cm) was higher than FAST (35.96 ± 5.05 cm; p = 0.047). No significant differences were found in MK and TNK in FSKTmult. RPE, KDI, and HR were similar between FED and FAST (p < 0.05). [LAC] was higher post-test compared to pre-test (p = 0.001), with higher concentrations in FED than FAST (p = 0.020). BG was higher in FED than FAST (p < 0.05) before physical tests. Therefore, IF promotes decreased TBM without decreasing performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Nutritional Interventions on Athletic Performance)

► Show Figures