From Athletes to Patients: Translating Sports Nutrition Concepts to Metabolic Disease
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Sports Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 September 2026 | Viewed by 202
Editor
Interests: metabolism; exercises; diabetes; diet; biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sports nutrition research has long explored the limits of human metabolic adaptation under conditions of high energy turnover, metabolic stress, and repeated physiological loading. Concepts such as energy availability, substrate periodization, recovery nutrition, and metabolic flexibility have been developed primarily to optimize athletic performance and adaptation. However, many of these same metabolic pathways are also central to the pathophysiology and management of chronic metabolic diseases. At the opposite end of the metabolic spectrum, individuals with obesity, type 2 diabetes, sarcopenia, and cardiometabolic disorders experience impaired metabolic flexibility, reduced mitochondrial function, disrupted fuel utilization, and maladaptive responses to physiological stress. Increasing evidence suggests that principles derived from sports nutrition and exercise physiology can be adapted and translated to clinical populations, offering novel strategies to improve metabolic health, body composition, and functional capacity. This Special Issue aims to bridge the gap between elite performance and clinical care, highlighting shared mechanisms and transferable nutritional and exercise strategies across extremes of metabolism. By reframing sports nutrition concepts in a therapeutic context, this issue seeks to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue between sports scientists, nutritionists, clinicians, and translational researchers.
Dr. Roberto Codella
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- periodized nutrition
- training periodization
- metabolic flexibility
- recovery
- training load
- chronic metabolic diseases
- translational nutrition
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