Whole Foods and Supplements in Sports Nutrition: A Food-First, Not Food-Only Perspective
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Sports Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2026 | Viewed by 25
Special Issue Editor
Interests: macronutrient manipulations and sport performance; sport supplements and recovery; sport bars and drinks for endurance, strength, and power; functional food and weight loss; glycemic control and diabetes; active aging strategies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the upcoming Special Issue on "Whole Foods and Supplements in Sports Nutrition: A Food-First, Not Food-Only Perspective". Nutritional strategies for athletes increasingly span both whole foods and supplement use, with growing interest in how these approaches compare, complement one another, and can be integrated in practice. Whole foods provide a complex matrix of nutrients and bioactive compounds, while supplements can offer targeted, convenient, and precisely dosed support where dietary intake alone is insufficient.
Nutritional supplements play a crucial role in enhancing athletic performance, speeding up recovery, and supporting overall health. Common supplements such as proteins, creatine, amino acids, and electrolytes are widely used to improve endurance, strength, and post-exercise adaptation. These products can be particularly useful when high training loads, travel, or limited food access make it challenging to meet nutrient needs through food alone, even as dietary patterns rich in minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods remain the foundation for long-term performance and health.
As the supplement industry continues to grow, understanding proper usage, dosage, timing, and individual needs is essential for maximizing benefits and minimizing risks. In parallel, there is a need to better characterize when whole-food-based strategies are sufficient, when supplementation adds measurable value, and how bioavailability and tolerance differ between foods and isolated nutrients. Additionally, the co-ingestion of different sports supplements and their combined use alongside whole foods is an emerging area requiring further research to clarify potential synergistic or antagonistic effects on performance and recovery. We invite submissions that examine these questions to advance the conversation on integrating whole foods and supplementation into health and sports performance.
Prof. Dr. Mojtaba Kaviani
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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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
- endurance
- metabolism
- bioavailability
- macronutrients
- adaptation
- hydration
- synergy
- energy avialibility
- muscle synthesis
- ergogenic aids
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