Without doubt, many elite athletes have utilized diet as a component of their training program, and dietary intervention has had a positive effect on performance. Many Olympic athletes report, however, that they formulated their “ideal diet” through trial and error.
One is struck by the fact that although progress has been made, nutrition as a discipline is still in its infancy, and sports nutrition is embryonic. Data on dietary habits of Olympians remain sketchy at best: quantitative data began to appear approximately 40 y ago, with the majority of detailed data published only during the past 10-15 y.
Research has resulted in a respectable body of knowledge for a few specific areas of nutrition and performance. Best information has related to the intricacies of fluid and electrolyte balance, physiology of thermoregulation, carbohydrate requirements for endurance athletes, weight gain, and pre-competition foods. Among the many unanswered questions that still remain are protein requirements of athletes, carbohydrate requirements of non-endurance athletes, and vitamin and antioxidant needs.
Throughout the present century, recommendations and practices to athletes have followed scientific findings. Whereas Olympians of the ancient games drank wine, and the Olympic marathoners of 1908 drank cognac to enhance performance, Olympians today are well aware of the virtues of hydration through water and sports beverages. Dietary recommendations in the late 1800s identified specific foods athletes should consume, specifically “two kinds of meat at all three meals, supplemented with a moderate quantity of fruits and vegetables”. Recommendations today are more precisely nutrient and subject specific, for example, 8-10 g carbohydrate/kg body wt.
If the past century has been enlightening, the next century will be even more so, with better scientific understanding of sports physiology and nutrient requirements as both relate to improved athletic performance. More will be discovered about optimal nutrient level, the mysteries of genetics will be refined and hormonal responses to diet and exercise will be better understood. In the next century, the discipline of sports nutrition will become more definitive. One hundred years from now, at the bicentennial celebration of the Olympic Games, at a presentation entitled “Diets of Elite Athletes: Has the Discipline of Sports Nutrition Made an Impact?” today’s understanding of sports nutrition will appear to be embryonic.
Article was borrowed from the Journal of Nutrition.
Lest we forget the early TdeF where they thought smoking increased lung capacity. Yah. I’m pretty sure we’re moving in the right direction!