Body Fuel: Food For Sport #16380

10%

Be at the top of your game with ground-breaking sports nutrition secrets every competitor should know about.

Dear Colleague

Given the never-ending debate over sports supplements, it’s easy to forget that no amount of expensive pills and powders can compensate for a less-than-adequate regular diet. Serious athletes need to pay close attention to basic nutrition, making sure their daily diet meets the demands of their chosen sport.

But what is the appropriate diet for a sports competitor, given their high volume of training and competition? Which food types should you be eating, and in what amounts?

Body Fuel – Food For Sport dissects the major current debates in sports nutrition, analyses the very latest scientific findings – then spells out in plain English their significance for the serious athlete. Every page of this brand new report draws on the latest evidence-based thinking in sports science research.

It’s a rare opportunity to assess the latest thinking on sports nutrition for yourself, and decide how best to integrate it into your training and conditioning routines.

Get your copy of this 92-page report today. Here is a chapter by chapter run down of what you'll find:

PROTEIN 1 - How much protein do athletes need – and how safe are high-protein diets?

PROTEIN 2 - Optimum nutrition: it’s about much more than simply eating the right amount

CARBOHYDRATE - Forget fancy supplements – carbs are even more important than you thought, for strength as well as endurance

FAT - High-fat diets and endurance performance: is it time for a rethink?

MINERALS 1 - Why magnesium matters to athletes

MINERALS 2 - Could calcium be the new Holy Grail of sports nutrition?

NUTRITION IN FOOTBALL - ‘Your role is to make sure there are no fat b******s in my team’

RECOVERY - The post-exercise window of opportunity: why we need to start drawing the curtains

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS SAY - When carbo-loading works for women

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS SAY - Carbohydrates and perceived exertion

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS SAY - It’s not just what you eat…

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS SAY - Supercompensation only works once

What’s more, postage & packing is free. And you’ve got 30 days to decide whether or not you want to keep the book or return it for a full refund.

Yours sincerely

Sylvester Stein

Chairman: Peak Performance


Protein Requirements for Athletes – are you getting enough, or too much?

While the basic biochemistry and functional roles of protein in the body have long been understood, there’s still a huge amount of mythology and confusion surrounding protein nutrition, especially where athletes are concerned. Just how much protein do athletes really need to optimize and maintain performance? What are the possible health implications of high-protein diets? And what’s the optimal ‘mix’ of protein and carbohydrate?

In Body Fuel – Food For Sport we tackle these issues head-on. We present the latest scientific findings, and discuss the health risks and performance implications for both strength and endurance competitors. You learn what is the appropriate amount of protein per kg per day, and which foods are best. And we highlight the role of hydration in assisting high-protein diets.

We also shed new light on the role of protein in assisting post-exercise recovery, presenting the findings of a recent study on ultra-endurance athletes.

Finally, we set out a comprehensive ‘protein strategy’ – a series of practical steps you can take to optimize your protein nutrition.

Carbohydrate Foods – why are they so important for strength as well as endurance?

The role of carbohydrate in sports performance might be one of the most thoroughly researched topics in the field of sports nutrition, but that doesn’t stop it constantly throwing up new surprises!

New research indicates that both gender and age can affect the way our bodies utilize this vital fuel. And just in case you have any lingering doubts about the crucial contribution of carbohydrate to optimum performance, scientists have also been busy investigating the link between low-carb intakes (such as some recent popular diets) and exercise-induced free radical damage, leading to impaired muscle function.

Body Fuel – Food For Sport presents these new findings, and discusses the implications for sports competitors.

High Fat Diets and Competitive Performance – time for athletes to rethink their prejudices?

The F word! The very mention of fat can send athletes and non-athletes alike running for cover. As a food, fat has gained a bad reputation and become something to be eliminated from our diet as completely as possible. However, the general demonisation of fat is quite unjustified since, as any nutritionist will tell you, fat has a valuable place in a well-balanced diet.

Of course, athletes tend to avoid fat because they believe it will lead to an increase in body fat levels, which they see as having an adverse effect on performance. But is this really the case? Or could it be that fat is actually an important ally to athletes in some events?

In Body Fuel – Food For Sport we discuss the impact on performance of short- (i.e. less than 7 days) and long-term high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets on endurance competitors. How do these interventions work, and why? And what are the real lessons for athletes seeking to boost their performance levels?

A basic mineral that athletes overlook at their peril. Are you getting enough?

Ask most athletes to name some key minerals for human performance nutrition and you’ll probably find calcium, iron, zinc and even chromium popping up in their lists. But there is one other essential mineral nutrient that is frequently overlooked.

Despite the pivotal role this mineral plays in energy production, many coaches and athletes remain unaware of its critical importance in maintaining health and performance. Indeed, dietary intakes in the West have declined to less than half of those recorded 100 years ago, and are still falling.

Yet many scientists believe that the amount required for optimum health have been underestimated in the past, and recent research suggests that even small shortfalls in intake can seriously impair athletic performance. Clearly, this nutrient is a key element of a proper diet that no serious athlete can afford to overlook!

Body Fuel – Food For Sport discusses the important dietary role played by this substance, and how it acts to improve sports performance. We also list the foods that contain the highest content of this particular mineral, so you can take steps to increase your intake if necessary.

Could this nutrient be the Holy Grail of sports nutrition? Judge for yourself .

Unless you’re a cross-channel swimmer or sumo wrestler, it’s almost certainly true that you’ll perform better without excess body fat. Surplus fat acts as dead weight, increasing the load on your muscular system and demands on your oxygen transport system. So it’s hardly surprising that the search for an effective fat loss supplement is a Holy Grail of sports nutrition. Very few of the various potions and lotions on the market stand up to scientific scrutiny. But the real answer could be right under our noses in the form of one of the most familiar nutrients in our everyday diet.

In Body Fuel – Food For Sport we assess the growing body of evidence that this everyday nutrient plays an important role in the regulation of energy metabolism and body composition and, in certain circumstances, may help reduce body fat and prevent weight gain. And we spell out the dietary and performance implications for athletes.

Finally, we identify which foods are the best sources of this nutrient, so you can take steps to increase your intake if you wish to act on the findings of the research presented.


Nutrition and Post-Exercise Muscle Recovery – we dispel a few myths

Since the dawn of sports nutrition as a scientific discipline, one issue has consistently dominated practitioners’ attention – the post-exercise ‘window of opportunity’ for muscle recovery.

Traditionally two nutrients have grabbed most of the muscle recovery headlines: carbohydrate and protein. The drive to consume carbohydrate as early as possible after activity derives from the early work of Louise Burke, head of the Australian Institute of Sport’s nutrition department, and John Ivy in Texas, whose primary concern was to maximize the rate of glycogen synthesis.

Both sports scientists were hell bent on recovering muscle glycogen as fast as possible so that performance in an event or training session occurring up to 24 hours later did not suffer. Protein was then added to the carbohydrate for two reasons:

* To improve glycogen accumulation beyond what could be achieved by consuming carbohydrate alone;

* To stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

The need to consume both these nutrients as soon as possible after exercise – during the so-called ‘window of opportunity’ – has become the central plank of most post-exercise recovery strategies. Some recent research, however, has cast doubt on the necessity for this practice.

In Body Fuel – Food For Sport we set out the findings of this research and assess its implications for athletes and coaches alike, discussing a range of situations in which the necessity for taking advantage of any post-exercise ‘window of opportunity’ may, or may not, be necessary.

Body Fuel – Food For Sport is published by Electric Word plc, publishers of the Peak Performance newsletter, Sports Injury Bulletin and Successful Coaching.