A Sports Nutritionist’s View on Supplementation, By: Dave DePew and Jeff Kotterman
In an environment of skeptics and critics supplementation, specifically sports supplementation has been scrutinized since Vitamin C was isolated and put in tablet form. Why is the FDA, physicians and registered dietitians so wary of food supplements? Despite the conservative view of supplementation by academia, supplement sales and production continue to rise. Why? Is the public so gullible to the marketing of pills and powders or does the government and health professions refuse to accept the legitimacy of this industry?
First, lets define what a nutritive supplement really is. It’s food, specifically a particular part of food known to be beneficial in biological function. This may be a mineral or an organic compound found in other living things contributing in some way to life function. We need food for two reasons. The first is to provide a constant supply of energy. If that flow is stopped for just an instant, life stops. Therefor, our bodies are in a constant state of consumption. If ingested energy is diminished, we start consuming ourselves to maintain energy flow. The second reason we need food is for growth and repair. Our bodies are the most complex machines known to man. Even the simplest machines break down or at least need to be maintained to prevent breakdown. Therefor, all that we eat cannot be burned for energy. Some must be used to maintain growth and function of the smaller “machines” within our body. These are the nutrients that separate poor food sources from the better ones. These are the substances that effect our body’s ability to access the energy we ingest.
So, if all supplements really are, are nutrients our body can use for growth and repair, what is all the controversy? First, our bodies are so infinitely complicated that every nutrient and how they act in the body have not yet been discovered. Without this knowledge scientists, professors and even doctors are skeptical of how an ingested nutrient might work in the body. If a specific nutrient has been identified as having a biological function, swallowing that nutrient doesn’t necessarily enhance that function. Second, our bodies operate in a balance. Inundating them with a certain nutrient may throw off this balance, causing more harm than benefit.
Why chance this? Why risk throwing our bodies off balance? Those that think there is a potential harm in supplementation don’t realize the potential benefit. The majority of independent nutritional research, even recent studies have been focused on maintaining health or preventing disease. Those that are considering sports supplements as an option are not concerned with just the absence of disease or maintaining their health. They’re concerned with optimal health, human performance and body composition. If you are satisfied with the way your body is and confident that you will be able to maintain it in the years to come, you should not consider supplementation. But, if you just aren’t satisfied with average body fat (15% for men and 25% for women) and average performance, supplementation may be the missing link for improvement!!
Sports nutrition is the science of pushing people to their absolute potential. We’re not promoting just absence of disease and living the average lifespan. We’re concerned with a quality of life that is the most enjoyable, the most rewarding and the most fulfilling. Our bodies are capable of so much more than the way most of us live. This is not without a price. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to determine how to eat, exercise and supplement in order to make this happen. Eating for your body’s potential takes research, evaluation and systematic application of nutrition and exercise. Without supplementation, this is virtually impossible.
Lets look at performance as an example. Olympic competitors are sometimes just a few seconds between first and last place. Is nutrient availability and utilization in competitors a contributor in determining who gets the gold? It not only is a contributor, it is the deciding factor.
So what supplements should you take? How much should you take of them and when should you take them. The first answer is the manufacturer of the product. Don’t stop there!!! Marketing can be easily confused for science. Find an unbiased expert in sports nutrition who is not attached to any supplement line or does not benefit from supplement sales. So who are these experts. They’re not necessarily doctors or nurses or even registered dietitians or nutritionists. They are Licensed Sports Nutritionists who have the education and training to specifically develop a plan for your optimal health. Does this include supplementation? You bet it does. But only exactly what your body needs, at the dosage it needs it, at the right time of day. The real question is not whether or not you should supplement but, do you want to be better than you are? Do you want to go that extra mile? And finally: do you have what it takes to get there?
