ISSN exercise & sport nutrition review: research & recommendations

TLDR

Sports nutrition is a rapidly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually, making it difficult to stay current. This paper updates the 2004 JISSN review, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of current science on optimizing training and athletic performance through nutrition. It covers ergogenic aids and dietary supplements, their legal regulation, evaluation of scientific merit, general nutritional strategies for performance and recovery, and the ergogenic value of nutrition for weight management and performance enhancement. The review is intended to serve ISSN members and sports nutrition practitioners as a useful resource for daily practice and client consultation.

Abstract

Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. For this reason, keeping up to date with the literature is often difficult. This paper is a five year update of the sports nutrition review article published as the lead paper to launch the JISSN in 2004 and presents a well-referenced overview of the current state of the science related to how to optimize training and athletic performance through nutrition. More specifically, this paper provides an overview of: 1.) The definitional category of ergogenic aids and dietary supplements; 2.) How dietary supplements are legally regulated; 3.) How to evaluate the scientific merit of nutritional supplements; 4.) General nutritional strategies to optimize performance and enhance recovery; and, 5.) An overview of our current understanding of the ergogenic value of nutrition and dietary supplementation in regards to weight gain, weight loss, and performance enhancement. Our hope is that ISSN members and individuals interested in sports nutrition find this review useful in their daily practice and consultation with their clients.