1a - Perspective in Sport Nutrition Flashcards
Nutrition Studies the process of:
Ingestion -> Digestion -> Absorption -> Metabolism -> Biochemical function of…
Nutrients are substances used for…
Chemical substances required by body to sustain basic function
- nutrients are used for energy, growth, tissue maintenance
- also covers any component present in food
Components of Sports nutrition
Integrates both nutrition and exercise physiology
- preparation of athletes for training and performance
- maintaining adequate performance during training and competition
- optimizing recovery after training or competition
- educating on healthy dietary practices, supplement use, special diets
- monitor athletes for unhealthy signs of nutritional practices (ED, doping, supplement use)
Exercise nutrition is interdisciplinary
- biochemistry
- cell biology
- physiology
- epidemiology
- pharmacology
- microbiology
- kinesiology
- psychology
Guiding questions for thinking clearly about nutrition
- essential vs non essential nutrients?
- essential vs optimal nutrition?
- general vs fitness nutrition?
- relative importance of scientific knowledge vs self observation?
- limits of precision in our understanding complex systems
- importance of balancing different perspectives
- context of evolutionary past past/ancestry
- principles of homeostasis, equilibrium, periodicity
essential nutrients
Required for bodily function, not made by body (need to eat)
- has to do something necessary to body (ex: cell division)
- is not made with the body
- discovered by methods and history
non essential nutrients
Are made by the body in sufficient quality
Essential v non essential nutrients
Determined by 2 criteria:
- by function w/in the body
- by synthesis w/in the body
- essential need to be eaten
- non essential are made
Optimal nutrition
Best possible nutrition
strengths of scientific method
- ideal for identifying specific details true for everyone
- more quantitative, measurable, accurate, precise, reliable
- recommendations only made based on evidence
Limits of scientific method
- slow, time-consuming, limited/incomplete
- prone to “tunnel” vision
- requires narrowly focused, well defined questions
Strengths of self-observation
- rapid, fluid, adaptable, open-ended
- incorporates qualitative aspects that are hard to measure
- uses intuitive pattern recognition
- assembly of “big picture” in present moment
- good for hypothesis generation around gaps in scientific knowledge
- better able to grasp full complexity of unique individual
Limitations of self observation
- Fuzzy, imprecise, uncertain
- Vastly higher likelihood of error, bias, confusion
- not getting same types of measurements
- increase error and mistakes
- might not know cause, just reaction
Homeostasis
Dynamic processes enabling optimum conditions for cells, in spite of continuous changes taking place internally and externally
- all bodily systems are involved
