Lecture 4: Supplements Flashcards
What is a supplement?
“A food, food component, nutrient, or non-food compound that is purposefully ingested in addition to the habitually consumed diet with the aim of achieving a specific health and/or performance benefit”
Are high protein foods supplements or not? (e.g. high protein yogurt)
These are protein fortified foods
What are the enhanced games?
Athletes are taking banned drugs to ‘push the limits of humanity’
What is the main disadvantage of taking performance enhancing drugs?
They can have detrimental effects on the body, in some cases death
What is WADA?
World Anti-Doping Agency
What are the rules for WADA?
“It is each Athlete’s personal duty to ensure that no Prohibited Substance enters his or her body. Athletes are responsible for any Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers found to be present in their Samples”
What percent of supplements are contaminated?
10-20%
How do you minimise supplement risks?
- Chose a product with proven efficacy
- Ensure product made to high quality standards
- Ensure product has been tested for banned contaminants by a recognized sports anti-doping lab
What are examples of supplement testing companies?
Informed sport, informed choice, certified sport, HASTA
What is the food first approach?
“Where practically possible, nutrient provision should come from whole foods and drinks rather than from isolated food components or dietary supplements”
What does food first, but not always mean?
Supplements are the sprinkles and icing on top of the cake (NOT the main ingredients)
Why shouldn’t we use supplements as the base of an athletes diet?
Supplements can displace other important nutrients from the diet
What are potential reasons for supplement use?
- Difficult to obtain from food without excessive intakes
- Only available in foods some athletes won’t eat
- Difficult to determine the exact nutrients in food
- Difficult to consume close to, during, after exercise
- Nutrients may be required in high doses
What are the questions to ask before you consider using a supplement?
Does it improve energy, health or recovery?
Lacking sufficient qualities in real food?
Is it allowed in your sport?
Is it tested?
What is creatine?
a molecule that is produced in the body from amino acids
What foods is creatine found in?
some animal-based foods and is most prevalent in meat and fish
What does creatine store?
High-energy phosphate groups in the form of phosphocreatine
What are these high energy phosphate groups used for?
phosphate groups are donated to ADP to regenerate it to ATP
What is creatine an energy source for?
high energy muscle contractions
How do we get ATP from food?
- Foods digested
- Absorbed in the small intestine
- Nutrients travel to cells
Nutrients utilised to create ATP
What is ATP?
Adenosine Tri-Phosphate, the energy currency of the body
How do we release energy from ATP?
ATP broken down to ADP releasing energy
What does the pathway for ATP synthesis depend on?
Intensity and exercise mode
What is the difference in ATP demand between high intensity exercise and rest?
a 1,000-fold increase in the rate of ATP demand
Where does the energy come from when ATP is broken down?
ATP produces energy when its phosphate bonds are broken during conversion to ADP
How is ATP resynthesised?
- Cellular respiration
- Creatine phosphate system
- Anaerobic glycolysis
What is the creatine phosphate system?
Provides a rapid means of resynthesizing ATP by transferring a phosphate group from creatine phosphate to ADP, producing ATP and creatine
When do we rely on the phosphagen system?
High intensity short bursts
Do we use one energy source at once?
No exercise relies on just one energy source, however some rely on one more than the others
What energy sources are used from low ATP turnover rate to high?
- Mitochondrial fat
- Mitochondrial CHO
- Glycolytic
- Phosphogen
When looking at evidence, what are the best practices?
Systematic reviews, RCT’s
When looking at evidence, what are the worst practices?
Reports with limited data, opinions, ideas
What does phosphocreatine decompose to?
Creatine plus a phosphate ion plus energy
Why is creatine overlooked for female athletes?
because of a perception that it causes weight gain
What do studies show that creatine use enhances?
Muscular strength and power and other measures of anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance with minimal effects on body composition
What is the classification that the Australian institute uses?
The A, B, C, D Classification system focusses on sports foods and individual ingredients rather than specific supplement products and brand
What are the A,B,C,D groups?
A = Strong evidence
B = Emerging Evidence: needs more research to be used under monitoring or research protocols
C = No supportive evidence
D = Banned/high risk
