Sports nutrition

Sports Nutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet with regards to a person's athletic performance. Nutrition is an important part of many sports training regimens, being most popular in strength sports (such as weight lifting and bodybuilding) and endurance sports (e.g. cycling, running, swimming, rowing). Sports Nutrition focuses its studies on the type, as well as the quantity of fluid and food taken by an athlete. In addition, it deals with the consumption of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances that include carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Dietary supplements contain one or more dietary ingredients (including vitamins; minerals; herbs or other botanicals; amino acids; and other substances) or their constituents;is intended to be taken by mouth as a pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid. All athletes consider taking dietary supplements with hopes to find the "magic ingredient" to increase their athletic performance. In the extreme case of performance-enhancing supplements, athletes, particularly bodybuilders may choose to use illegal substances such as anabolic steroids. These compounds which are related to the hormone testosterone, can quickly build mass and strength, but have many adverse effects such as high blood pressure and negative gender specific effects. Blood doping, another illegal ergogenic, was discovered in the 1940s when it was used by World War II pilots. Blood doping also known as blood transfusions, increases oxygen delivery to exercising tissues and has been demonstrated to improve performance in endurance sports, such as long-distance cycling. There are many other supplements out there and they include caffeine, creatine, iron, chromium and human growth hormones.

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