we've covered the macronutrients let's now discuss the micronutrients for a few minutes there's just a couple that I wanted to highlight to you certainly more can be factors for nutrition but these are the ones that come up more so than the others for athletes so first off are B vitamins remember these they are helpful for reactions of metabolism so helping glycolysis cycle and the ETC work so vitamins can become an issue for some athletes if they're not eating adequate amounts of whole grains or fruits and veggies antioxidants whenever we exercise we use oxygen more we're breathing more rapidly right so this can be a good thing for us in terms of physical fitness but it also leads to the creation of more free radicals so oxygen use increases free radicals increase and we know that antioxidants through our fruits and vegetables can can be really helpful at neutralizing some of the damage from free radicals one key antioxidant to make mention of is vitamin C vitamin C not only does it work to enhance the immune system and function as an antioxidant but it also is the foundation for collagen synthesis and collagen is essential for athletes to have adequate amounts of uh this is found in all of our connective tissues or muscles or joints or ligaments or tendons we find that athletes who are low in vitamin C tend to have higher rates of strains fractures sprains that kind of thing iron remember the unique functions of iron hemoglobin that's a biggie for athletes but also it's an antioxident it helps with neurotransmitters it's a very valuable nutrient for athletes and athletes tend to be more at risk for developing a deficiency than non-athletes why well athletes can lose iron through sweat they can lose it through the menstrual cycle and then just not eating amounts of it particularly in some some subgroups and then finally calcium calcium is a factor for anybody not just athletes with athletes we find that it's particularly detrimental to go low because it affects the health of the bones and the muscles and something we don't want to have happen are bone fractures stress fractures osteoporosis and that kind of thing so these are the ones to keep in mind what about supplementation then well here's the thing research doesn't support supplementing for enhancing performance amounts greater than the RDA are not going to be effective so the bottom line is to get in the RDA well we know that most people aren't hitting iron and calcium rdas so that's where a multivitamin or half of a multivitamin each day may come in handy for the athletes that I work with in terms of General supplementation I recommend a multivitamin and then a calcium and vitamin D supplement there may be a few others but that's more of an individualized assessment that I do as a dietitian our final nutrient is fluid the recommendations are about 9 to 13 cups of water per day that's the recommended amount and then you see the amounts during exercise I often tell my folks two to four gulps every 15 minutes because I know that's about this amount so if you tell an athlete 4 ounces every 15 minutes they may not know exactly what that looks like so that's why I have the gulps in there for you in terms of in terms of types of fluid excuse me water is ideal if they're exercising for less than 60 Minutes uh certainly a sports drink can be used if they're exercising under that if they're sweating a lot and they're Outdoors but water is ideal for the under 60 minutes and then after that we start getting into more the the sports drinks types of beverages it's recommended tea or coffee or soda right before as well as during the exercise can those items can be dehydrators as well as can cause some GI distress after the exercise two cups per pound lost so I trust you guys remember some of this from the the chapter over water two cups for each pound loss so they can weigh before and after and determine what they need to replenish and avoiding certainly being in a state where we're not drinking enough as well as over drinking so finding that nice balance where uh the athlete is getting the benefits of the fluid but not uh overdoing it let's mention sports drinks for a minute sports drinks can be great for events longer than 60 Minutes they can also be used for athletes who are heavy sweaters and they're exercising in the heat under 60 minutes so both both scenario I are just fine why well there's three big reasons three big benefits of sports drinks number one fluid they're going to provide us water number two electrolytes they have sodium potassium sometimes magnesium in them which we lose through sweat and number three carbohydrates they are going to be a great source of carbohydrates in the recommended uh sugar solution so these are designed to be about 6 to 8% sugar solution and that's optimal for uh for athletes it helps to get those carbs into the bloodstream without having uh much side effects okay so fluid electrolytes and carbohydrates uh the I'm alluding to with my figure was a neat one this was a study that was done with cyclists and basically what they did with these groups of cyclist one group got a Gatorade product and then one group just got plain old water and you can see as they went further into their exercise the group that just got water was pretty much done about 120 Minutes they hadn't taken in any form of sugar and as a result of that as well as not getting in electrolytes they were fatigued whereas the carbohydrate containing ones these were the sports drinks they had carbs fluid and electrolytes you can see they almost got a second wind here at 90 minutes and were able to perform at a greater work output so sports drinks are ideal uh just a tidbit for me if someone is working out longer than 60 minutes it's recommended to start with that sports drink the first hour and this can be a great way to get in the 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour that's recommended couple of other additions here from your textbook they mentioned why some other drinks aren't ideal for example fruit juices tend to be too sweet they upset the GI system alcohol is not ideal it's a dehydrator uh soda and any kind of carbonate ated beverage can lead to bloating and GI problems same thing with coffee that can be an IR tin on the GI and can also be a dehydrator they mentioned which I thought was interesting new to me information where folks tend to drink more sports drinks and plain water during endurance exercise uh due to taste it they taste better than just plain old water so water and sports drinks would be my recommendations okay moving on to a few odds and ends and then we'll finish up the the unit here erogenic AIDS so these are primarily dietary supplements that are aimed at athletes there are many out there unfortunately there's a lot of issues with these we've learned about this throughout the semester safety is not guaranteed accuracy so what we think we're getting we may not be getting and then also do they work or not that's another question asked are they effective so bottom line most of the the supplements marketed towards athletes don't really have any effect there's nothing to them that said there are a couple that are worth mentioning because of some favorable research findings so I'm just pulling out two from your textbook to cover with you so do do become comfortable with these the first one is creatine so creatine is can be purchased in a powder or liquid form it is also a product that's Bound in Foods we actually take it in when we eat animal products we make it in the body as well so most of us aren't low in it the thought here is if an athlete is participating in certain types of sports then a bit more creatine may be helpful and the mechanism of action tends to be that it helps to increase the levels of PCR or creatine phosphate in the muscles so remember ATP is first then we have that PCR to regenerate creatine can be SE to increase PCR levels which may help to regenerate ATP so some of the research is is quite supportive of this product side effects uh the big things I've seen are dehydration and then cramping as a result of the dehydration the long-term effects your textbook mentioned there's a higher risk of kidney and liver damage I haven't seen as much of that in terms of research but there are a few cases where that has occurred and bottom line you have to be careful this is where I recommend if someone's interested in using a product like this to see a dietitian because we can help determine how much to take in especially that loading dose and then that maintenance dose so that an athlete is getting the best benefit of it for those High intense types of sports in terms of my experiences with the product and my clients it seems to be very individualized some folks do quite well with it and feel a difference others feel like they're they've just gained weight water weight and they don't feel any benefit from the product so it seems to be about 50/50 when it comes to Performance benefits caffeine is the other one uh caffeine is a great ergogenic Aid uh when it's used in a proper amounts so what it can do it can actually get us to the fat burning point faster so when we're exercising I mentioned earlier it takes about 20 minutes to get to the point burning fatty acids caffeine as an ergogenic aid can maybe get us there in 15 minutes or 17 minutes so it speeds up that lipid breakdown process this is helpful for an athlete for that glycogen sparing function so a lot of endurance athletes will use caffeine to help them with this get to that fat burning point so they're saving their sugar uh you can also see it used for strength exercise mainly for Point number two here it decreases your perception of pain and effort so you may be able to work out harder than you would without the product H's alertness as well uh so a lot of lot of great research suggesting that it can be a very valuable ergogenic tool the problem is that people don't don't take the right amounts and it can be personalized as well some folks are sensitive and do well with 25 milligrams others need 100 milligrams before they start seeing a benefit so this is where I would say see a dietitian because we base it based on your weight as well as the type of sport that you're partaking in and you guys know as well as I do too much caffeine is going to make you jittery H perhaps you've experienced that or you known folks who've experienced this heart rate increases blood pressure insomnia so it's not optimal in that regard the other thing to keep in mind is that high doses are banned in certain Sports so we want to make sure we're we're doing this when in a healthy way uh one note here on caffeine because it does get us to the fat burning point in exercise faster sometimes it gets a reputation that's going to be helpful for weight loss and fat loss we don't really see that to be the case it gets us to the point of burning fats for fuel but it's not going to increase the amount of calories we're burning which that is what we would need to have happen to burn more fat Okay so the lipolysis is specific to athletic performance as I noted down here lots of others in your book I recommend to check it out if you're interested um I think it this is a really interesting topic when it comes to Sports Nutrition they also talked about supplements like bars and Shakes and they had a good discussion with giving you some pros and cons of those products and my just statement on that is they can certainly be convenient and portable but I found that my athletes do better with regular food peanut butter and jelly sandwiches chocolate milk F newtons that sort of thing so I don't necessarily think the wayy protein powders are going to be the make or break for an athlete okay I wanted to finish up by talking about two concerns of you will with athletes that may come up the first one here is the female athlete Triad um now the the term female athlete Triad isn't being used as much anymore uh we know that men can have two of these three characteristics so the next slide actually will go over the the term that we're using now but you still can see this obviously with female athletes so I wanted to make mention of it so that you guys were aware of what can occur if we're not taking in enough calories us being women so the three components are eating disorder osteoporosis or bone loss and amenorrhea Amara is lack of a menstrual cycle and I believe by definition it's the absence of three consecutive menstrual cycles so not having a period the eating disorder is it doesn't have to be a clinical eating disorder disorder like interex your nervosa it can just be not eating enough calories and some athletes May unintentionally get into the female athlete Triad because they're not eating enough calories to fuel their bodies it can also though be with restrictive eating so certainly doing it intentionally can lead to this occurring other aspects that occur with this weight loss lack of body fat and all of these characteristics lead to the bone loss and a Manara so so for example if we're not eating enough calcium we're going to start seeing calcium loss from the bones if we're not having a menstrual cycle ladies we're not going to release as much estrogen and we know estrogen is a key key component of keeping calcium in the bones just as a side note for our women who go through menopause postmenopausal they have a lot less estrogen released and this is the time of life where we see bone loss start to accelerate and that is due to estrogen so when women women aren't having a menstrual cycle estrogen drops that causes more calcium to be lost from the bones I've seen this Triad occur many times in athletes as I noted earlier sometimes it's intentional sometimes it's not intentional so we we do need to keep an eye out for it the biggest Factor tends to be just not eating enough calories the more commonly used term now which is showcased in your textbook is this relative energy deficiency in sport Reds this encompasses the Triad and you see the the Triad here so not eating enough calories bones and menstrual cycle however there's also some other interrelated health conditions that can result from not eating enough calories the Central Key takeaway here is this energy deficiency being here in the middle so not eating enough can lead to a wide array of consequences for an athlete immune system failing GI function being affected etc etc the sports that are more at risk for this oh certainly this goes along with the the Triad for women it can be gymnasts and dancers uh ballet athletes can also be folks who are in sports that have them hit a certain weight so wrestlers or boxers however this can occur in any sport I've seen this occur in an unintentional state where the athlete just doesn't realize how many calories they need they may have a super high metabolic rate and they need 6,000 calories a day and they're only getting in 3,000 that can start to lead to some of these uh potential side effects so again intentional or non-intentional this can occur so my tips for you guys especially those of you going on in the Sports Nutrition realm is to keep out keep an eye out excuse me for any warning signs so if their weight is dropping if their eating is changing if they're not having a menstrual cycle if they're getting continual stress fractures that's a big red flag that they're not eating enough calories and this is an ideal time to work with them and get them a referral to a dietitian someone who can help them to maximize their energy intake so that their health is being maintained all right so I hope that you've enjoyed chapter 16 it's one of my favorite chapters we learned quite a bit about nutrition's role in terms of promoting optimal athletic performance and I recommend if this topic interests you to consider the dtn 334 course that we teach in our program this is a course that's devoted solely to these principles of Sports Nutrition so thank you for listening and we are done with unit four of our semester