Review articleVitamin and mineral status: effects on physical performanceā,āā
Introduction
Individuals who seek to boost physical performance rely on proper diet and increased training. The growing awareness of the synergy between diet and physical activity has fueled an expanding interest in the valuable role that micronutrient nutrition can play in achieving one's genetic potential in physical performance.
Recreational and competitive athletes seek reliable and practical information describing the role that micronutrients play in fostering performance because of dubious perceptions and misinformation in the public press.1 One impression is that most physically active individuals, as compared with their less active counterparts, fail to consume a diet that contains adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, which leads to marginal nutrient deficiency and results in substandard training and impaired performance. Another perception is that physical activity promotes excessive losses of micronutrients because of increased catabolism and excretion. These opinions fuel the controversy for the use of vitamin and mineral supplements to improve physical performance, although scientific evidence to support the generalized use of nutritional supplements to augment work performance is lacking.2, 3, 4
Micronutrients differ from macronutrients in key characteristics. Water, proteins, carbohydrates, and fat are consumed in large amounts (>100 g/d), whereas vitamins and minerals are ingested in much smaller amounts (milligrams to micrograms per day). These differences in magnitude reflect turnover rates in the body and specific functions. Macronutrients provide sources of energy needed to fuel the body, maintain cellular hydration, and provide the body structure to perform work. Micronutrients enable the use of macronutrients for all physiologic processes. Despite their relative paucity in the diet and the body, vitamins and minerals are key regulators of health and function, including work performance.
This review describes the effects of impaired micronutrient status on human physiologic function during exercise and physical performance. It provides an operational model that integrates nutrient intake, metabolism, and status with measures of physical performance. The presentation summarizes the biological functions of vitamins and minerals, identifies specific biochemical measures of micronutrient nutritional status, describes intakes commensurate with optimal function, details physiologic impairments associated with micronutrient deficiencies, describes maximal intakes for health, and evaluates claims that micronutrient supplements improve physical performance.
Section snippets
Vitamins
Organic compounds, found in small amounts in foods, are designated as nutrients because they cannot be synthesized by the body and are required to support health and well being. Vitamins catalyze numerous biochemical reactions. They are not direct sources of energy; vitamins facilitate energy metabolism. Because the rates or activities of these metabolic processes increase during physical activity, an adequate supply of vitamins is needed to promote optimal physical performance. Vitamins are
Evaluating effects of diet on performance
Faulty experimental designs hamper the determination of an effect of nutrient intake on performance. Failure to account for total intake, diet plus supplements, when evaluating performance is a common limitation of many studies. Changes in intake may induce homeostatic adaptations in absorption and use that redistribute nutrients without any effect on performance. Failure to assess biochemical indicators of nutritional status also limits any conclusions about influence of intake on biological
Vitamins and performance
Descriptions of the interactions between vitamin metabolism and physical performance are very limited because study designs have not been as comprehensive as necessary to form reasonable conclusions. Assessments of vitamin intake, biochemical measures of vitamin status, and determinations of physical performance are required. Very few studies have provided such information.9
This section describes the effects of graded intakes of some vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, folate,
Vitamin B1 (thiamin)
Thiamin plays a key role in carbohydrate and protein metabolism. As the compound thiamin pyrophosphate, it acts as a coenzyme in the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A and Ī±-ketoglutarate to succinyl coenzyme A and participates in the decarboxylation of branched-chain amino acids. Thus, thiamin may be a potentially limiting nutrient in physical performance.
The suggested intakes for thiamin are 1.1 and 1.2 mg/d for women and men, respectively (Table III). Because the thiamin requirement
Vitamin A
Vitamin A refers to a group of compounds including retinol, retinaldehyde, and retinoic acid.7 Carotenoids, principally Ī²-carotene, are precursors of vitamin A and another source of vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for normal vision, gene expression, growth, and immune function by its maintenance of epithelial cell functions.
The requirement for vitamin A is expressed as retinol equivalents. One retinol equivalent equals 1 Ī¼g of retinol or 12 Ī¼g of Ī²-carotene. The RDAs for vitamin A are 700
Mineral metabolism and performance
In contrast to the data on vitamins, there are burgeoning data reporting the interaction between mineral nutritional status and physical activity. The roles of iron, magnesium, zinc, and chromium in performance are described.
Use of nutritional supplements
Experimental findings have indicated that clinical vitamin and mineral deficiencies are rare in the general population when a balanced diet is consumed.7 However, some individuals who seek to enhance performance may opt for nutritional supplements. Professional organizations provide advice to physically active individuals who seek to use nutritional supplements. The American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine have stated that the proper
Summary
The following points may be gleaned from the previous discussion:
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Evidence of inadequate dietary vitamin and mineral intakes among physically active individuals is generally lacking. Some athletes, such as adolescent ballerinas, gymnasts, long-distance runners, and wrestlers, may not consume adequate amounts of micronutrients because they limit food intake to meet weight restrictions for esthetic requirements or competition.
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Physically active individuals should consume a diet that contains a
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