Nutrition, health and performance of endurance athletes

Sports nutrition is of interest to different fields such as sports medicine, sports science and dietetics. While participation in endurance and ultra-endurance events is increasing, the issue of nutritional recommendations for endurance athletes remains complex, particularly with regard to the assessment of their nutritional needs. The points of view and advice from different professionals are often divergent. The understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptive response to exercise and more generally in the improvement of endurance performance, is an advance in the definition of specific needs related to training load and endurance exercise. However, it has also led to the promotion of nutritional optimization strategies combining training and diet protocols that paradoxically expose the athlete to nutritional imbalances not without risk to the maintenance of his health. The major health effects are mostly due to too low energy availability. Thinking that improving one's physical performance requires nutritional intakes complementary to the diet is a mistake if basal nutritional needs are not covered. This general review addresses sports nutrition with a health objective in order to allow the staff (dietician, coach or doctor) to reconsider from this angle the nutritional specificity of this population in order to prevent the risks it incurs. (C) 2021 Societe francaise de nutrition. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.