Who are sports supplements for?
“Sports supplements and dietary supplements are intended first and foremost for people with athletic goals. The greater the training load, the more your nutrition has to support it. At the same time, given the fast pace of modern life and often one-sided diets, a growing number of supplements are also being developed for non-athletes, making it possible to meet daily nutrient requirements quickly, conveniently and tastily,” explains personal trainer Kristjan-Johannes Konsap.
Sports supplements and a recovery drink instead of quark
The purpose of using dietary supplements is first and foremost to complement regular food, as well as to offer a way to get nutrients in concentrated form. There are many kinds of supplements: vitamins, protein drinks, amino acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid products, and so on. According to Konsap, the most common in sport are milk protein (whey or casein) concentrates in powder form. “Add glucose, also known as grape sugar, or maltodextrin made from corn, and you have the most basic recovery drink. As you can see, such powders contain completely natural food ingredients, just in concentrated form.” Besides protein powders, there are also bars, smoothies, puddings, chocolates and cookies.
According to Konsap, top athletes certainly need many times more supplements, but supplements that supply the body with basic nutrients also have their place in the menu of a recreational athlete. “Supplements include, for example, a protein-carbohydrate recovery drink, which is more convenient to consume than lugging around quark in your sports bag to get the same amount of nutrients.
Likewise, a fish oil capsule providing omega-3 fatty acids is also a supplement. If you don’t eat salmon, avocado or walnuts, which contain omega-3, often enough, capsules can guarantee a steady intake of the necessary fatty acids.”
A woman’s average daily energy requirement
A woman’s average daily energy requirement is 2000 kilocalories, of which 50% should come from carbohydrates, 30% from fats and 20% from protein.
According to Konsap, supplements help the body cope with the training load. “Training wears down muscles, and to recover and grow they need more protein than the average person consumes.” The protein in sports nutrition repairs muscle, and the carbohydrates replenish energy stores. “They say today’s workout is powered by yesterday’s nutrition. Once you’ve had your recovery drink, the body returns to its starting state in less than 24 hours. If you have several workouts in a day, drinking a recovery drink is especially important. For a generally active person, the most important thing is a protein-carbohydrate recovery drink that also contains macronutrients.”
Help for a fast-paced lifestyle
There are also protein bars and meal replacements designed to replace a meal, which the average person can use, for example, to keep a normal eating rhythm when life is hectic. “These supplements are suitable as a snack or a bite before a workout. They let you quickly get the nutrients a single meal should contain, without the unpleasant heaviness before training.”
Konsap adds that supplements should definitely not be used as the main source of nutrients, because they do not replace a healthy, varied regular diet. “People who have had bariatric surgery, and therefore can’t eat solid food but still need to get their nutrients, have also come to our shop. In such cases a meal replacement, which is also made from protein powder, can help.”
Risks and side effects
According to Konsap, the risk of overeating supplements is no greater than that of eating, say, enormous amounts of quark or bread or some other regular food. “It’s certainly not healthy to live on supplements alone. Likewise, eating only raw salad is one-sided. You can overeat sweets, supplements and raw salad alike if you don’t take the body’s calorie needs and portion size into account.”
Because officially sold supplements are checked, they cause no more side effects than intolerance to regular food or a food allergy would. Fitenss.ee Turg is a case in point, says Konsap: excess fat and lactose have been filtered out of its milk protein powders, making them suitable for more people. “The selection also includes, for example, soy and rice proteins, which help supplement vegetarians’ menus with the proteins essential for life.” People with allergies can also use them to make up for gaps in regular food.
Konsap also points out that the sugar substitute used in a supplement, such as aspartame, may not suit some people, but you can check the ingredients yourself.
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