Sports supplements were originally designed for professional sportsmen and athletes. These were ergogenic supplements meant to enhance athletic performance, increase muscle mass, and provide spurts of energy when needed. However, the real force driving the industry today is adolescents and baby boomers! Enthused by a desire to live long and healthy, these baby boomers have sent the sports supplement market soaring for more than a decade. Adolescents, or the younger generation, want to build muscle, enhance their sports performance, or use sports supplements as part of their diet regimen.
This popularity is marked by a fast rise in sales every year. According to research conducted by the Nutrition Business Journal, the fastest growth in the nutritional supplement market is in specialty supplements and in the sports nutrition sector, which has a growth expectancy of 6 percent right through 2010.
Sports Nutrition Products ‘ Rising Popularity
Baby Boomers
Baby boomers were the first generation to include fitness in their daily program even beyond middle age. These people are educated, have the spending power, are aware of their nutritional needs and desire to adopt proactive measures to maintain good health. According to Forbes, the number of health clubs has tripled since 1990. This is directly related to the number of men and women, over the age of 55, joining health clubs. In 2003, 6.3 million health club members were over 55 working out what they believe is a prescription for maintaining an active lifestyle. The intensity of growth is further substantiated when you think of the fact that there is a baby boomer turning 55 every 7 seconds!
Adolescents
Adolescents are another group of people who increasingly enjoys sports nutrition supplements for various reasons.
The problem of being overweight has tripled since the early 1970s and today about 15% of our children between the ages of 16-19 are overweight. Statistics keep rising, with an expected 25% of overweight children by 2010. Many of these adolescents use weight loss supplements.
Thirty to forty million children participate in organized athletic activities. About sixty percent of our children participate in school sports. There is pressure to perform and many of these children use supplements to enhance muscle mass and improve their sports performance. Nutritional sports supplements offer a better alternative to steroids which are considered unsafe and carry harmful side effects.
Bars, beverages and meal replacements are the most popular sports supplements in this category. Energy drinks sensationalized by celebrities or sports stars have become lucrative prospects.
Sports Nutrition Products ‘ Rising Prospects
The nutritional sports supplement manufacturing industry maybe a small segment of the entire nutritional supplement industry, but it consists of consumers who are dedicated. Those who invest in sports nutrition supplements are making an investment towards a determined goal. It could be to enhance sports performance, or to maintain good health and an active lifestyle.
Sports nutrition products, including weight loss products, are not only sold by retailers, but many health spas, gyms, health clubs carry sports supplements. This accounts for about 42 million people. Retail stores, chain stores and departments are other additional outlets.
Sports nutrition and weight loss is therefore a big business and still booming. In spite of the economic climate this industry is showing a respectable growth. With the new GMPs in place by June 2009 for medium sized manufacturers, the supplement industry will receive an added impetus. The newly enforced quality regulations will help to build more consumer trust in nutritional supplements.
Do you ever feel bombarded with messages from the media telling you that “xyz” food is bad for you? One day eggs are good for you, the next day they are bad for your heart. You need to eat more spinach, less fat, more protein, less sugar… So what’s the bottom line? It all boils down to the fact that what you DO eat is more important than what you DON’T eat.
Start From Scratch Through my coaching programs and e-book on PCOS, I focus A LOT on nutrition and the foods that will naturally help you achieve hormonal balance and reverse symptoms associated with PCOS and insulin resistance.
If you’re a proud owner of Freedom from PCOS, then at some point you should receive my “Constructing an Effective Meal Plan” worksheet that helps you map out your personal meal plan so you can see results more quickly. For everyone else, I’ll map it out for you…
The best way to figure out what you should be eating to live up to your highest health potential is to start from scratch. Sit down with a pad of paper and a pen and follow these simple steps.
First, write down everything that you currently eat. This may take awhile, but you will be able to see that if youre not where you want to be health-wise, youre probably eating a lot of empty calories (empty calories mean that the food has little nutritional value, so it has lots of calories that do not serve you). Ive personally struggled with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and insulin resistance, and this is one of the best exercises Ive ever done to improve my condition (though, most women aren’t willing to do this tedious, but TREMENDOUSLY effective exercise).
The U.S. government recommends that you eat between 5 to 10 fruits and vegetables every day. This recommendation is a great one and it has helped dozens of people lose weight and become healthier. The beautiful part to this is that once you start piling on the fruits and veggies, your plate (and stomach capacity) has no room left for the extra junk you used to eat! Fruit and vegetables are naturally filling, and when combined with lean protein, youre satisfied and energized.
*Side Note: Do NOT be afraid to eat fruit if you have insulin resistance. It is not bad for you. On the contrary, fruit contains essential vitamins and nutrients that promote a healthy body.
You should also add other essential carbohydrates such as grains in the form of brown rice, quinoa, barley and buckwheat. These carbohydrates are so good for you and give you natural energy, while helping shed unwanted body fat!
The easiest way to know if a food will benefit you is to identify whether or not its whole. Whole means it hasnt really been tampered with spinach is whole, spinach maria is not.
Start over with your nutrition habits by throwing out all the junk that is causing mayhem in your health and replacing your home with whole, healthy foods. If youre struggling with PCOS and insulin resistance, its time you took a direct approach to naturally overcome your condition by feeding your body the nutrients it so desperately desires.
Copyright (c) 2010 Katie Humphrey
Many people think that athletes are examples of health and that it is strictly related to their nutrition plans and a lot of exercise. Well, in some cases it is true, but there are still people who consider themselves as athletes and practice some totally inappropriate diet, what may finally end in serious health problems. The next time you will meet one of them, try to speak about following issues to make sure, that they know what and why they are eating.
Extra proteins will help you to gain more muscles
Professional nutrition plans for athletes prohibit more than 2.5 times higher protein intake than it is shown in RDA. The higher intake can be responsible for dehydration or even severe problems with liver or kidney. Furthermore there is no scientific proof that high-protein diet will effect in gaining extra muscles.
Athlete should intake fluid when he is thirsty
One of the most common problems in athlete’s life is the possibility of dehydration. Even when an athlete is not thirsty, he may need additional fluid to drink, for every lost pound of weight should be replaced with no less than two cups of water.
Nutrition plan for athletes before competition should not contain sugar
We must remember that sugar gives us energy, so small intakes of this carbohydrate will not only bring no harm, but even can be beneficial for the performance of the athlete.
Sport drinks are good only for those athletes who exercise a lot
Again, we speak about the danger of dehydration. While the total water loss due to exercises may wary depending on the type of exercises, conditions of the gym and the health status of the athlete, the possible problems caused by dehydration are so severe that there should be no restriction in drinking sport drinks, even by those who exercise for less than an hour a day.
You can lose weight when you exercise a lot
This is another common myth. Of course when we consider the water loss as loss of the weight, we may still believe in this superstition, thus endangering ourselves to dehydration. A true athlete, however, knows that every water loss must be replaced as soon as possible and the best and the safest way to loose some additional weight is by proper nutrition for athletes.
While we all want to have healthy and good looking bodies we must remember that not everyone can be an athlete. And when we finally become one of them,we should always keep in mind a single fact, only proper nutrition for athletes, free of popular, but false, beliefs and myths can let us not only stay for years in good shape but also win.
We often gasp at the prospect of trying a new diet program. Please focus in for a minute on the word “diet.” What comes to mind? Low calorie foods, low carbohydrates, and no fat. Without a doubt there many different variations regarding what constitutes an effective diet program. Some of these include no carbs, low carbs, or slow carbs. Also, there’s no fat, some fat, or a lot of fat. Then there’s no protein, low protein, or all protein. Where is a person who wants to lose weight and burn fat turn? What nutrition, that’s right, NUTRITION, not DIET program is the best for you? Do you want to sample a wide variety of tasty food that takes care of burning the fat and provides the proper nutrition to kick start your metabolism.
When we’re searching for the right NUTRITION program for your needs, we must always start with the basic function of human physiology. All of our nutrition needs are based around metabolism. Again, let me say, metabolism “rules the roost” in our bodies’ gastrointestinal physiological (GI) processes. Remember back to your basic high school biology class and recall the three main purposes of the GI system:
1) circulation;
2) secretion; and most importantly when battling weight,
3) digestion and motility (basically this means how the body consumes energy). When we eat, we’re basically consuming energy. The types of energy (food) that we consume effect how the body responds from a physiological standpoint.
Alright, let’s take a break from the technical and shift to the practical. There are two ways that our bodies can process food: store it or burn it. Pretty simple isn’t it-that is it sounds simple. If you’re like me and don’t like guess work when it comes to nutrition, you’ll need guidance. We all want to turn our bodies into fat burning furnaces. Finding the right program to build that fat fireplace is the key. We also need a program that is simple and easy to implement that provides the right foods at the right time and results in a nutritional plan that is actually tasty and not bland. There are some very basics that all metabolic nutritional plans that actually burn fat have in common:
1) watch the sugar! Just because it’s low in fat doesn’t mean that a lot of sugar is alright;
2) mix up the food. The human body has a tendency to adapt to the same routine. To be effective, you’ve got keep your GI system guessing;
3) keep it user-friendly. Find a nutritional guide to work for you and not the reverse.
People are very busy and don’t have time to cater to their diet plans. Their nutrtional plans need to cater to them.
Do you recall the old saying, “breakfast like a king, lunch like a lord and dine like a pauper”?
You’ve probably heard it before but never really given it much thought.
It may be old advice but it’s very good advice, particularly the bit about breakfast. When it comes to fitness nutrition, eating a good breakfast really is the key to an effective and healthy nutrition plan.
A lot of people go without breakfast entirely. Many do so because they are convinced that this helps to control their weight. It doesn’t. Others claim to be too busy to make time for breakfast. This is just lack of planning.
Think about it; by the time you waken up in the morning your body has not had any food for probably 7 or 8 hours. Your blood sugar is at its lowest level and without refuelling, your body’s engine is going to be very sluggish and you cannot function effectively.
So a good breakfast is essential to a healthy lifestyle. In fact, it should account for at least one-fifth of your daily food intake.
A granola bar and a cup of coffee just will not do.
Breakfast should be a sizeable meal and it is important to plan it well to make sure that you get the balance you need to maximise your fitness.
Oatmeal (or porridge) is an ideal part of the meal. It is a complex carbohydrate which means that it releases energy slowly and keeps your blood sugar level steady. And it’s versatile too.
Adding fresh or frozen fruit makes it more appealing and boosts your vitamin intake as well. Or try adding dried fruits or cinnamon, vanilla or honey to give even more variety.
Protein plays an important role, but it is important to choose wisely to avoid adding too much fat. Eggs cooked with little or no fat, lean grilled bacon, low fat yogurt and skimmed milk all provide high levels of protein and can be used in a wide variety of ways to make healthy breakfast dishes.
One way to keep the protein levels up and the fat down is to use egg whites instead of whole eggs – or you can mix one whole egg with two or three whites to make a lower fat omelette or scrambled eggs.
Take time to plan your breakfast in advance to make sure that you start your daily nutrition plan well.
You might prefer to get help from a nutritionist or use a scientifically developed program like plan:one, which uses dynamic nutrition technology, to help you improve your nutrition plan.
You will soon notice real benefits in your fitness.