1. How do nutritional needs change as people age?
The nutritional needs (in particular, calories) decrease IF activity levels decrease but,
more importantly, nutritional deficiencies throughout life start to rear their ugly heads as
a person gets older. The result is that health problems can make a person suddenly
more aware of nutritional needs they have had throughout their lives (needs that were
either ignored completely or ignored most of the time). For this reason, eating
saturated fat and cholesterol in moderate amounts, eating whole grains, fruits, and
vegetables, and drinking enough water to digest all the food that is eaten takes on
added significance with age. I eat healthy food both to recover from my training as well
as for my future health. Each year I tend to eat foods with more and more fiber, vitamin,
and mineral content and more healthy fats. The benefits I get (they are dramatic) would
no doubt have been there had I tried them when I was younger. It is also true that
recovery becomes more difficult with age, and this is likely due to re-innervation issues.
The latter has not been directly addressed with nutrition research, but healthy fats are
the best candidate for targeting neurological recovery after training (again, whether you
are younger or older).
2. Are there nutritional considerations for younger athletes?
Yes. Excess athletic activity can divert needed growth from bone to muscle, resulting
in potentially shorter stature and earlier osteoporosis when an adult. Any supplements
that cause enhanced muscle recovery or growth (particularly steroids) are even worse
for young people than for adults. To ensure that athletic activity does not compromise
the natural growth process, young athletes should be sure to eat enough calories,
vitamins, and minerals from food (and avoid steroids!). Athletes participating in sports
where low body fat is important (e.g. competitive endurance sports, wrestling,
gymnastics, diving) are particularly susceptible to the problem of diverting needed
energy from natural bone growth since caloric restriction may be practiced during long
cycles of high-intensity training.
3. Are there nutritional differences when muscles are in condition compared
with beginners?
Yes. In the first two weeks of training a beginner uses a lot of muscle as fuel because
the body is not efficient at protein utilization yet. After two weeks this problem is
completely gone and protein needs are back to normal. In addition, a conditioned
muscle is twice as good at metabolizing carbohydrate and fat. The bottleneck in
metabolism (what limits the rate at which you burn carbohydrates and fats) likely shifts
as an athlete becomes more highly trained. Carnitine, for example, has been shown to
provide a slight benefit to some very highly trained athletes but no effect has ever been
shown for athletes that are not highly trained. This is likely because fat transport across
the muscle cell membrane is the bottleneck for fat use in less highly trained athletes,
whereas transport across the mitochondrial membrane is the bottleneck for the
Olympian. Sugar (glucose) transport and use in trained muscles is higher as well, but
high glycogen levels (from carbohydrate loading) hinders the muscle cell’s use of its full
capacity to transport in sugar, so this benefit does not reach its full potential until after
glycogen starts to deplete in the muscle (after the first hour or two of training or
competition).
The nutritional needs (in particular, calories) decrease IF activity levels decrease but,
more importantly, nutritional deficiencies throughout life start to rear their ugly heads as
a person gets older. The result is that health problems can make a person suddenly
more aware of nutritional needs they have had throughout their lives (needs that were
either ignored completely or ignored most of the time). For this reason, eating
saturated fat and cholesterol in moderate amounts, eating whole grains, fruits, and
vegetables, and drinking enough water to digest all the food that is eaten takes on
added significance with age. I eat healthy food both to recover from my training as well
as for my future health. Each year I tend to eat foods with more and more fiber, vitamin,
and mineral content and more healthy fats. The benefits I get (they are dramatic) would
no doubt have been there had I tried them when I was younger. It is also true that
recovery becomes more difficult with age, and this is likely due to re-innervation issues.
The latter has not been directly addressed with nutrition research, but healthy fats are
the best candidate for targeting neurological recovery after training (again, whether you
are younger or older).
2. Are there nutritional considerations for younger athletes?
Yes. Excess athletic activity can divert needed growth from bone to muscle, resulting
in potentially shorter stature and earlier osteoporosis when an adult. Any supplements
that cause enhanced muscle recovery or growth (particularly steroids) are even worse
for young people than for adults. To ensure that athletic activity does not compromise
the natural growth process, young athletes should be sure to eat enough calories,
vitamins, and minerals from food (and avoid steroids!). Athletes participating in sports
where low body fat is important (e.g. competitive endurance sports, wrestling,
gymnastics, diving) are particularly susceptible to the problem of diverting needed
energy from natural bone growth since caloric restriction may be practiced during long
cycles of high-intensity training.
3. Are there nutritional differences when muscles are in condition compared
with beginners?
Yes. In the first two weeks of training a beginner uses a lot of muscle as fuel because
the body is not efficient at protein utilization yet. After two weeks this problem is
completely gone and protein needs are back to normal. In addition, a conditioned
muscle is twice as good at metabolizing carbohydrate and fat. The bottleneck in
metabolism (what limits the rate at which you burn carbohydrates and fats) likely shifts
as an athlete becomes more highly trained. Carnitine, for example, has been shown to
provide a slight benefit to some very highly trained athletes but no effect has ever been
shown for athletes that are not highly trained. This is likely because fat transport across
the muscle cell membrane is the bottleneck for fat use in less highly trained athletes,
whereas transport across the mitochondrial membrane is the bottleneck for the
Olympian. Sugar (glucose) transport and use in trained muscles is higher as well, but
high glycogen levels (from carbohydrate loading) hinders the muscle cell’s use of its full
capacity to transport in sugar, so this benefit does not reach its full potential until after
glycogen starts to deplete in the muscle (after the first hour or two of training or
competition).
Younger, Older, Beginner Athletes
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© Clyde F. Wilson