IMPACT OF A PROTEIN-BASED NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT UPON DIETARY BALANCE IN TRAINED GAMES PLAYERS
Ellmore, M.R. 1
1: UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN (Lincoln, UK)
Introduction
Amongst the athletic community, intake of nutritional supplements is widespread which has led to a significant number of experimental studies seeking to determine the ergogenic effect of such products. Most investigations fail to evaluate the impact of the supplement or placebo constituents upon participants’ dietary status which may result in misleading interpretations if the ingredients serve to optimise nutritional balance rather than directly improve performance. The purpose of this research was to examine dietary intake of trained games players after consumption of a lactose placebo and a whey protein / creatine supplement.
Methods
Trained games players were recruited as respondents to a supplementation survey (n=15, M±sd Body mass: 80.4kg±7.7, Age: 23.2years±3.8) which indicated that ~13% of athletes took the same named whey protein / creatine product (Airstone et al. 2005). Players completed 7 day weighed food diaries and consumed 1.2g/kg/day supplement or placebo using a double-blind, crossover design for eight weeks. Dietary intake was evaluated using Microdiet® and players’ dietary intake was compared using a dependent t-test (P≤0.05) adapted using the Bonferroni correction for consideration of each nutritional component (P≤0.01).
Results
Players’ normal dietary calorie intake was the same in placebo and supplement phases of the investigation (P=0.184). Significant differences were evident in energy, carbohydrate, fat and protein intake between the participants’ normal diet, diet plus supplement content and diet plus placebo content (P≤0.001). In comparison to athletic recommendations, the players’ normal diets were deficient in carbohydrate, energy and protein (P≤0.01) and although the protein recommendations were exceeded during supplementation, energy and carbohydrate needs were still not met.
Discussion
When using similar methods for dietary recording, previous research has shown that games players report intakes which were similar to those found in this study and were insufficient in relation to athletic norms. This evidence contributes to the area of nutritional supplement investigation and emphasises the need for future research to incorporate dietary analyses under supplement and placebo conditions. Supplementing athletes should be cautious about interpreting ergogenic effects as benefits reported may not be consequent to active ingredients but rather due to the constituents of the supplement or placebo compensating for existing dietary deficiencies.
Airstone, M.R., Fagbemi, S.O. and Morris, A.E.J. (2005). Dietary supplementation habits and knowledge of competitive athletes and games players. Journal of Sports Sciences 23 (2), 118-119
