Member Profile: Isabel Martinez

Isabel is a nutrition scientist and a registered dietitian (USA)/registered nutritionist-dietitian (Philippines) with formal training in Exercise Physiology and Sports Nutrition. Currently, she is with the Monash Extremes Physiology & Sports Dietetics group.

Isabel has always lived an active and adventurous lifestyle. Growing up in a country that consists of more than 7,000 islands, she spent most of her weekends at the beach and eventually got hooked on watersports such as windsurfing, freediving, sailing and skimboarding. Her interest in food, nutrition and exercise were developed during her undergraduate degree in Community Nutrition at the University of the Philippines. She had a keen interest in research, specifically on food and performance. Coming from a developing country, she knew she had to look beyond the local landscape to get into this field. Her foray into the sports nutrition world began at the University of Illinois where she earned her masters degree in Kinesiology with a focus on Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. She worked there with the Nutrition and Exercise Performance Group and was involved with various studies that investigate the human metabolic response to exercise and nutrition using stable isotope tracers. Her thesis focused on the effect of dietary protein density on training-induced muscle performance and health. Isabel was also the recipient of the 2019 IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition Scholarship offered by PINES and Sportsoracle which she completed last August 2021.

Isabel’s research now focuses on the impact of prolonged exercise on gut health and its implications on nutritional needs of endurance athletes. As an endurance junkie herself, she is interested in further investigating other aspects of strategies to manage exercise-induced gastrointestinal symptoms.

PINES role

Isabel’s passion to be globally-involved in the sports nutrition field and her experience in working in cross-functional teams in diverse environments led her to PINES. As an Executive Officer, she looks forward to contribute to the collaborative efforts of PINES and to share valuable experiences, knowledge and resources to students and professionals, especially to those coming from developing countries.