Conference Highlights from the American College of Sports Medicine
Virtual Annual Meeting June 1-5, 2021

By Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD, Sports Nutrition Services, Boston MA

The American College of Sports Medicine (www.ACSM.org) is a professional organization with more than 17,400 members who are physicians, dietitians, psychologists, exercise physiologists, and other health professionals who work with athletic people. Due to COVID, this year’s ACSM Annual Meeting was virtual, and enabled members to share their knowledge and learn the latest research. Here are just a few sports nutrition highlights that might be of interest to PINES members.

• When athletes get injured, underlying mental health issues often get unmasked, including depression, eating disorders, and anxiety about body image. Injured athletes express fears about getting re-injured, gaining undesired weight, and losing their identity. (Who am I am if not a soccer player???) Today’s sports medicine caregivers are doing a better job of acknowledging mental health issues and destigmatizing therapy. For example, mental health information booths and counselors will be available at the Tokyo Olympics. That said, the 6 months after the Olympics can be more stress-filled than pre-Olympic stress and anxiety…

• Burning fat requires more oxygen than does burning carbohydrate (i.e., glycogen, glucose). That’s a disadvantage for athletes following a ketogenic diet.

•With a keto diet with minimal carbohydrate, the population of nitrate-reducing bacteria in the mouth decreases. This contributes to an unexpected consequence for keto athletes: the reduced ability to convert nitrates (found in arugula, romaine lettuce, beet roots, etc.) into nitric oxide. Nitrates have been shown to relax blood vessels, improve blood flow and enhance athletic performance.

• Bone loss has been seen in elite cyclists, likely due in part to lack of weight-bearing exercise and/or low energy availability. As much as 6% bone loss in a year has also been seen in collegiate male basketball players—despite intense weight-bearing jumping and running. How could that be? The decline might be related to calcium lost in sweat. Hence, athletes who sweat heavily might be wise to consume more calcium-rich foods.

• Global warming means outdoor athletes will be spending more time exercising in the heat —-and that can take its toll on performance. Dropping body temperature pre-exercise can help athletes perform better during subsequent hot-weather events. To beat the heat, athletes can pre-cool their bodies by draping towels dipped in ice water around their necks. They can also put ice packs on their thighs (for about 20 minutes). Consuming ice slurries before and during exercise is another a way to reduce heat stress by cooling the body from the inside out.

• Even national-level male soccer players can fail to consume adequate fluids. On Day #1 of urine testing, 90% of the players were significantly dehydrated and none were well hydrated. By continuously monitoring their hydration status (for example, by noticing the color of the first morning urine), the players took responsibility for improving their hydration status and drank more fluids

• All athletes who exercise in the heat should have water readily available. At a soccer camp for elementary school children, when the fluid station was set up beside the pitch, the kids drank too little. When the kids each brought a personal water bottle inside the pitch, they drank enough to replace sweat losses. That simple change helped safeguard these 2nd and 3rd graders from dehydration.

• Parents should vigilantly look for signs of restrictive eating/ eating disorders in their young athletes. Among 2,109 US middle school runners (1,252 boys; 857 girls), 1.5% met the criteria for elevated dietary restraint or reported a clinical history of eating disorder. Compared to the “normal” eaters, the restrained eaters were more likely to skip meals (68% vs 6%), follow a vegetarian diet (55% vs 13%) and use dietary supplements (84% vs 25%). They also reported running slower and recovering slower than the unrestrained eaters. Parents and coaches want to encourage young athletes to focus on fueling for growth and performance, and stop skimping on food to be lighter or leaner.

• Athletes commonly have a varied response to ergogenic sport supplements. A study with beta-alanine suggests differing responses can be related more to sleep habits, motivation, nutrition, and training schedules – and less to the supplement itself. Hence, athletes are more likely to respond positively to a supplement if they create supportive lifestyles. No amount of supplements will compensate for poor lifestyle choices.

• Spirulina is a popular supplement that has been shown to have antioxidant and performance enhancing properties. A study that involves muscle-damaging exercise suggests spirulina supplementation (6 grams/day) did not offer any benefits in terms of muscle performance or recovery from muscle damage.

• To the dismay of many sports dietitians, nutrition is not always the winning edge. In the past five years, numerous track & field world records have been broken—not because of better nutrition but rather because of a new style of shoes that reduces effort…

Sports Nutritionist Nancy Clark, MS, RD counsels both casual and competitive athletes in the Boston-area. Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook teaches athletes and fitness exercisers alike how to fuel well and feel good. For more information: NancyClarkRD.com