FOR HIGH-INTENSITY PERFORMANCE, CARBOHYDRATES ARE STILL KING
Despite reams of new data that have been generated over the years and an ever-evolving understanding about how athletes metabolize foodstuffs, the panelists generally agreed that the primary tenets of sport nutrition have not changed much over the past 25 years. Although they acknowledged that recent research suggests an athlete's need for protein and some fats may be a little higher than believed by previous generations,
5 one factor that remains as true today as it did decades ago is the athlete's indispensable need for carbohydrate as a key component of the diet. Although dietary protein and fat can provide necessary energy to perform physical activity,
carbohydrate is the substrate most efficiently metabolized by the body and the only macronutrient that can be broken down rapidly enough to provide energy during periods of high-intensity exercise when fast-twitch muscle fibers are primarily relied upon.
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