WHILE the concept of sports nutrition has been gaining much awareness globally, proponents of it still believe more can still be done in spreading knowledge about it so as to inspire a bigger number of people to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.
One such advocate of knowing sports nutrition and its benefits is Herbalife Nutrition, a company that not only produces scientifically backed and well-researched nutritional supplements, among other wellness products, but also has been active in promoting the value of being well informed and guided by proper knowledge on sports nutrition.
As part of its “2018 Spectacular” event last weekend, Herbalife Nutrition Philippines brought over Dr. Dana Ryan, Herbalife senior manager for sports performance and education, to share her experience on sports nutrition, touching on what it is all about, how far it has come and what can still be done to further cultivate knowledge on it.
“Sports nutrition has its foundation in general nutrition. It basically involves making sure you get the right quality of protein, fat and carbohydrates, among others. Sports nutrition is taking those and giving them at the right time. It also involves understanding the stress that your body is going through during exercise,” said Ms. Ryan in a roundtable discussion with local media last Friday at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
Ms. Ryan, who has worked with members of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Barcelona FC and Liga in Ecuador, football players training for the National Football League Combine and others in support of their nutrition programs, also underscored and moved to debunk the myth that sports nutrition is just for elite athletes and Olympians, saying it is practically for everybody who is generally active.
“The idea behind sports nutrition is balance between physical activity and good nutrition. You don’t have to be an elite athlete or an Olympian to know sports nutrition. The benefits of it are not only in appearance but also on productivity whatever it is you are doing,” the Herbalife official said.
PICKING UP
Ms. Ryan also shared that they at Herbalife are upbeat at the direction reception to sport nutrition is heading, with more and more people opening up to it and recognizing how game-changing it can be for those who pick it up as part of their lifestyle and training regimen.
“Five years ago what we are doing right now would not have been possible. Just the word sports nutrition being out there, the industry itself growing globally and it going main stream is really awesome. Before we had products that only athletes pick up but now we see some of the products in grocery stores with young kids starting early. A lot more people are embracing it,” said Ms. Ryan.
With that in mind, she said Herbalife is really making an effort to get the word out more on sports nutrition, tying up with the top teams and athletes in the world and helping them with their nutritional programs to get the best results and serve as further proof of the concept’s value.
“Right now we have over 150 sponsored athletes. Over 80 athletes competed in the last Olympics in Rio. Our goal is to create better understanding because there is a lot of confusion on nutrition,” she said.
Here in the Philippines, Ms. Ryan said she was pleased to see that the concept of sports nutrition is gaining a foothold, having spent some time with Filipino athletes while she was here.
“We talked about how they could structure supplements in their training and what their bodies need to achieve the needed results. They have some baseline knowledge on sport nutrition but I think more can still to be done as far as education on a bigger level much like in other parts of the world,” Ms. Ryan said. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
