Sugar is often labelled as being “bad” for health. Some headlines claim sugar causes obesity, as well as cancer, cardiovascular disease or premature death. In contrast, sugars are labelled as “good” for athletes during exercise. Various sports nutrition products are marketed based on their high sugar content to fuel performance. In the first blog in this series, we discussed what sugar is. In the second blog we discussed the importance of sugar in metabolism. Now we will tu

After the previous blog where we discussed what sugars are, in this blog we will look at the role of sugar for energy provision. We will discuss the biochemistry in simple terms, as well as differences between different sugars. We will also look at the journey from the moment a carbohydrate is consumed till it is used in the muscle and exhaled as carbon dioxide. From sugar ingestion to energy We often say that we use carbohydrate as fuel, but it is actually mostly glucose (or

In the next few blogs we will tackle the topic of “sugar”. There are some daunting headlines in the media: Sugar is a silent killer....

Misinformation is everywhere. It affects how we think, how we behave, and the decisions we make. Nowhere is this truer than in the global...

Pseudoscience is almost the opposite of science, even though it dresses up in science’s clothes.

Protein synthesis underpins adaptations of muscle mass, muscle strength, and all other adaptations to training. Protein quality can be an important factor to increase protein synthesis. The quality of a protein source is determined by 3 main factors: Essential amino acid (EAA) content Leucine content, and Bioavailability (i.e., the availability of ingested amino acids for protein synthesis) These factors all contribute to the degree in which a protein source can increase prot

We often read that science has “proven” something…. However, for a scientist this is an immediate red flag, as we should never use the...

In a previous blog we discussed a study that suggested that red wine is good for fat burning. Here we will look into the effects of...

On January 9, 2022, Dr Kevin Tipton passed away. I have written a tribute (click here) to describe my stories and memories of many years...

On the 9th of January 2022 Kevin Tipton, a respected and much loved colleague and friend passed away. His legacy will continue to inspire us

This blog is about current nutrition labels on sports nutrition products and why they are not helpful for athletes. Nutrition labels may...

Exercise training will help health and performance. But will too much exercise do the opposite? This was the topic of debate in the media...

A recent paper (1) studied how a progressively increasing training program affected various measures of health and performance. It...

The intestine is responsible for absorption of nutrients but also to keep large molecules and germs out of our bodies. It has been...

Caffeine is both a drug and a nutrient. A cup of coffee in the morning is used to wake up a cup in the evening is often used to work or...

Should women get different sport and exercise science advice/support than men? The honest answer is that [right now] we just don’t know....

An interesting review (1) was published recently re-igniting the discussion whether women will ever outperform men in ultra-endurance events. Males tend to outperform females in a number of sports. For example in the marathon the difference is around 10%. However, this difference is much smaller in ultra-endurance sports, such as in ultra-marathon (with a difference of 4%), or in extreme ultra endurance events where the difference is negligible. It appears that the longer the

The UEFA expert group statement on nutrition in elite football (1) has now been published. After many months of hard work, a sizeable...

10 reasons why I think the nutrition strategy at JumboVisma is unique and successful.

The effect of contraceptive pills are used by female athletes may affect performance. Here the evidence is presented.