One diet size does not fit all

I wish everyone a happy sports day on August 29, the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. This year, the celebrations will be sweet after India’s excellent performance in the recent Commonwealth Games.

A few of my athletes won medals at the Games and I was proud to be a part of their support system as a sports nutritionist.

Success stories in sport often spark a desire in budding athletes to adopt the diets of their favoured athlete from their discipline. It is based on the notion that if one replicates others’ eating habits, one will succeed like them. It’s a false notion. One diet size does not fit all.

Sports nutrition is bio-individual. The secret of athletes’ success is that they have realised over time how their body functions and the way their metabolism reacts, and have accordingly strategised — with the help of a sports nutritionist — a unique nutrition approach to feeding each cell in the body for elite-level performance. It is about taking care of the minutest details, such as deciding whether to eat 20g or 30g of a certain food, whether to eat 30 minutes or 45 minutes before a match, or whether to consume a recovery drink within 20 minutes of finishing training for better recovery and higher energy levels in the next practice session.

The approach to nutrition is customised for each athlete. It is based on their goals, their training schedule, their health status, their sporting disciplines, their medical history, and their…