Elite athletes are increasingly turning to supplements such as creatine in search of marginal gains, but sports nutrition experts insist that supplements should come only after the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle have been established.
Creatine is a naturally occurring compound produced by the body and also found in foods such as meat and fish. It provides muscles with a rapid source of energy, making it particularly useful during short, high-intensity activities such as sprinting.
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Nutrition expert Prof. Graeme Close says getting enough creatine from food alone can be difficult.
“You would need the best part of a kilogram of raw chicken a day to get the amount of creatine you need,” he said, while noting that raw poultry is unsafe because of the risk of harmful bacteria.
According to a BBC Sport report on Thursday, creatine began gaining significant attention in elite sport during the 1990s.
British athletes reportedly participated in a creatine trial during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, helping to increase interest in the supplement.
By the 1996 Olympics, an estimated 80 per cent of athletes were using creatine. It has since become one of the most established supplements in sports nutrition, while researchers have also examined its potential cognitive benefits.
Close, who oversaw nutrition for last year’s British and Irish Lions rugby union tour, said supplements should be considered only after athletes have established a strong nutritional foundation.
“Supplements are the ‘final piece of the jigsaw’ rather than a starting point,” he said.
He believes athletes who focus on the fundamentals are more likely to achieve significant results than those who place too much emphasis on supplements.
“They’ve really nailed the 99 per-centers,” Close said, referring to athletes who get their overall diet right before seeking smaller performance gains.
Australian cyclist Nicole Frain also believes supplements should serve only as an addition to a well-established training and nutrition programme.
“I’m a pretty big believer that they are called sport supplements,” she said. “They are there to supplement the things you already do right.”
Frain warned against using supplements as a substitute for addressing basic lifestyle issues.
“I don’t think supplements are the answer to fix my problems,” she said, highlighting the importance of “eating a balanced diet, training well, sleeping right, recovering well, hydrating – all of those things” before considering supplementation.
Close estimates that supplement use among elite athletes is extremely widespread.
“There are various reports in the literature of some studies that say maybe up to 90% of athletes take supplements. I often jokingly say that means 10% are lying,” said Close, a professor of human physiology at Liverpool John Moores University.
“The sports teams that I’ve worked in, I think that’s probably closer to 100% of athletes will be taking some form of supplementation.”
Staying within the rules
The use of supplements also comes with risks for elite athletes because of strict anti-doping rules. Under the principle of strict liability, athletes are ultimately responsible for substances found in their bodies, even if they did not knowingly take a banned substance.
This makes careful selection and testing of supplements particularly important for professional athletes and their support teams.
The message from sports nutrition experts is clear: supplements may provide the extra one per cent, but elite performance is built on getting the other 99 per cent right.