Nutrition in sports medicine

Strenuous or vigorous exercise does not appear to significantly alter the requirements for any specific nutrient except calories. The major nutritional problem in sports medicine, particularly among the young, will be one of meeting caloric requirements from a variety of foods. As high- or low-energy requirements are met, so will requirements for all other essential nutrients. We should all heed the words of Sir Robert Hutchison (1871-1960), as perhaps the Food and Nutrition Board did. He wrote in the New Castle Medical Journal, vol. 12, 1932, "One swears by whole meal bread, one by sour milk; vegetarianism is the only road to the salvation of some, other insist not only in vegetables alone, but on eating those raw. At one time the only thing that matters is calories; at another time they are crazy about vitamins or about roughage. Scientific truth may be put quite briefly; eat moderately, having an ordinary mixed diet and don't worry." Robert Charles Benchley (1889-1945), an American humorist, critic, and actor, was known to say that when the thought of exercise came upon him, he would lie down until the thought passed over. Clement Richard Attlee (1883-1967), prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, said he owed his long life to resisting all forms of exercise.