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Nutrition Department
1 Shields Avenue
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
E-mail:eaapplegate{at}ucdavis.edu
Athletes of all levels, from elite and professional to "back of the pack" and recreational, strive for their best. Oftentimes, this quest involves the use of ergogenic aids to boost work performance, because unaided effort is perceived to be insufficient for pursuing personal bests. Present-day nutritional ergogenic aids range from the common-place caffeine and amino acids to the more exotic lipoic acid and dihydroxyacetone. But the practice of pursuing optimal performance through dietary supplements has been around since the Olympic Games of antiquity more than 2000 y ago. Athletes and warriors used dietary aids, such as deer liver and lion heart, to impart specific benefits, such as speed, bravery, and strength (1). The perceived benefits sought by the athletes of antiquity are no different from the striving by modern-day athletes for improved endurance, strength, and recovery. Today's athletes look for ergogenic aids that provide specific benefits based on that aid's role in exercise metabolism. Thus, practitioners in the area of sports nutrition and well-read athletes, researchers, and academicians would search out reference books such as this one to aid them in the ever-changing arena of nutritional ergogenic aids. Wolinsky and Driskell have done an excellent job of assembling a well-known cast of experts in the area of nutritional ergogenic aids and have produced a well-organized referenced text.
Nutritional Ergogenic Aids is part of a collection of books on exercise edited by the authors and written for sports nutritionists, sports medicine professionals, students, and educated athletes. The 26 chapters are divided into 6 sections: an introduction that includes a discussion of the regulatory issues of supplements; sections that cover amino acid derivatives, lipid derivatives, other substances in foods not classified as essential, and the evaluation of effectiveness; and a summary that includes the implications of using ergogenic aids. Each chapter is well organized with a comprehensive list of references that will prove useful to both researchers and clinicians. The basic format includes the potential role of the dietary aid in physical performance and a review of the literature regarding performance benefits. In some cases, safety issues and use in sports are also covered. Although often a challenge with a multiple-author book, this reference text reads smoothly and provides well-researched information on each dietary aid.
The introductory chapter provides a working definition of ergogenic aids and a detailed overview of regulatory issues, including those involving sports-governing agencies. In part II on amino acid derivatives, a total of 12 chapters give an exceptional review of this popular category of supplements, such as creatine and branched-chain amino acids. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are also reviewed, which points to the significance of potential ergogenic aids that may not benefit speed or strength directly but rather promote healthy joints in an effort to stave off injury or reduce wear and tear. This section may have been improved with a chapter on protein supplements, although the point was made in chapter 1 to address micronutrients rather than macronutrients.
Parts III and IV detail lipids and other food substances, such as caffeine and coenzyme Q10, as potential ergogenic aids. The chapter on caffeine gives an excellent review of caffeine's metabolic and physiologic effects and its use in sports, which is relevant because this is the most commonly used ergogenic aid among various types of athletes. Part V summarizes which ergogenic aids work and which do not in the 4 major areas of ergogenicity: long-term endurance performance, muscle mass and strength, body fat loss, and sports skills and exercise-associated health. This section expertly ties together the previous 24 chapters. A helpful addition to this chapter or perhaps to chapter 1 would have been an in-depth review of ergogenic aid contamination, because this has profound implications for athletes being tested for substances banned for use in sports (chapter 1 briefly touches on this important topic). In summary, this book is an excellent resource for those involved in the field of sports nutrition either as clinicians, students, educators, or researchers as well as for educated athletes.
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