Nutrition for Sport and Exercise

Rating:
Summary: A Potential Classic (But Not Yet)
Review: Nutrition for Sport and Exercise is a very well written, very well edited book. All authors wrote contributions that flowed seamlessly from one to the next, and each individual contribution was well written. What I liked most was that, after finishing the book, I trusted the authors. They gave reasoned and well-documented discussions of the covered topics.

What was wrong with this book was that it was not complete, was that it didn't go far enough. The contributors did not stretch themselves to make authoritative judgements of the state of the art in their contributions. Stretch judgements are important in a growing field.

Also, some descriptions were incomplete. For example, in the chapter on ergogenic aids, the authors did a good job of describing the lackings in overhyped products, but of the products that do show solid evidence of benefit (caffeine, creatine monohydrate, DHA/pyruvate, glutamine, and phosphatidylserine), glutamine and phosphatidylserine were not discussed in terms of optimum dosing. Considering the expense of nutritional supplements, a lack of this information is a major flaw in the chapter. Another example is the chapter on fluid needs of athletes. Although well written and fairly complete, it did not synthesize all the information into a sophisticated, extremely well-judged set of recommendations.

Overall, I thought that Nutrition for Sport and Exercise was a highly professional volume that I could trust up to the four-star level, and beats just about anything in print right now. However, it isn't quite enough. Here's another way to put it --- If I had a relative with a chronic degenerative disease such as multiple sclerosis, I would not want the tried and proven recommendations only - I wouldn't want just a good doctor, I would want the stretch recommendations from the specialists who live with the disease every day, and try to get the best treatment plan possible.--- Likewise, in my (granted, lay person) opinion, this book should stretch more.