This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing and SDG 4: Learning & Education.
Hippocrates (460-370 BCE) was one of the first to note that “…food and exercise, while possessing opposite qualities, yet work together to produce health.” We now know that nutrition plays a pivotal role in supportingexercise as medicine, influencing the ability to perform physical activity and exercise interventions, the recovery from physical activity and exercise, and long-term adaptations. Proper dietary strategies can enhance energy and nutrient availability, which, in turn, can facilitate exercise-induced adaptations that contribute to improvements in metabolic, musculoskeletal, and mental health.
However, Questions remain regarding the optimal amounts and timing of macro- and micronutrients to support adaptations to physical activity and exercise, and how recommendations should be personalised based on individual characteristics (e.g., sex, age, and any specific deficiencies), the exercise prescription (frequency, intensity), the type of exercise performed (e.g., cardiorespiratory or resistance exercise), and desired outcomes. There are also important questions about the role of supplements in conjunction with physical activity or exercise interventions to improve health.
In summary, while optimal nutrition is sometimes viewed as a stand-alone strategy to prevent and treat disease, and to improve health, it can also have important complementary effects on the established benefits of physical activity and exercise to improve metabolic, musculoskeletal, and mental health across the lifespan. This special collection aims to publish the latest evidence on the important role of optimal nutrition to support the health-enhancing effects of exercise.
We welcome submissions on:
- Mechanisms by which different nutritional strategies can enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise interventions.
- Protein and muscle protein synthesis in exercise interventions
- Macronutrient strategies to enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise interventions
- Micronutrient strategies to enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise interventions
- The role of supplements to enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise interventions
- Nutritional approaches to support exercise-induced improvements in metabolic health and weight management
- Nutritional approaches to support exercise-induced improvements in bone health and the prevention of osteoporosis
- Nutritional approaches to support exercise-induced improvements in mental health and cognitive function
- Timing of nutritionand hydration strategies to support exercise-induced improvements in health
- Nutritional approaches to support exercise-induced improvements in skeletal muscle mass and to prevent age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia)
- Nutritional approaches to prevent and exercise-induced injuries
- Innovations in nutritional strategies to support exercise-induced improvements in health in underrepresented populations (e.g., different ages, sexes, geographical locations, and diseases).
- Technological solutions to support nutritional behaviours that will enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise.
- Barriers to improving nutritional behaviours that will support the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise.
- Policy ideas to support the adoption of nutritional behaviours that will enhance the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise.
- Scalable strategies to promote sustained nutritional behaviours to support the health-improving benefits of physical activity and exercise.