Search for the competitive edge: a history of dietary fads and supplements
Open accessAbstract
The premise and promise of ergogenic aid use is rooted in antiquity and is based upon superstition and ritualistic behavior of athletes who perceive that past performances were predicated upon unique dietary constituents or dietary manipulation. Accounts from ancient times recommended that athletes and soldiers preparing for battle consume specific animal parts to confer agility, speed or strength associated with that animal. Scientific understanding of the chemical and physiological nature of muscular work in the early 20th century was followed by ergogenic aid use by athletes and rationalized as "scientific" justification. Ergogenic aids such as alkaline salts, caffeine, carbohydrate and protein have been used by athletes with variable success. As nutritionists and exercise physiologists discovered and perfected the scientific understanding of metabolic reactions, athletes in turn experimented with the amount, form and timing of administration in the search for optimal performance. Anabolic steroids and blood doping enhance athletic performance, but health risks, ethics and sportsmanship contravene their use. Popularity and use of ergogenic aids often have preceded scientific substantiation of claims. Current products such as protein isolates and antioxidant nutrients commonly are used by athletes, and many ergogenic aids available today differ little from those used long ago.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Diet, muscle glycogen and physical performance.
Bergström, J., Hermansen, L., Hultman, E., & Saltin, B. (1967) · Acta Physiologica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1967.tb03720.x · Cited by 1,740 · see citing works
Effects of caffeine ingestion on metabolism and exercise performance.
COSTILL, D. L., Dalsky, G. P., & Fink, W. J. (1978) · PubMed · Cited by 498 · see citing works
The Relative Value of Fat and Carbohydrate as Sources of Muscular Energy
Krogh, A., & Lindhard, J. (1920) · Biochemical Journal · doi:10.1042/bj0140290 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Muscle Glycogen and Muscle Electrolytes during Prolonged Physical Exercise<sup>1</sup>
Ahlborg, B., Bergström, J., Ekelund, L., & Hultman, E. (1967) · Acta Physiologica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1967.tb03608.x · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Experiments on the metabolism of matter and energy in the human body, 1898-1900
Atwater, W. O., Benedict, F. G., & States., U. (1902) · Govt. Print. Off. eBooks · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.123031 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Ergogenic aids and muscular performance
Morgan, W. P., & Corbin, C. B. (1972) · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Antioxidants and physical performance
Clarkson, P. M. (1995) · Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition · doi:10.1080/10408399509527692 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
SOME CHANGES IN THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE BLOOD FOLLOWING A MARATHON RACE
Levine, S. A., Gordon, B., & DERICK, C. L. (1924) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1924.02650480034015 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Animal chemistry; or, Organic chemistry in its application to physiology and pathology
Liebig, J., Gregory, W., & Webster, J. W. (1842) · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.31626 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Burke, L. M., & Read, R. S. D. (1993) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.2165/00007256-199315010-00005 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Nutrition for Maximal Sports Performance
Bergström, J. P. (1972) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1972.03200220033009 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Creatine Supplementation and Exercise Performance
Maughan, R. J. (1995) · International Journal of Sport Nutrition · doi:10.1123/ijsn.5.2.94 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
SUGAR CONTENT OF THE BLOOD IN RUNNERS FOLLOWING A MARATHON RACE
Gordon, B., Kohn, L. A., Levine, S. A., Matton, M., Scriver, W. D. M., & Whiting, W. B. (1925) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1925.02670070028009 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Commercially Marketed Supplements for Bodybuilding Athletes
Grunewald, K. K., & Bailey, R. S. (1993) · Sports Medicine · doi:10.2165/00007256-199315020-00003 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Animal Chemistry, or Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology
Liebig, J. (2023) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003009337-19 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Something Old and Something New
Corsaro, W. A. (1982) · Sociological Methods & Research · doi:10.1177/0049124182011002003 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
V. Respiratorischer Quotient und O2‐Aufnahme1
Christensen, E. H., & Hansen, O. (1939) · Skandinavisches Archiv Für Physiologie · doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1939.tb01322.x · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Nutrition Knowledge and Practice of Coaches, Trainers, and Athletes
Parr, R. B., Porter, M., & Hodgson, S. (1984) · The Physician and Sportsmedicine · doi:10.1080/00913847.1984.11701801 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Nutrition and Athletic Performance
Mayer, J., & Bullen, B. A. (1960) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1960.40.3.369 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Cade, R., Spooner, G. R., Schlein, E. M., Pickering, M., & Dean, R. (1972) · PubMed · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Ergogenic and ergolytic substances
Williams, M. H. (1992) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/00005768-199209001-00008 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Medical Aspects of Heading the Ball in Soccer
Smodlaka, V. N. (1984) · The Physician and Sportsmedicine · doi:10.1080/00913847.1984.11701777 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The Use of Nutritional Ergogenic Aids in Sports: Is It an Ethical Issue?
Williams, M. H. (1994) · International Journal of Sport Nutrition · doi:10.1123/ijsn.4.2.120 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Supplementation patterns in marathon runners
Nieman, D. C., Gates, J. R., Butler, J. V., Pollett, L. M., Dietrich, S. J., & Lutz, R. D. (1989) · Journal of the American Dietetic Association · doi:10.1016/s0002-8223(21)02430-5 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Experiments on the Metabolism of Matter and Energy in the Human Body 1898-1900
Atwater, W. O., & Benedict, F. G. (2009) · University of Florida Digital Collections (University of Florida) · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Vitamin-mineral supplement use and nutritional status of athletes.
Bazzarre, T. L., Scarpino, A., Sigmon, R., Marquart, L. F., Wu, S. M., & Izurieta, M. (1993) · Journal of the American College of Nutrition · doi:10.1080/07315724.1993.10718297 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Effects of Variations in Dietary Protein on the Physical Well Being of Men Doing Manual Work
Darling, R. C., Johnson, R. E., Pitts, G. C., et al. (1944) · Journal of Nutrition · doi:10.1093/jn/28.4.273 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
NUTRITION AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Itallie, T. B. V. (1956) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1956.02970290016006 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Beyond Training : How Athletes Enhance Performance Legally and Illegally
Williams, M. H. (1988) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Natural Products and the Athlete: Facts and Folklore
Barron, R. L., & Vanscoy, G. J. (1993) · Annals of Pharmacotherapy · doi:10.1177/106002809302700516 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Dietary Protein and Physical Fitness in Temperate and Hot Environments
Pitts, G. C., Consolazio, F. C., Johnson, R. E., et al. (1944) · Journal of Nutrition · doi:10.1093/jn/27.6.497 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Something Old and Something New???Very New
STRAND, P.-O. (1968) · Nutrition Today · doi:10.1097/00017285-196806000-00002 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Nutritional Ergogenic Aids and Athletic Performance
Williams, M. H. (1989) · Nutrition Today · doi:10.1097/00017285-198901000-00004 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Cureton, T. K., & Pohnoorf, R. H. (1955) · Research Quarterly American Association for Health Physical Education and Recreation · doi:10.1080/10671188.1955.10612832 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Protein and Miscellaneous Ergogenic Aids
Aronson, V. (1986) · The Physician and Sportsmedicine · doi:10.1080/00913847.1986.11709081 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Bensley, E. H. (1951) · PubMed · Cited by 4 · see citing works
CARBOHYDRATE PASTE INGESTION DURING PROLONGED TREADMILL RUNNING 222
Hotell, M. D., & Faria, I. E. (1996) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1097/00005768-199605001-00222 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- U.S. Office of Experiment Stations Bulletin no. 109, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
- Higdon, H. (1995) Boston. A Century of Running. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA. anabolic steroids were tested for their effect on improving / 4p09$$0052 04-03-97 20:49:42
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Intake of nutritional supplements among people exercising in gyms and influencing factors
Goston, J. L., & Toulson Davisson Correia, M. I. (2010) · Nutrition · doi:10.1016/j.nut.2009.06.021 · Cited by 184 · see citing works
Dietary Supplement and Food Contaminations and Their Implications for Doping Controls
Walpurgis, K., Thomas, A., Geyer, H., Mareck, U., & Thevis, M. (2020) · Foods · doi:10.3390/foods9081012 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Effective Nutritional Ergogenic Aids
Applegate, E. (1999) · International Journal of Sport Nutrition · doi:10.1123/ijsn.9.2.229 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Self-citationWiffin, M., Smith, L., Antonio, J., Johnstone, J., Beasley, L., & Roberts, J. (2019) · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · doi:10.1186/s12970-019-0268-9 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Applegate, E. A., & Grivetti, L. E.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Grivetti, Louis E.
- Venue
- The Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1997-05
- Volume
- 127
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 869S-873S
- ISSN
- 0022-3166 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2124886544
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 11.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Doping in Sports
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutrition and Health Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
- Keywords
- ergogenic aids, dietary supplements, athletes, anabolic steroids, blood doping, caffeine, carbohydrate supplementation, protein supplementation, alkaline salts, antioxidant nutrients, performance-enhancing drugs, sports ethics
- MeSH terms
- Diet Fads, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Proteins, Food, Fortified, Humans, Sports, Vitamins, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century, History, Ancient
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
