How to Make Better Sports Nutrition Decisions | Prof. Michael Gleeson

One of the things that I find so fascinating as we both sit here today is, number one, there is, there is a lot of information now at our disposal as it relates to nutrition and how it can impact, um, exercise and performance and health and wellbeing, and all sorts of bits in between with, with athletes, and we could define athletes in different ways.

But, but pretty much everyone is impacted by exercise, of course, and, and nutrition too, which we're gonna explore aspects of here.

But also it's still quite a young career.

Um, a career, sorry.

It's, it's quite a young field relative to all the others.

D- so despite all of that advancement, you know, um- Y- you know, I, I, I, it- it's interesting to see how far we will go into the future, and perhaps if we have time at the end, I'd love to explore what your thoughts are in that regard.

But you've contributed a great deal to the body of knowledge that we have, um, not just research papers, research articles, but also some textbooks as well.

And those textbooks, Mike, are getting bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker-

Yeah

... as we go.

And for me, I, I'm interested from the perspective of being a practitioner.

That's what my career has largely been about, and nowadays my work is there to, to help support and impact people looking to take all this knowledge, this information, and applying it into, into practice.

And a key component to that is, is us.

It's, it's the practitioner.

Um, despite all of that knowledge, just throwing books or papers at our clients or athletes isn't necessarily going to yield the-

Mm

... sorts of results that we want.

So that's why, um, for example, this, this conversation we're gonna have today and this paper that you've published is, um, of real interest to me because it's, it's not just supplying more information into the body of knowledge, it is also providing some, some tools, resources, if you like, a framework to enable practitioners who have to make decisions, sometimes at very short notice, so that th- they have a way of perhaps making better decisions, having decisions that have greater impact, which of course in elite sport can be really critical.

Mm.

Um, so perhaps we could start this conversation with why you felt the need to have this transition from, you know, you've got many years of, of articles on the rocket science, so to speak, um, and now we have, uh, a more framework, a more decision-making based, um, resource here.

What led you to this point?

One of the things that I find so fascinating as we both sit here today is, number one, there is, there is a lot of information now at our disposal as it relates to nutrition and how it can impact, um, exercise and performance and health and wellbeing, and all sorts of bits in between with, with athletes, and we could define athletes in different ways.

But, but pretty much everyone is impacted by exercise, of course, and, and nutrition too, which we're gonna explore aspects of here.

But also it's still quite a young career.

Um, a career, sorry.

It's, it's quite a young field relative to all the others.

D- so despite all of that advancement, you know, um- Y- you know, I, I, I, it- it's interesting to see how far we will go into the future, and perhaps if we have time at the end, I'd love to explore what your thoughts are in that regard.

But you've contributed a great deal to the body of knowledge that we have, um, not just research papers, research articles, but also some textbooks as well.

And those textbooks, Mike, are getting bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker-

Yeah

... as we go.

And for me, I, I'm interested from the perspective of being a practitioner.

That's what my career has largely been about, and nowadays my work is there to, to help support and impact people looking to take all this knowledge, this information, and applying it into, into practice.

And a key component to that is, is us.

It's, it's the practitioner.

Um, despite all of that knowledge, just throwing books or papers at our clients or athletes isn't necessarily going to yield the-

Mm

... sorts of results that we want.

So that's why, um, for example, this, this conversation we're gonna have today and this paper that you've published is, um, of real interest to me because it's, it's not just supplying more information into the body of knowledge, it is also providing some, some tools, resources, if you like, a framework to enable practitioners who have to make decisions, sometimes at very short notice, so that th- they have a way of perhaps making better decisions, having decisions that have greater impact, which of course in elite sport can be really critical.

Mm.

Um, so perhaps we could start this conversation with why you felt the need to have this transition from, you know, you've got many years of, of articles on the rocket science, so to speak, um, and now we have, uh, a more framework, a more decision-making based, um, resource here.

What led you to this point?