Nutrition and mental health have always taken center stage in elite competitive athletics. Even the NCAA has declared mental health support one of its top priorities for its athletes. In this article, we will explore the interplay between sports nutrition and mental health, including how athletes’ dietary choices can significantly affect their cognitive function, mood, and optimal performance.
Athletes, Food Choices and Depression
In any competitive sports arena, performance is often assessed by physical metrics: speed, strength, power, and/or endurance. However, coaches often fail to acknowledge that behind every body, every muscle, lies a mind working hard to focus, perform, and recover. A growing body of research from the field of nutritional psychiatry reveals that our food choices can significantly affect not only athletic performance but also mood and disposition.
During a recent professional development session hosted by Sports Medicine Australia, Ash Olive – a sport and exercise psychologist and eating disorder clinician — presented evidence of the bidirectional relationship between nutrition and mental health in athletes. Olive highlighted the frightening statistics showing that between 5% and 35% of elite athletes experience anxiety, depression and/or eating disorders. Not only do these conditions often go unrecognized, but coaches and personal trainers also neglect to link them to poor sports nutrition.
Are Athletes Pushing Their Bodies Harder Than Their Fuel Allows?
It might seem intuitive, but sometimes success in the athletic arena has less to do with training and working harder; while certainly important aspects of performance success, what athletes choose to put into their bodies body can facilitate tremendous gains on the field and in recovery.
Below we list some of the key mental health benefits of proper sports nutrition:
- Stabilization of Blood Sugar: Eating regular meals which include sufficient complex carbohydrates prevents sharp dips in glucose that lead to brain fog and mood swings during heavy workouts and performance.
- Lowers Stress Hormones: Diets rich in antioxidants and appropriate macronutrient content help manage cortisol spikes brought on by intense physical training.
- Cognitive Resilience: Essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B complex and adequate hydration help maintain clear focus, diminish levels of competition anxiety and prevent mental burnout.
- Gut-Brain Support: Anti-inflammatory foods and pre/probiotics support a healthy gut microbiome, which plays a direct role in emotional well-being and stress regulation.
- Maintains Energy Levels: With more energy, an athlete can better train to improve strength, power and body composition.
Athletes Have Needs Beyond Physical Performance
Adequate sports-performance-related nutrition can influence functioning from moment to moment, both on the field and in the training room. Many competitive sports rely on the athlete’s ability to excel at motor control, coordination, decision-making, timing, and other cognitive tasks. Nutrition directly affects all of these.
Studies demonstrate that dietary choices play a strong role in those specific cognitive processes vital to peak performance. Research has revealed that a small subset of B vitamins, which figure prominently in the metabolism of homocysteine—namely B6, B9, and B12—are essential for optimizing physiological/neurological functioning, including maintaining focus, learning new skills, remembering information, controlling emotions, and handling pressure in high-stress situations. Another study found that adding yogurt as a probiotic to an elite diver’s diet decreased the risk of freezing up under competition pressure. Such data reinforces the compatibility of sport nutrition and mental health in terms of athletic success.
Essential Nutrients for Mental Wellness in Competitive Athletes
When we picture the ideal training table for competitive/elite athletes, platters of lean meats or fish and bowls of complex carbohydrates may come to mind. While these foods will help support muscle mass and energy, fueling the mental component deserves equal attention. In this section, we will focus on the micronutrients athletes need to incorporate into their fitness meal planning to optimize brain function and mental health.
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids: DHA and EPA, the two main omega-3 fatty acids, support correct nervous system development. The cell membranes which comprise the nervous system contain these specific fatty acids, which dictate how nerve impulses move along neurons. Omega-3’s help to improve serotonin levels in the brain, reducing anxiety and supporting mental resilience/focus.
- Amino Acids: As a precursor of serotonin, tryptophan acts as a neurotransmitter to help modulate sleep regulation, pain perception and mood. Choline boots neurotransmitter levels that can potentially support focus, learning and short-term memory. L-theanine, found in green tea, may also foster calmness and improve focus.
- Zinc and Vitamin D: Vitamin D has the potential to reduce mental anxiety, particularly in endurance athletes. Since athletes tend to lose as much as 9% of their daily zinc requirements through sweat, adequate amounts of either dietary or supplemental zinc will help reduce loss and also mitigate symptoms of depression.
- Anti-Inflammation Nutrients: Chronic inflammation has a strong negative impact on brain function and mood. Since endurance athletes can display inflammation markers up to 60x higher than non-athletes, anti-inflammatory eating plays a dominant role in reducing injury risk by as much as 30%. Meals that feature dark green leafy vegetables, turmeric, fatty fish and berries help minimize inflammation and its mental health consequences.
Macronutrients, Mood/Blood Sugar Stabilization and Meal Timing
Our biological clocks play a role in meal planning as it relates to athletic /cognitive performance. Smaller, frequent and prudently apportioned meals help with continuous refueling and repairing of the muscles and the brain. Delaying recovery foods by just 2 hours can reduce muscle glycogen replenishment by 50%, negatively impacting physical and mental performance.
Carbohydrate consumption 4 hours before vigorous exercise helps maintain higher glucose levels for optimal brain function. A meal eaten 2-3 hours prior to a mentally intense game or competitive event should ideally contain complex carbohydrates, moderate quantities of lean protein, and a reasonable serving of healthy fats.
In terms of fats, the carbohydrate-to-fat ratio serves as the most significant predictor of overall cognition. Higher protein consumption tends to evoke lower depression-related symptoms in elite adolescent athletes.
Gut-Brain Connection
Scientists who study the human intestinal microbiome often refer to the gut as the body’s “second brain”, once again reinforcing the fact that the foods we eat directly affect our mood and cognitive output.
The gut creates neurotransmitters which function as chemical messengers to the brain. A diet filled with processed foods and refined sugars, and lacking in sufficient fiber, pre/probiotics, healthy fats and fresh fruits/vegetables, will not only fail to feed the good bacteria in our gut, but will also neglect to fuel the brain and essential hormones. Since the human brain consists mostly of fat and cholesterol, consuming an appropriate amount of healthy fats on a regular basis will help the brain to function at its best, a key consideration for elite athletes.
In terms of keeping the overall athletic body in top condition, it helps to understand that 70% of the body’s immune system resides in our gut. Consuming foods that will serve the gut optimally will positively affect the athlete’s entire body, including the brain.
Final Thoughts for Athletes and Coaches
With the growing awareness of ingredients that may enhance overall performance/cognition, some athletes seek out sports nutrition products that can support optimal mental and physical health. In the future, sports nutrition companies may seek to develop functional beverages/foods that include nutrients and ingredients that can foster brain health.
If athletes prefer to consume whole foods, balanced meals every 3-4 hours can help stabilize both mood and physical energy. Variety also should figure prominently, as gut diversity aligns with mood and resilience. As for the coaches, having a multi-specialty team in place (dietitians, sports psychologists, etc.) and recognizing signs of cognitive stress in teammates can help address potential problems right away, before performance gets irreparably damaged.
References
nfpt.com/relative-energy-deficiency-in-sports-know-the-red-flags-and-signs/
amydirkssportsnutrition.com/blog/why-coaches-should-take-nutrition-seriously
surgepw.com/post/fuelling-the-mind-how-nutrition-shapes-mental-health-in-athletes
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11789656/
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4772032/
amydirkssportsnutrition.com/blog/how-sports-nutrition-can-affect-athletes-mental-health
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8335541/
nfpt.com/omega-3-fatty-acids-and-osteoporosis-benefits-beyond-calcium-for-bone-health/
