Tag: Sports Nutrition Products

Sports Nutrition Products – A Need or Just Marketing?

Even if you are into sports, youll only need your regular diet plus plenty of water. Thus, you do not need a sport nutrition product. Right? Wrong.

The need for sports and sport nutrition product

Records of antiquities show that athletics has been an integral part of earliest mans life. Athletic life was originally meant for survival through gathering food or for self protection. Later, it developed into a contest for strength, speed, skill, and mental sharpness. With the passage of time, these activities evolved into what we now know as different forms of exercises, or sports.

Our ancestors even then, fully understand the need of our body for exercise and other forms of physical activities. They instinctively know that in order to maintain their health and further developed their physical whole being, they need to have some activities. And from this early, they understand the need for a special food, the modern version of which is our sport nutrition product.

Basic dietary patterns of our ancestors

Evidences about prehistoric peoples diets can be glimpsed from the artifacts used in food preparation such as milling, baking, and ultimately cooking. From these bits of information, we are informed that the basic diet of early Greeks and Romans for instance was a perfect combination of plant and animal products. They ate several variety of cereals, vegetables, fruits (fresh and dried), and lots of wine (usually diluted with water in varying degree).

Early Greeks main meat source is that of goats. In Italy it was pork meat products specially bacon. Beef was occasionally eaten, particularly after sacrifices in numerous temples. Milk, and perhaps milk product, was a very popular food. Fish and poultry were also part of the regular diet. The slight difference of these early people with our modern diet is that olive oil was consumed in greater volume than butter. The oil was also a main source for household lighting.

Combined with good sport nutrition product, this diet, a formula made thousands of years ago, is a perfect dietary program for a modern sports man. Our ancestors knew then, that although foods abound in nature, there are several nutritional sources that fit better a healthy lifestyle.

Sports nutrition product

Fast forward into our modern setting. It is important for athletes to have good nutrition for maximum strength, optimum agility, endurance, and improved overall performance. The foundation for any successful athletic program is a good combination of a well-thought based on whole foods (veggies, fruits, whole grains, and proteins, remember the Greeks?) supplemented with a special sport nutrition product, and course a good regimen of exercise.

While it is true that dedication, good training techniques, and genetics are still the main element in an athletes effectiveness, the lack of a proper nutrition coupled with the absence of nutritional supplement like sport nutrition product can inhibit an athletes performance in any other forms of exercise.

Without a good eating habits combined with sport nutrition product, pre-games and competitions proper may end disastrously. Optimal nutrition is only attainable with perfect dietary practice, combined with sport nutrition product as important element. It is only thru a sustained adherence to this good combination of regimen and sport nutrition product that a stellar performance is assured.

Nutraceutical Industry and Sports Nutrition

The role of food in total health care is not something new to mankind. The use of food to maintain man’s health is as natural as day and night. More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, considered as the father of medicine, said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” It is this principle that eventually led to the explosion of the nutraceutical industry.

The nutraceutical industry is concerned with nutraceuticals, that is, food or part of a food that offers medical and/or health benefits including prevention or treatment of disease.

All therapeutic areas such as anti arthritic, cold and cough, pain killers, digestion, sleeping disorders, blood pressure, cholesterol, prevention of certain cancers, osteoporosis, depression and diabetes are covered by nutraceuticals.

Products range from herbal dietary supplements, actual food components in dosage form such as capsules or tablets to beverages fortified with vitamins and genetically engineered designer foods, functional foods, processed foods such as cereal, soup and beverages.

Functional foods, the most popular term among consumers are modifieds food or food ingredients that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contains.

Nutraceuticals is widely popular in the US, Canada, Japan, and Europe. The demand for nutraceuticals has been growing worldwide due to consumer awareness of the links of diet and disease, aging population, rising health care cost and innovations in food technology and nutrition.

Competition factors for the Sports Nutrition Market

Product/brand differentiation

Because of greater saturation and competition in the marketplace sports nutrition products look alike and sound the same. Maintaining a brand that stands apart from the rest is difficult but a thing to strive for.

Research-substantiated claims.

Consumers ability to make intelligent choices should never be underestimated. People place more faith endorsements by university professors and doctors and claims backed by independent research than by endorsements by celebrities.

Core products and strategies

A good strategy now is to focus development of core products or integrating with large food and pharmaceutical concerns (e.g., Powerbar, BalanceBar).

E-commerce

For small companies that cannot or will not rely on strong distribution relationships, e-commerce is an increasingly attractive option.

Basis for marketing strategy

The factors for competition stated above have been gleaned from researches of what consumers are willing to pay for. Overall, customers want:

Something New

Retailers and consumers clamor for “new,” whether it means new forms of delivery (gels, effervescent tablets, functional beverages), new applications of or combinations with existing products, or all-natural sports nutrition products that are free of artificial ingredients and solvents.

Excellent Tasting All-natural products

Consumers are also looking for products that taste good and are easy to take. Taste is a major feature that can either make or break a product. The hunt is on for manufacturers to come up with better and new flavors.

High quality and safe products

Regulatory agencies exist to protect the consumers. It is the responsibility of product manufacturers to undertake sound research and prove the efficacy and safety of their nutraceutical products. Products that are based on false or misleading marketing should be and are banned and condemned.

Through product sales and advances in research and development, the Sports Nutrition Nutraceutical Industry is now validating what was proven, early on, by the fitness and nutrition pioneers — sports nutrition products provide easier access to a healthier way of performing and living.