News & Press

July 2012

Sports Nutrition Booklet: The Human Engine

Download your free copy today

We are pleased to announce that an English translation of ‘The Human Engine’ by Professor Luc van Loon is now available to download for free from Sugar Nutrition UK.

This sports nutrition booklet was originally produced by Professor van Loon from Maastricht University in November 2008 and has proved to be extremely popular. So we have had the booklet brought up to date to reflect the latest International Olympic Committee Consensus Statement on Nutrition and translated from Dutch into English. We are pleased to be able to provide it to visitors free of charge to either view or download from our website.

A few words from the author:

The brochure ‘The Human Engine’ provides an insight into the energy requirements of exercise and the need for proper dietary practice to optimise carbohydrate availability and maximize performance capacity.

Our skeletal muscle is of extraordinary complexity. Skeletal muscle tissue has the ability to convert chemical energy in to the mechanical energy required for physical activity. The immediate source of chemical energy required for skeletal muscle to contract is provided by the universal energy donor, a molecule called ATP.

ATP is generated from the oxidation of carbohydrate and fat, both of which we derive from our diet. To allow for a constant provision of energy we can store both fat and carbohydrate in the body. More than 96% of our endogenous energy reserves are stored as fat. This apparent preference for the storage of fat as a fuel source is actually quite practical, as fat contains more than twice the amount of energy per unit of weight when compared to carbohydrate. Less than 4% of our energy reserves are stored as carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen, in muscle and liver.

These limited endogenous glycogen stores are of considerable interest in athletes as, from a quantitative point of view, they represent the most important substrate source during moderate to high intensity exercise. Considering the limited carbohydrate reserves and the particular importance of this fuel source during high intensity exercise, it is obvious that endogenous carbohydrate availability often limits performance capacity. The main purpose of the majority of dietary interventions in sports and the development of specific sports nutrition is to improve carbohydrate availability during exercise. This includes maximizing endogenous carbohydrate stores prior to competition, providing additional carbohydrates during exercise by consuming sports drinks, and restoring depleted glycogen stores during recovery from exercise to maintain proper performance during subsequent exercise.

My booklet ‘The Human Engine’ will provide you with more information on how the body uses and stores fuels, and how to optimise fuels to maximize performance. I hope you find it helpful.

Professor Luc van Loon

To view or download ‘The Human Engine’ please click here