Sport Nutrition for Health and Performance

Now, more than ever, there is an increased demand for accurate sport nutrition information. Proper nutrition helps athletes at all levels prevent injury, enhance recovery from exercise, achieve and maintain optimal body weight, improve daily training workouts, and maintain overall good health. However, keeping up with sport nutrition can be an overwhelming task and there is a vast amount of misinformation available.

Sport Nutrition for Health and Performance is designed to sort fact from fiction and help students and practitioners obtain the knowledge they need to give sound advice to athletes and active individuals. As a reference, this text will keep practitioners on the cutting edge of exercise and nutritional science. Written by two of the leading authorities, Melinda M. Manore, PhD, RD, FACSM, and Janice L. Thompson, PhD, FACSM, this text combines the authors extensive backgrounds in nutrition, exercise physiology, and fitness to bridge the gap between scientific literature and practical application.

Organized to promote learning, not memorization, the text combines micronutrients into functional groupings that provide an easy framework for understanding how these nutrients can influence exercise performance and good health. Each chapter has key points to be covered and ends with a summary stressing the important facts to assist in retention of the information. Chapter highlights give in-depth information on topics and critically evaluate issues surrounding myths or controversy in sport nutrition. Numerous charts, figures, and tables also provide useful information to improve understanding of difficult concepts and to help the student or practitioner make sound nutritional recommendations to athletes and physically active individuals.

Sport Nutrition for Health and Performance is different from other texts and reference books on the subject because the authors add the “why” behind the “what” to do. Both students and practitioners will benefit from this clear and comprehensive presentation of the information, as well as the practical integration of this research as it applies to counseling athletes.

Melinda M. Manore, PhD, RD, FACSM, is currently a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. She is also a graduate faculty member in the exercise science doctoral program and the exercise and wellness doctoral program. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she conducts research and supervises graduate student research. Her areas of expertise include the interaction of nutrition and exercise as it relates to health, disordered eating, nutritional status in active individuals, women's health issues, energy balance, and obesity.

Dr. Manore has served on the editorial boards for several prestigious publications such as the American College of Sports Medicine's Health and Fitness Journal, Medicine and Science in Sport and Medicine, Journal of the American Dietetic Association,and the International Journal of Sport Medicine. She is also on the advisory boards for USA Gymnastics and Gatorade Sports Nutrition. In 1999 she was nominated for the American Dietetic Association's Foundation Award for Excellence in Research and has been a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine since 1996. Dr. Manore is also a member of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, American Society for Nutritional Sciences, and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.

Dr. Manore is an avid outdoors woman who enjoys hiking, camping, cycling, and golf. She has completed three marathons and currently participates in power walking.

Janice L. Thompson, PhD, FACSM, is a research scientist at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is currently working in partnership with Native American communities to develop and implement physical activity and nutrition education programs to reduce the risks for chronic diseases. Dr. Thompson also provides sport nutrition education for various athletes at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Thompson has been involved in sport nutrition research for over ten years, and she has also been very active in studying the impact of weight loss on reducing risks for chronic diseases. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses for the past twelve years in the areas of basic nutrition, exercise physiology, sport nutrition, and health fitness. In addition, she has assessed the body composition and fitness levels of thousands of athletes and sedentary individuals and designed their training programs to promote weight loss and improve performance.

Dr. Thompson is very active in numerous health organizations. Most notably, she is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, the world's leading exercise science organization, and she is a member of the American Society for Nutritional Scientists. She serves as a reviewer for scientific journals such as Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, International Journal of Sport Nutrition, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and Journal of Applied Physiology. In 1997, she won the outstanding undergraduate teaching award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In her personal time, Dr. Thompson is a distance walker and enjoys golfing and yoga.