Facts About Choline and Sports Performance
How Does Choline Enhance Sports Performance?
Choline can enhance muscle performance during exercise and improve stamina
through its activity at a cellular level. Choline supports communication with muscle fibers
and promotes muscle recovery following repetitive motion, resulting in better overall
training output.
• Choline promotes and regulates proper metabolism for increased energy and
endurance. Choline controls the deposition of fat, allowing the body to store it efficiently or
tap it immediately as an energy source for muscle use.
• Choline supports messaging between the brain and muscle fibers for more
efficient and precise movements, and improved coordination. Choline aids in maintaining
the nervous system, and delays the onset of fatigue during strenuous activity.
• Choline also serves to protect the body’s natural pool of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide
expands arterial walls, increasing oxygen-rich blood flow to exercising muscles. However,
nitric oxide is a molecule that lasts for only a second in the bloodstream and then has to be
replaced. Choline supports optimal nitric oxide functions in the body, which is good for all
athletes, especially body builders.
How Does Choline Aid Sports Nutrition?
Currently, there is unprecedented demand for high-performance products and a
dramatic increase in the number of Americans who think exercise is important. Serious
numbers of adults—dubbed the “New Actives” in the sports world—are becoming more
physically active and have caused the lucrative sports nutrition segment to move
mainstream.
• When athletes are deficient in choline – and the sources of choline are exhausted in
the body – the body will take choline away from other key systems and organs. That is why
adequate choline intake is important to health and optimized physical performance.
• Six in 10 adults are giving a lot more thought to the amount of physical activity they
get, with 55 percent considering themselves moderately active and 11 percent being
vigorously active (IFIC Food & Health Survey, 2014).
• Nearly all those who describe themselves as active say they are active 3 to 5 days a
week. In 2013, 48 percent of adults increased the amount of time or number of days a week
that they were active (IFIC, 2014).
• Today, 96 million people are exercise walkers, 56 million exercise with equipment, 39
million are aerobic exercisers, 36 million work out at a club, and 66 million jog. Fifty
percent engage in some sort of strength training (Nat’l Sporting Goods Assn., 2014).
• Those aged 50+ are the fastest-growing segment of exercisers. Teen workouts also are
increasing. (HealthFocus, 2013).
Why is Choline a Good Choice for Sports Nutrition?
Sports nutrition is a concern for both casual and serious athletes. Choline is an
essential nutrient at every phase of life. The new users of sports nutrition products include
those involved in recreational sports, gym workouts, weekend warriors, women with
aggressive fitness and weight goals, baby boomers looking to age well, and mothers looking
for enhanced nutritional support for their children (Nutrition Business Journal).
The category of sports and fitness performance indexes higher as a health concern
than most major condition-specific categories, including digestive health, joint/bone health,
and immunity. Muscle strength is an important consideration for the New Actives, young
and older.
How Do Choline Supplements Fit into the Category of Sports Nutrition?
Choline supplements make sense for athletes because our consumption of foods
providing the richest sources of choline–liver, eggs and a variety of meats—has decreased
in recent years. In fact, 90 percent of the U.S. population does not consume adequate
amounts of choline. Sports nutrition is poised to outgrow all other major consumer health
categories through 2018 (Euromonitor International, 2014).
• Sales in the sports nutrition and weight loss category reached $30.7 billion sales in
2013. Sports powders, pills and hardcore bodybuilding ready-to-drink beverages topped
$4.5 billion in 2013, climbing 12 percent (Nutrition Business Journal).
• The nutritional/performance drink market has grown by 48 percent in the past five
years. The sports drink sector grew 30 percent, nutritional drinks grew 38 percent, the
protein drink market grew 333 percent and the nutrition and energy bar business grew 71
percent (Mintel, US, 2014). Although only 15 percent of the population is aware of choline,
this essential nutrient benefits casual and serious athletes alike.
• 35 percent of food shoppers say building physical strength is very important in their
food selection (Food Mktg. Institute, Shopping for Health, 2014).
Sport Nutrition Supplements
6,000
4,886
Millions
5,000
4,432
3,999
4,000
3,579
3,218
3,000
2,000
1,189
1,344 1,450
1,590
1,726 1,833
1,991
2,129
2,250
2,392
2,595
2,793
2,947
1,000
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