nutritional insufficiencies, but also provide energy for a sporting match or training session, and protein necessary to restore muscle tone and strength after exertion, for example. We call nutrition ‘invisible training’. What does this mean? For example, a carbohydrate-rich diet in the days leading up to a sporting event or intense training boosts muscle energy reserves. Until a few years ago, nutritional intervention was very limited – it shows how far we’ve come! Today we talk about customising diets for athletes based on their specific individual their needs, habits, metabolism and so on. And what about liquids? What matters is hydration: not drinking too much or too little. Drinking too much without being thirsty can lead to hyponatraemia (low sodium concentration in the blood) and cause athletes to faint. Recommendations based on thirst are however not cut and dried. It’s best to replace lost liquids and liquids can be better absorbed if drunk together with carbohydrates and sodium, as opposed to just water on its own. What should an athlete eat? Athletes should follow a healthy, balanced diet. Obviously they must make sure they get enough calories before, during and after exercise to enhance their physical performance, which is the key objective. For a balanced diet, we have to identify which are the healthy foods, and then gear specific foods to what is best for each individual. We can classify food as healthy for a balanced diet and individually gear it to the foods that are best for each person