Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) Conference and Expo

Abstract

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2016, 13(Suppl 1):P1 Background Antioxidant supplementation may provide protection against nega-tive health consequences of oxygen-free radicals caused by aerobic and re-sustained exercise. The aim is to find out the efficacy of anti-oxidant rich nutrient bar supplementation on the antioxidant status and physical fitness components of athletes. Method Forty track and field athletes were selected using convenience sam-pling technique. The Human Research Ethics Committee of PSG Col-lege of Arts and Science, Coimbatore approved the study. Voluntary participation of the subjects was emphasized and a written consent was obtained from them in order to be included in the study. An interview schedule was formulated to collect general information such as name, age, gender, and academic qualifications, as well as in-formation pertaining to the types of sporting activity, duration of the activity per day, number of years involved in the respective sports and level of participation (district/state/national). Nutrient bars each weighing 50gm were prepared with rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, dehydrated carrots, flax seeds, peanuts, almonds, honey and date syrup as ingredients. Each athlete was provided with two bars con-taining 110 mg of antioxidant. The prepared bars were analyzed for their total anti-oxidant content using DPPH method. The experimen-tal group (n = 20) was supplemented with the formulated nutrient bars every day for a period of 3 months, and the control group (n = 20) with a placebo. Bio-chemical parameters namely GSH, GSH-px, SOD, vitamin C, serum LPO and physical fitness tests such as 12 mi-nutes test, speed test, step test, push-ups test, vertical jump test and hexagon agility test were assessed at baseline and after 90 days. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (version 15). Results The mean age was 18 ± 3.2 yrs. Sixty percent of the selected athletes were males and 40 % females. The main source of nutrition informa-tion was from coaches (56 %) and magazines (30 %). The athletes of the experimental group, when compared with the control group, showed a significant increase in serum levels from 37.42 ± 12.01 units/min/ml to 42.08 ± 13.16 units/min/ml of SOD (p = 0.000). LPO increased from 2.89 ± 0.82 μg/ml to 3.80 ± 1.37 μg/ml (p = 0.005), GSH increased from 209.76 ± 8.17 μg/ml to 244.58 ± 33.36 μg/ml (p = 0.000). The mean levels of vitamin C and GSH-px decreased minimally in the experimental group but significantly in the con-trol group. Significant improvement in all six physical fitness tests namely 12 minutes test (from 1.44 ± 0.142 to 1.56 ± 0.134) , speed test (from 6.5940 ± 0.258 to 6.7435 ± 0.25) step test (from 68.65 ± 5.51 to 78.35 ± 4.004) push-ups (from 22.25 ± 3.97 to 29.70 ± 3.40), vertical jumps test (from 60.00 ± 5.620 to 63.75 ± 6.043) and hexa-gon agility tests (from 12.255 ± 0.42 to 12.400 ± 0.51) were ob-served in the experimental group). However in the control group, the improvements were significant only in the 12 minutes test, step test and speed test. Conclusion Supplementation of athletes with antioxidant-rich nutrient bars clearly improved their bio-markers and physical fitness. Future re-search may explore the effect of other nutritional antioxidants that could benefit the athletes.