Food Components to Enhance Performance: An Evaluation of Potential Performance-Enhancing Food Components for Operational Rations (1994)
Chapter: V. Potential Performance-Enhancing Food Components
PART V
Potential Performance-Enhancing Food Components
IN PART V, the performance-enhancing capacities of several food components are reviewed. Prior to the workshop the Army identified a number of food components that they specifically requested the Committee on Military Nutrition Research to evaluate. In response to this request the committee invited ten well known scientists to provide reviews of these food components and make their own recommendations regarding the potential of these food components to enhance performance. The first chapter presents an overview of ergogenic aids. This is followed by a discussion of issues relating nutrients and neurotransmitter release and behavioral consequences. Discussed next are the performance-enhancing effects of protein and amino acids, followed by a description of the results of human and animal studies evaluating the effects of tyrosine supplements on mental performance under stressful conditions, and the effects of tyrosine in reducing cognitive deficits resulting from cold stress. Treated next in this section are, the role of carbohydrate in fatigue and the effects of carbohydrate on cognitive performance. Reviews of the effects of choline on human performance; the effects of caffeine on cognitive performance, mood, and alertness; and the effects of carnitine on enhancing physical performance, close this section.
