Eating well isn鈥檛 cheap. At least, not according to the sports-nutrition industry. For $220 a month, will pair you with a credentialed coach who will tell you what and when to eat based on your body composition and training goals. For $100, you can have a fitness influencer (which you can then track yourself for free via MyFitnessPal). And for a comparatively minuscule price of $20, you can exactly like seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady鈥攁lthough his will cost you $147.
We鈥檙e constantly being marketed products that promise us , , , and more. , , and even have all been reformulated and rebranded as performance-supporting foods.
Things didn鈥檛 used to be nearly this complicated or expensive. According to an article in , bodybuilders in the 1970s stuck to basic (if boring) meal plans of mostly protein (beef, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, and fish) and vegetables. The only thing that resembled a supplement was an analog protein shake, which was听either made with soy protein powder or milk, with additional powdered milk stirred in. Among runners, even basic energy bars weren鈥檛 commonplace until marathoner Brian Maxwell created PowerBars in 1984 and started marketing them to other athletes.
The notion that fitness and healthy eating are complicated and expensive perpetuates privilege in the wellness world. Regardless of how effective supplements, meal plans, and similar products may be, it鈥檚 important to consider whether they make good sports nutrition鈥攁nd, by extension, performance鈥攕eem out of reach to anyone who can鈥檛 afford them.
Normalizing pricey supplements, meal plans, and snacks just adds one more barrier to entry for lower-income individuals and families, when whole foods and a simple healthy diet will suffice. Journalist Anne Helen Petersen wrote about this recently in her , Culture Study, explaining how this messaging is especially challenging for young athletes in lower-income households, who are already at a massive disadvantage due to how expensive it鈥檚 become to play competitive peewee sports:听鈥$4000-$6000 a year spent for , upwards of , and between for soccer,鈥 Petersen writes, citing stats from USA Today.) And it鈥檚 certainly not a helpful message for college athletes, over a quarter of whom experience food insecurity (including 24 percent of Division 1 athletes), according to a .
Predictably, a听 in PLoS One states that people with higher incomes are more likely to participate in any type of physical activity than people with lower incomes, and that those in the highest income group expended roughly 26 percent more energy through exercise than those in the lowest income group. The researchers can鈥檛 pinpoint the exact cause, but they point to time constraints as a possible explanation: those with lower incomes typically have less leisure time, because they work more hours and can鈥檛 afford as many conveniences. There鈥檚 also the fact that even basic forms of physical activity require investments like shoes and athletic apparel, not to mention the gym memberships, expensive gear, and travel required for more specialized sports.
A personalized fueling strategy can complement training and boost performance, but too much focus on how you eat can have diminishing physiological returns. 鈥淯nless they have aspirations of going pro or reaching elite status, the everyday athlete doesn鈥檛 need to be overly preoccupied with fine-tuning their nutrition,鈥 says Cara Harbstreet, a dietitian and the owner of . In fact, she says, athletes who rely heavily on supplements or buy into 鈥減erformance boosting鈥 meal plans often end up eating too little, which has a significant negative effect on performance.
The basic tenets of good sports nutrition are to eat balanced snacks and meals鈥攅ach containing protein, carbs, and fat鈥攅very two to four hours, and to make sure you鈥檙e properly hydrated, explains , a sports dietitian and the former director of sports nutrition at the University of North Carolina. This alone can be enough for many people, as long as you鈥檙e eating a variety of nutritious foods in quantities large enough to feel satisfied and energized. And while certain athletes might need to supplement specific nutrients that they don鈥檛 get enough of from their diet (vitamin D, iron, and calcium are common deficiencies among athletes), there鈥檚 no need for a cabinet full of pills and powders.
Plus, sports-specific supplements don鈥檛 necessarily offer anything that food doesn鈥檛. 鈥淭he ingredients in many sports supplements, such as creatine, branched-chain amino acids, and nitric-oxide boosters, are actually food components, and athletes should be reassured that food is an effective and inexpensive way to consume them,鈥 says , a sports dietitian based in Littleton, New Hampshire. She recommends basic protein-dense foods鈥攑oultry, meats, fish, dairy, and legumes鈥攊n place of powders, and inexpensive snacks like chocolate milk or a bowl of cereal in place of bars and shakes marketed as recovery aids.
The bottom line is that pricey meal plans and sports supplements don鈥檛 offer a whole lot of value, despite costing significantly more than whole-food alternatives. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich has roughly the same nutrient profile as a peanut butter ProBar, and at a fraction of the cost ( for the PB&J, compared to over three dollars for the ). The next time you think about shelling out for one of these things, ask yourself if you really benefit from it or if you鈥檙e just buying into marketing or convenience.听And remember that plenty of people don鈥檛 even have the luxury of making that choice.