Future trends: Nutritional supplements in sports and exercise

The field of sports nutrition is defined not only by dietary recommendations for various athletes, research and new supplements that are on store shelves but also by the direction of the industry itself. Consumer spending, media coverage, professional athlete endorsement of various supplements, lawsuits, regulations in governing bodies and clinical research all have an impact on the direction and growth of the sports nutrition industry. To date, no supplement has affected sports nutrition as much as creatine and the company that both funded most of the research supporting the ergogenic benefits of creatine and capitalized on such research. There is no current leader in the sports nutrition market. Instead, companies are vying among steady competition for space on store shelves and overall product sales.