22 Apr 2021 --- Robertet is shedding light on the role of cellular health on sports nutrition. The French company says that COVID-19 has been pushing greater athlete awareness of factors like antioxidant stress in muscle cells. Other emerging themes include chronobiology and overlap with other sectors.
“Cellular health is a fairly new concept for consumers, but they are gaining more and more expertise around cellular health. They want to understand how products and molecules work,” product manager Laure Egoumenides tells NutritionInsight.
Protecting cells can indirectly impact energy replacement and hormonal management, as well as improving neurotransmitters. Additionally, antioxidant defenses prevent oxidative stress and inflammation while also facilitating physical and mental well-being.
Defining “athlete”
Egoumenides notes that the category of “athletes” is “vast and heterogeneous,” with many sub-categories that have recently appeared.
For the “active lifestyle users” demographic, defined as ultra-active urban people, sports nutrition is seen as an ally in their sports practice in addition to supplementing the fast-paced lives they lead.
“Even though the level of oxidative stress or inflammation induced might not be the same for a high-level athlete and an occasional athlete, it can have deleterious effects in both cases.”
However, a high-level athlete, trained and in very good physical condition, will not have the same resistance threshold as a more occasional athlete.
Sports nutrition trends are constantly changing, flags Saramito.
Chronobiology on the rise
One trend picking up pace within sports nutrition is chronobiology. Robertet defines this as a diet and supplementation regime that are perfectly adapted to each sportsperson depending on their own specific needs and the timing of their training.
These means asking who needs supplements, what is the most suitable time to take them, and for how long.
Nutrition must be adapted to the athlete, emphasizes Dr. Marc Saramito, a sports doctor who used his skills with top athletes such as the French Olympic team at the Atlanta Olympic Games and the Subaru team at the World Rally Championship.
“Giving a long-term antioxidant treatment without looking at the needs may disrupt cellular messaging. The dosage is more efficient when the supplementation is provided in a discontinuous treatment,” he emphasizes.
Personalization has been a common theme in sports nutrition in recent years. Earlier this month, Gatorade launched Gx Sweat Patch, which uses a lab-based sweat testing protocol to determine athletes’ unique sweat profiles, which helps inform personalized hydration strategies.
Meanwhile, a study in January found that individualizing nutritional plans could help young male rugby league players maximize performance and optimize recovery throughout their careers.
Melorun offers a host of benefits.
Overlap with other sectors
Saramito likens sports nutrition to fashion in that desires change every five years.
“Forty years ago, athletes ate pasta before competitions. This was a trend encouraged by Ivan Lendl, who said he had a pasta-rich diet. Today, we know that this is no longer necessary and that it may even have a negative effect due to the increasing number of food intolerances,” he points out.
Cellular health fits in with the modern sports nutrition landscape. However, it has a long history in the cosmetic market for skin health and also plays an important role in healthy aging.
“Since oxidative stress is involved in most disorders, cellular health is relevant in most cases. But if the message is understood by consumers for beauty – (and is starting to be for sports –), it is not necessarily the case for the rest of the applications,” acknowledges Egoumenides.
A traceable melon juice concentrate
Addressing cellular health, Robertet offers Melorun, which is based on a melon juice concentrate. It is developed to counteract oxidative stress in the context of physical activity.
It was originally launched in 2020 and boasts complete traceability, beginning from the seed derived from melons grown in the south of France to the final ingredient. It also taps into naturality demand, which Egoumenides detailed in a recent Special Report.
Notably, the type of melon it uses has an essential antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD), in concentrations five to ten times higher than other melons.
In addition to preventing oxidative stress and inflammation, Melorun is positioned to promote physical and mental well-being, protect magnesium levels and support the integrity of muscles and joints.
Late last year, Robertet also launched curcuRouge, a “groundbreaking” curcumin that has shown 93 times greater absorption than traditional extracts.
By Katherine Durrell
