Is Your Athlete Reaching Full Optimal Performance?

As an athlete have you ever had the feeling that you aren’t reaching your optimal performance in your sport?  This feeling may have something to do with a lack of adequate nutrients from the foods you consume. Thiamin is a vitamin required for many processes in the body, specifically ones that can help enhance athletic performance.

Thiamin functions in the body

Thiamin is used to process lactic acid buildup after exercise. With lower intakes of thiamin, the lactate in the blood will have a faster rate of buildup.  This will lead to the inability of the muscles to deal with the large amount of lactic acid being produced from exercise.  Thiamin also plays an important role in the flow of electrolytes in and out of muscle and nerve cells. The body loses electrolytes through sweat when exercising.  They are necessary for metabolism and chemical balance in the body.  These levels need to be replaced before, during and after exercise if the exercise regimen exceeds more than two hours. Body functions and performance during exercise will be sufficiently hindered if levels of electrolytes are not maintained. Thiamin is also needed to control the regularity of the heart and blood pressure levels, both of which are needed to achieve peak athletic performance.

Supplements in optimal performance

Supplementation has been found to possibly enhance performance. 

The results of one study showed an increase in blood levels of thiamin and a reduction in levels of fatigue after exercise with supplementation of 100 mg of thiamin for three days.  Thiamin is needed by the body to help break down carbohydrates.  This explains the increased need for this vitamin when a high-carbohydrate diet is in order. Increased thiamin through supplementation (100 mg/day) can help in preventing or accelerating recovery from exercise-induced fatigue.  The supplementation will suppress the increase in blood glucose in the normal thiamin group and decrease fatigue after exercise. Research has shown that endurance athletes develop acute-performance-enhancing effects by the intake of megadoses of thiamin for three to five days prior to the competition.

Thiamin sources

Adding proper foods to the diet that are rich in vitamins is the best way to achieve the optimal performance for athletes.

Thiamin rich food sources are sunflower seeds, peanuts, soybeans, fortified breads, cereals, pasta, whole grains, lean meats (specifically pork), and peas.  Be cautious with the intake of alcohol, uncooked freshwater fish, shellfish and tea since these foods contain an antithiamin factor that destroys the absorption of thiamin in the body.  

Recommended daily intake

The best way to achieve the daily intake of thiamin is through a balanced diet that contains a variety of foods from the different food groups. 

Gender and Age	Recommended daily intake
Infants (0 – 6 months)	0.2 mg/day
Babies (6 – 12 months)	0.3 mg/day
Children (1 - 3 years)	0.5 mg/day
Children (4 – 8 years)	0.6 mg/day
Children (9 – 13 years)	0.9 mg/day
Adolescent females (14 – 18 years)	1.0 mg/day
Females (18+ years)	1.1 mg/day
Pregnant or breastfeeding	1.4 mg/day
Males	1.2 mg/day