Nutrition Strategies for Athlete Health, Long-Term Wellbeing, and Performance

Nutrition is central to athlete health, long-term wellbeing, and performance, yet many key questions remain unresolved across sports, competitive levels, and athlete populations. Recent research has moved beyond single-nutrient recommendations toward more individualized, context-specific strategies that account for training load, event demands, recovery windows, sex-specific physiology, gastrointestinal tolerance, and long-term athlete health. At the same time, growing interest in the gut microbiome, food-first approaches, evidence-based supplementation, and sustainable dietary models is reshaping the field of sport and exercise nutrition. Persistent concerns around low energy availability, inadequate carbohydrate intake, poor recovery practices, and the overuse or misuse of supplements further highlight the need for high-quality, applied research. This Research Topic focuses on conventional sport disciplines — including endurance, team, and strength-based sports — where these nutritional questions carry distinct and pressing implications for both health and performance.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of nutritional strategies that support athlete health and long-term wellbeing while enhancing performance and recovery across training and competition settings. We welcome original research, clinical trials, contemporary reviews, and interdisciplinary studies that examine practical, mechanistic, and translational aspects of sports nutrition in humans across endurance, team, and strength-based sport disciplines.Themes of interest include:• Energy and macronutrient strategies for training adaptation, competition readiness, and post-exercise recovery, including carbohydrate periodization and protein dosing/distribution in endurance, team sport, and strength athletes• Low energy availability and athlete health, including REDs-related outcomes, bone health, menstrual function, immune function, and return-to-performance considerations — with particular interest in long-term health consequences across the athlete lifespan• Hydration, electrolyte, and fueling practices during repeated training sessions, tournaments, endurance events, and environmental extremes• Food-first and supplement-based recovery interventions, including probiotics, polyphenol-rich foods, creatine, omega-3 fatty acids, and other evidence-based ergogenic aids• Personalized and emerging approaches, such as gut microbiome-informed nutrition, digital monitoring, sex- and age-specific strategies, para athlete nutrition, and sustainable performance diets Topic editors: David J Sanders, Timea Teglas Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80701/nutrition-strategies-for-athlete-health-long-term-wellbeing-and-performance