ACSM’s Nutrition for Exercise Science – Module 2 Hydration, Nutrition Optimization and Diet Planning for Optimal Performance

Nutrition has an impact on multiple areas, including injury prevention and injury recovery, muscle and skeletal development, exercise recovery, psychological sense of well-being, general health, and resistance to illness. Under ideal circumstances, all members of the sports medicine team, including sports nutritionists, exercise physiologists, sports medicine physicians, sports psychologists, and athletic trainers, should have some understanding of how nutrition will affect their specific areas of expertise. Therefore, while the primary focus of this book is to help exercise science students understand the science of sports nutrition, it can also help others on the sports medicine team understand the scientific basis of important nutritional issues that have an impact on athlete health and performance. By doing so, this book will contribute to the cohesiveness and functionality of the sports medicine team and to the ultimate benefit of the athlete. This book is also likely to find other readers who have an interest in athlete health and success, including parents and coaches.  

Since an important goal of this book is to make the science accessible, easily understood, and applicable, any reader in a college/university should be capable of reading and understanding the book contents without prerequisite knowledge. A number of courses are taught at the undergraduate and/ or beginning graduate level for which this book would be appropriate, including courses with titles such as Nutrition for Physical Activity, Nutrition for Exercise Science, Sports Nutrition, and related titles. Assuming the student is in any field related to applied science and public health, there should be no course prerequisites needed to take a course using this book.