Sports nutrition: An evolving market for lifestyle consumers

ENGAGING in sports is an integral part of life. It is not just a trend, but also an important part of well-being and is intricately linked to health, physical appearance and overall performance. The need to engage in physical activity is a given for any age group, and more and more people are seriously getting into sports. This trend is providing the sports nutrition market with the opportunity to extend its offering, including beverages intended to restore energy and enhance nutrient intake, to new buyers. Alongside products aimed at athletes and bodybuilders, new product ranges are emerging.

Targeted at new, so-called lifestyle consumers, for whom sport is a leisure activity, or whose use of such products is not exclusively linked to exercise, these products are aimed in particular at women, seniors, youngsters, and people who are "on the go". Physical appearance and selfesteem seem to be the top motivations for women, seniors are looking to stay in shape and keep active, and youngsters and busy people are after something with a kick which will help them to keep up with a demanding pace of life.

The approach adopted to target these new audiences is altogether different from that used to appeal to traditional athletes and sportsmen in terms of product development, distribution channels and advertising. It's not a matter of merely "simplifying" the products and modifying the packaging, which risks both disappointing the new consumer and confusing the traditional user.

These new consumers are governed by different purchasing criteria. For them, taste, ease of consumption, ethics and price are of much greater importance as purchase drivers, whilst the performance aspect is not the one and only goal. This development goes hand in hand with the diversification of distribution channels and advertising, moving from specialist shops and sales sites towards mass-market channels.

Standing out amongst current market offerings are protein-packed drinks intended for consumption post workout or at any point in the day to maintain energy levels.

Plant proteins in sports nutrition
Plant proteins (pea, soya, lupin, potato, etc.) are on a roll in a number of markets. According to athletes and bodybuilders, plant proteins have suffered from a poor reputation in the past in terms of nutritional value, their essential amino acids composition being less "complete" than that found in animal proteins. However, some plant proteins offer highly competitive nutritional value. For example, natural ingredients firm Cosucra offers a pea protein isolate ‘Pisane', which closely resembles that of casein (Figure 1). It is also digested at a moderate speed, between lactoserum protein (fast) and casein (slow). The product contains branched chain amino acids, in particular leucine and arginine, which are especially beneficial for athletes. Leucine plays an important role in stimulating the production of muscle protein, especially post-workout during the recovery and muscle-building phase.

Arginine enables the endogenous synthesis of nitric oxide, a powerful vasodilator. Combined with other proteins, Pisane can help stagger the speed at which other proteins are digested whilst ensuring a highly beneficial amino acid profile. For instance, a mix speeds of 20% whey protein isolate and 80% Pisane is highly digestible, with digestion speeds ranging from moderate to fast, is rich in branched-chain amino acids, and has a high arginine content (Figure 2). On the other hand, combining Pisane and casein results in a slow to moderate speed of digestion and scores highly for branched-chain amino acids and arginine content. 

Pisane can also be used as a sole source of protein. Its high digestibility, balanced branched-chain amino acids profile, high arginine contentNike