REF-456 · Burke & Hawley, 2018 · Science, Vol. · Paper · PubMed

Swifter, higher, stronger: what's on the menu?

Science review of elite sports nutrition: no single "athletic diet", practices diverge by event demands and periodization

B+moderate evidenceMeasured on a mixed groupWritten before October 2026, being re-checked

Scope (abstract)

Dissects the nutritional approaches elite athletes use to reach their physiological, psychological and biomechanical limits, showcasing the contribution of modern sports science to gold medals and world titles. Its core argument: despite an enduring belief in a single superior "athletic diet", successful athletes' nutrition practices are diverse — because the metabolic demands of different sports are specific, and because training and competition goals are periodized.

Key Findings (themes)

1

Specificity of metabolic demand — the fueling strategy follows the event's energy demands, not a universal template (abstract)

2

Periodization of nutrition — intake changes with training and competition goals across the season (abstract)

3

Pragmatic implementation — real-world constraints and the need to prioritize when nutrition themes conflict add further variation between athletes (abstract)

4

Controversy — differences in athlete practice both promote and reflect areas of disagreement among sports-nutrition experts (abstract)

5

Topics treated in the full text (not checked against the abstract): carbohydrate availability and train-low/train-high, hydration, supplements, body composition, female-athlete considerations. Evidence grades for individual supplements are NOT from this paper — use the IOC consensus REF-358

Practical Application

Narrative review (Burke & Hawley 2018, Science): there is no single superior "athletic diet" — the diversity in successful elite athletes' nutrition arises from the specificity of each sport's metabolic demands, from periodizing intake to training and competition goals, and from pragmatic prioritization when nutrition goals conflict. Use it when an athlete asks "what should endurance athletes eat?": the honest answer is that the plan follows the event and the training phase.
Authoritative citation for the periodized-nutrition concept (fuel for the work required)
Useful high-level summary for a non-specialist audience; the numbers for carbohydrate intake live in REF-066 and SYNTH-04

Limitations

Brief narrative format — overview, not a deep dive; no systematic method
Olympic/elite lens (less ultra-endurance applicability)
Authors are closely aligned with major sport-science institutions (small editorial bias possible)
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

regraded 2026-09-27 from A: authoritative narrative review from the leading group, no systematic method

Content correction 2026-09-27
Level A -> B+ (narrative review; "high-profile journal" is not an evidence grade).
"Supplement evidence — Tier A (caffeine, creatine, β-alanine, bicarbonate, nitrate), Tier B (omega-3, vitamin D), Tier C" -> not in the abstract and not this paper's classification; removed, pointed to REF-358.
Key Themes rewritten to the abstract (specificity, periodization, pragmatic prioritization, expert controversy); the other topics kept only as full-text topics. Added Tier/Sport lines and an abstract-based lead.