ABSTRACT
A nutritionally adequate diet is essential to an optimal functioning of the body in general and to performance in sports in particular. In other words, the elite athlete relies on a diet providing sufficient energy, as well as an adequate content of macro-and micronutrients. It is important to emphasize two aspects in this context. First of all, there is no precise answer to an adequate content of macroand micronutrients in a diet. It depends on many different aspects such as physiological bioavailability, short-and long-term physiological adaptability as well as training volume and intensity. Furthermore, all national and international recommendations are based on consensus decisions of scientific boards. Second, the majority of the recommendations of these scientific boards are based on investigations carried out in Caucasians living in Europe, north America or Australia. Hence, they might not reflect the African reality, and physiological response to life-style including diet often differs between different ethnic groups. Taking these aspects into consideration is important when discussing diet intake and performance of the Kenyan runners.
