From power bars to protein drinks - How helpful is fitness food?

From power bars to protein shakes: Many people rely on fitness food

More and more people are buying sports nutrition. In 2017, 108 million packs went off the counter, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year. This has been shown by the current fitness study by Nielsen. The market researchers took a close look at sales and sales of sports food in food retailing and in drugstores in 2016 and 2017.

Fitness food is no longer a niche product that can only be found in specialty stores. Every German bought an average of around 1.35 packs of sports nutrition in 2017 and spent around € 1.95 on it. Bars with a sales volume of just under 75 million packs are in high demand, followed by liquids (27 million) and powders (4.5 million)..

Many grab the extra dose of protein: The sales of protein products was almost 66 million packs, which corresponds to an increase of 20 percent. Special sports drinks such as mineral drinks are also popular with around 27 million packs (plus 19%). In third place were over 10 million packs of carbohydrate products, with sales up 10 percent. And with these numbers, all Internet commerce has not even been considered.

Some resort to fitness foods to improve their training goals. Others want to eat healthily and physically and support their active lifestyle. "But no expensive special products are necessary for this," emphasizes Harald Seitz, nutritionist at the Federal Center for Nutrition. "In addition, power bars and protein shakes often contain too much sugar".

Although the body needs protein to build and maintain muscle mass, the recreational athlete usually has no increased need. For example, if you are physically active for four to five times a week for 30 minutes at medium intensity, you will get the recommended 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight. "This amount can be easily achieved with a so-called balanced mixed diet on meat, dairy products, nuts or legumes. So just use the variety of food and good, "says Seitz. Heike Kreutz