Polyphenols in Sport: Facts or Fads?

Excerpt

Every professional sport athlete and nearly every amateur frequently comes across some sort of advertisement, lay press article, TV advertisements and so forth touting the salubrious activities of polyphenols. The near totality of such pieces of ‘information’ underscores the need to add antioxidants to the athlete’s diet, pointing to polyphenol-rich food or supplements as a valuable source of free radical scavengers. From a mere scientific viewpoint, the reality is—currently—very different.

In this chapter, I will review the (scant) available evidence on the use of polyphenols as antioxidants in sport and try to discuss what the road ahead should look like.