Dietary β-alanine intake assessed by food records does not associate with muscle carnosine content in healthy, active, omnivorous men and women.

Rezende, Nathalia Saffioti; Bestetti, Giulia Cazetta; Farias de Oliveira, Luana; Mazzolani, Bruna Caruso; Smaira, Fabiana Infante; Dumas, Alina; Swinton, Paul; Saunders, Bryan; Dolan, Eimear

Abstract

β-alanine (BA) is one of the most widely used sport supplements, due to its capacity to improve high intensity exercise performance by increasing muscle carnosine (MCarn) content, and consequently, the buffering capacity of the muscle. BA is also available in a variety of animal foods, but little is currently known about the influence of dietary BA intake on MCarn. The aim of the current study was to compile a detailed summary of available data on the BA content of commonly consumed foods, and to explore whether associations could be detected between self-reported dietary BA intake and skeletal MCarn in a group of 60 healthy, active, omnivorous men and women. Dietary BA intake was assessed via 3-day food records and MCarn content assessed by high performance liquid chromatography. A series of univariate and multivariate linear regression models were used to explore associations between estimated dietary BA and MCarn. No evidence of associations between dietary BA intake and MCarn were identified, with effect sizes close to zero calculated from models accounting for key demographic variables (f2 ≤ 0.02 for all analyses). These findings suggest that capacity to increase MCarn via dietary strategies may be limited, and that supplementation may be required to induce increases of the magnitude required to improve performance.

Citation

REZENDE, N.S., BESTETTI, G.C., FARIAS DE OLIVEIRA, L., MAZZOLANI, B.C., SMAIRA, F.I., DUMAS, A., SWINTON, P., SAUNDERS, B. and DOLAN, E. 2023. Dietary β-alanine intake assessed by food records does not associate with muscle carnosine content in healthy, active, omnivorous men and women. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism [online], 33(3), pages 133-140. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2022-0236

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 24, 2023
• Publication Date: May 31, 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 14, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 14, 2023
• Journal: International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism
• Print ISSN: 1526-484X
• Electronic ISSN: 1543-2742
• Publisher: Human Kinetics
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 133-140
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2022-0236
• Keywords: β-alanine; Diet; Carnosine; Supplement; Nutrition; Food; Buffering; Histidine containing dipeptides; Meat
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1912089
• Additional Information: This article has been published with separate supporting information. This supporting information has been incorporated into a single file on this repository and can be found at the end of the file associated with this output.