Over the past three decades, sports nutrition has become a recognised science promoted by specially trained professionals. New ideas and strategies are continually evolving in the race to be faster, higher and stronger. Sometimes this evolution occurs because of the emergence of new data that are so compelling a strong evidence base quickly develops to guide new practices. In other cases, a new issue has become a high priority and practitioners have to react to this need by generating best practice based on the available but less certain evidence.

This article reviews some of the current hot topics in sports nutrition, noting the level of certainty that underpins their application. Further information on the topics covered in this review can be found in the articles accompanying the ‘IOC consensus on sports nutrition 2010’, published in the Journal of Sports Science.