Back from the Sports & Active Nutrition Summit
Key Highlights – Functional fiber trends & the GLP-1 era
- Athletes aged 40+ are now one of the fastest‑growing segments in sports nutrition, shifting the focus from peak performance to vitality, recovery, and long‑term healthspan.
- Sports nutrition products with healthy‑aging claims grew 26% year‑over‑year (Oct 2023–Sept 2025), reflecting rising consumer interest in longevity.
- Physiological changes after 40 — including muscle fiber loss, hormonal shifts, and reduced mitochondrial efficiency — require new formulation strategies tailored to midlife athletes.
- The next wave of sports nutrition emphasizes cellular resilience, supporting muscle maintenance, oxygen delivery, mitochondrial function, inflammation modulation, and recovery quality.
- Polyphenols (e.g., Vinitrox™) and nucleotides play a key role in sustained performance, bridging performance, recovery, and longevity for active adults.
The rise of healthy ageing athletes
Last week, I had the privilege of leading a roundtable at the Sports & Active Nutrition Summit on a topic that is transforming the sports nutrition landscape: “The Rise of Healthy Ageing Athletes: How Cellular Nutrition is Redefining Performance After 40.”
During the discussion, several key trends immediately stood out — from evolving consumer expectations to cutting-edge ingredient innovations that support long-term vitality and performance. I left the summit with a clear sense of how the market is shifting: performance nutrition is no longer just for younger athletes.
Today, active adults over 40 are driving one of the fastest-growing segments in the category, and their needs are redefining the way we think about sports nutrition.
This is the fastest-growing segment in active nutrition
According to the Innova Market Insights February 2025 Nutrition Report, 75% of consumers globally say that healthy aging is important to them. This is reflected in sports nutrition launches, which are increasingly highlighting healthy aging claims.
In fact, from October 2023 to September 2025, sports nutrition products with healthy aging claims grew 26% year-over-year.
+40 athlete segment is one of the fastest-growing groups in sports nutrition. But their motivation is different. They’re not chasing peak performance at any cost. They want vitality, faster recovery, mobility, and long-term healthspan.
Performance is still important — but it’s framed within longevity nutrition.
Why does performance shift after 40?
From midlife onward, physiology changes — even in highly trained individuals.
There are three main shifts:
- Muscle dynamics: loss of fast-twitch fibers and anabolic resistance makes maintaining lean mass harder.
- Metabolic & hormonal changes: declining anabolic hormones and altered insulin sensitivity influence fuel utilization and tissue repair.
- Recovery capacity: Slower mitochondrial efficiency and cellular repair pathways make high-volume training more tiring.
So the question isn’t just “how to perform better,” but “how to sustain athletic performance over time.” Formulators need to rethink sports nutrition strategies for this demographic.
Rethinking sports nutrition for long-term vitality
The healthy-aging positioned sports nutrition category is growing rapidly. Sports powders is leading, accounting for 75% of launches globally, while sports protein-based RTDs for healthy aging showed the fastest growth over the last five years with +11% CAGR from October 2020 to September 2025.
Traditional sports supplements often focus on immediate outputs — strength, endurance, pump. But for healthy ageing athletes, we need to think differently.
Formulations now must support:
- Muscle maintenance
- Efficient oxygen delivery
- Mitochondrial function
- Inflammation modulation
- Recovery quality
It’s no longer about short-term stimulation. It’s about cellular resilience and sustainable performance nutrition.
The role of polyphenols and nucleotides in sustained performance
They target the foundations of active longevity.
Polyphenols, like Vinitrox™ – Nexira’s proprietary synergistic combination of apple and grape polyphenols – support vascular function and nitric oxide pathways, improving oxygen delivery and reducing exercise-induced oxidative stress — key for endurance and recovery.
Nucleotides support cellular renewal and immune resilience, which is critical as recovery capacity slows with age.
Together, these ingredients help position sports nutrition not only for performance but also for long-term vitality and healthspan.
The new triangle: Performance, recovery, longevity
Historically, sports nutrition focused on performance alone. But for active ageing adults, performance sits within a broader framework:
- Performance – strength, endurance, oxygen utilization
- Recovery – mitochondrial support, inflammation control, cellular repair
- Longevity – muscle preservation, metabolic health, vascular function
Decline in any area impacts the others. Cellular nutrition is the bridge connecting all three.
Looking ahead
Active nutrition is entering a new era. The question is no longer how to push limits — but how to sustain them.
With science-backed ingredients such as Vinitrox™, Nexira continues to support innovation at the intersection of performance, recovery, and long-term vitality.
Interested in developing next-generation sports nutrition solutions for healthy ageing athletes?
Gaëlle Wormus
Business Development Manager, Nexira
Sources: Rapport Nutrition insight Fev 25 – Innova Market Insights
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