I am happy to inform you that from now on you can read my articles about amateur and professional athletes in endurance sports on 3sporta website, first Croatian portal for endurance sports.

Series of articles will include those already published on my web page, along with new ones about protein intake, hydration, and supplementation.

Introductory interview can be read in full below.

This interview marks the beginning of our cooperation with the nutritionist Bojan Stojnić, owner of nutricionizam.hr webpage, and amateur athlete.

3sporta: First of all, thank you for agreeing to actively collaborate with 3sporta.

Bojan Stojnic: You’re welcome; it’s my pleasure to work with a portal focused on promoting sports and active lifestyle in general. A combination of physical activity and healthy diet is a basic precondition for a long and good life.

3sporta: Introduce yourself in few short remarks, please.

Bojan Stojnic: I was born in Rijeka, where I went to primary and secondary school, after which I got my MS in Nutrition at the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology in Zagreb. I’ve been an athlete since I was a kid; I started in karate, swimming, handball, and was more seriously engaged in basketball and triathlon. I competed in triathlon from 2011 to 2014 – during this time I was a state champion in Olympic triathlon S1 age group and I finished the Ironman distance triathlon with the time of 10:15 hours, all as a member of TH Zagreb. I’ve played basketball from the early days, and I currently play as s playmaker for KK Jadranka (A2 league).

I’m the head of the Croatian Association of Nutritionists, first Croatian association of this kind, through which I do my best to promote nutritionism and protect it as a trade.

I believe that one learns throughout their lifetime, so I try to use every free (and not so free) moment to read. I read science and pop literature on the subject of nutrition, philosophy, psychology, and biology, and some literary classics have also found their way into the list.

Also, I’m a huge supporter of scientifically explaining the world around us. Considering the fact that all knowledge of the world is almost readily available through the screen of the smartphone, I feel that education should consider filtering and connecting instead of memorizing information – endorse critical thinking, that is.

3sporta: I’ve been following your webpage, nutricionizam.hr, for quite some time now. The reason I contacted you and proposed the collaboration is the way you approach the matter – no-nonsense, expert, argumented, without sensationalism. Is that your philosophy when it comes to nutritionism?

Bojan Stojnic: Exactly. As I mentioned earlier, I believe (ha-ha) in scientific methods. And science is exact, taking no nonsense. I don’t have a particular dietary approach that would make me one-sided in literature interpretation; instead, I base my advice on best data available. If new, quality, data appears, I’m ready to change my mind on the matter.

Through my work I try to demystify diet, promote critical approach to (dietary) information and a healthy, unobsessed, relationship with food. Nutrition science is complex, diet shouldn’t be.

3sporta: How important is quality diet in everyday life, in your opinion?

Bojan Stojnic: It’s definitely important. But its influence has its limits. We must not forget that genetics and non-dietary environment have a strong effect on our health which often surpasses the effect of diet. Food is not a medicine, but it is a great prevention.

3sporta: What are your thoughts on the role of diet in amateur athletes’ lives?

Bojan Stojnic: Just as non-athletes, amateur athletes should consider diet to be the requisite for health. For diet to be healthy, it needs to satisfy all the dietary needs of a person, minimize the intake of harmful food items, and fulfill its psycho-social role. People often confuse the importance of this notions and diet comes to obsessively avoiding (supposedly) harmful items and avoiding the far more important aspect of satisfying dietary needs and enjoying food. Nutritive support in sports performance of amateur athletes is also important, but not as much as with professional athletes.

3sporta: What can readers of 3sporta expect from your articles?

Bojan Stojnic: Rational, science based, and practical texts on nutrition in endurance sports, including hydration and supplementation. Along the way I might bust some dietary myths as well.