The Westminster Diet and Health Forum provides an environment to discuss critical issues of public policy relating to diet and health. A conference was held prior to the Olympics and Alimentarius were invited to contribute to the debate by providing expert opinion on sport nutrition. We addressed three fundamental issues that were not adequately covered by the speakers. These were i) How do sports foods and sports nutrition products differ from ‘normal’ foods? ii) Is there any evidence that sports foods are more beneficial to exercising populations than consuming ‘normal’ foods’? and iii) Why do athletes choose to use sports nutrition products? Our written comments together with supporting scientific data were published in Sports Nutrition, The Westminster diet and health forum symposium series. ISBN I-905029-03-09