Nutritional education for athletes is essential for athletes for performance, recovery and long-term health Sport nutrition for young athletes – PMC (nih.gov). Two recent meta-analyses support the notion that nutritional education is important for athletes Effectiveness of Education Interventions Designed to Improve Nutrition Knowledge in Athletes: A Systematic Review – PubMed (nih.gov) and Effectiveness of Education Interventions Designed to Improve Nutrition Knowledge in Athletes: A Systematic Review | SpringerLink. However, a limitation is the differences in methods to increase knowledge in athletes.
Social media education
Self-efficacy intervention
Nutrition education intervention for college female athletes – PubMed (nih.gov)
Academic course
Other methods such as face-to-face, videos, consultations and group sessions have also been well documented.
There is also a lack of description of the nutritionist and in some cases, it is unclear if they are reasonably qualified. Sports Nutritionists should also be SENr registered to ensure appropriate education, and a record of publications is also a good way to demonstrate evidence-based approaches.
I think it is a really easy question to answer which is often over complicated – “whatever engages a person to learn” is my belief. For example, if social media is something that an athlete engages with, then that is a good platform to use. However, if an athlete prefers a face-to-face environment, then you already have your answers.
But… nutritional education needs to be systematic with an individual approach – most interventions are ‘group-based’ to entice a wider audience which is where many interventions fall.
They also need to be easily accessible and not long-winded. A simple approach I take is to combine theory and engagement, which then leads to implementation. Please stop the 45-min presentations!
I use the theory, engage and implement technique where an athlete can enjoy the learning experience, but it’s bespoke to them whilst being able to implement in their own sport/working life.
What more can a sports nutritionist do?.. Well. I am currently designing a behavioural model for a premier league club within my PhD program. This encompasses a wide network of challenges that an athlete can overcome using my model.
Here are some key factors that my model will encompass:
The model is based on previous research The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions | Implementation Science | Full Text (biomedcentral.com), which has been cited over 7000 times. Although it looks complicated at first, my aim is to break down this behavioural wheel into nutrition and improve athletes’ behaviours.
This has already been in rugby with great success (PDF) Case Study: Using Contemporary Behaviour Change Science to Design and Implement an Effective Nutritional Intervention within Professional Rugby League (researchgate.net).
My model will include education but also practical methods to increase motivation and capability toward nutrition.
Nutritional education is important, but you must take a wider approach to enhance nutrition. Too often, nutritionists take an unstructured approach, and using a behavioural wheel like the above will enhance the practitioner’s ability to work with an athlete.
The better the nutritionist understands you, the better they can support your nutritional goals. This will also lead to less confusion and more understanding of certain topic areas (fuelling, re-fuelling and hydration).
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