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. 2021 Dec 22;14(1):27.
doi: 10.3390/nu14010027.

A Glimpse of the Sports Nutrition Awareness in Spanish Basketball Players

Ignacio Escribano-Ott  1 , Juan Mielgo-Ayuso  2 , Julio Calleja-González  1
Affiliations

A Glimpse of the Sports Nutrition Awareness in Spanish Basketball Players

Ignacio Escribano-Ott et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Basketball is a team sport, with many fans and practitioners worldwide from all ages and levels. In all cases, players accumulate high levels of fatigue, and there is also limited time to recover between games or practices. In particular, nutrition plays a key role in optimizing performance and recovery. However, it is typical to observe erroneous nutritional behaviors among basketball players. It has been theorized that these behaviors are influenced by habits acquired based on the individual's knowledge. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to conduct a descriptive research of the sports nutrition knowledge and practices in a sample of Spanish basketball players, from athletes under 18 years old (n = 69) to nonprofessional (n = 14) and professional adult players (n = 21). The sample was comprised of 49 men and 55 women. This was a transversal, cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study. All participants (n = 104) completed an anonymous online survey in order to analyze their sports nutrition knowledge and practices. In view of the obtained results, we can conclude that the knowledge of sport-specific nutrition in players under 18 years old, as well as non-professional and professional adult basketball players, is insufficient through all the categories and levels. The lack of professional support and time management difficulties were identified as some of the main barriers.

Keywords: basketball; health; nutrition; nutritional behavior; nutritional education; nutritional knowledge; recovery; sports nutrition; sports performance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sports nutrition knowledge (thematic blocks). Legend: * statistical significance difference.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sports nutrition knowledge (total).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Sports nutrition practices. This figure compares the percentage of players following or not following the nutritional practices.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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