A Glimpse of the Sports Nutrition Awareness in Spanish Basketball Players

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.

Ergo-Nutritional Intervention in Basketball: A Systematic Review

“…), but the amount, type, timing and frequency of ingestion are critical concerns for sports nutrition [ 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ] to prepare and recover athletes for the work required [ 18 ]. Basketball is a very demanding game with a short time to recover between games [ 4 ]; thus, having strong knowledge [ 26 ] about CHO fueling strategies may lead to a clear competitive advantage [ 5 ]. This review reaffirms CHO’s role in the recovery process [ 78 ], so when diet cannot cover these requirements, it may be recommendable support it with some ergogenic aids such as bars, gels, drinks, or similar until this recommendation is fulfilled.…”

“…However, one important strength is that (to the best of our knowledge) this is the first systematic review describing which ergo-nutritional aids can be specifically useful in basketball to enhance on-court performance and recovery, boosting future studies and helping players and team staff to plan their ergo-nutritional aids wisely. This is critically important given that basketball players do not have enough nutritional knowledge to manage it on their own [ 26 ]. Thus, it should be noted that our systematic review should be taken as a first step to normalize study designs and categorize the main outcomes to get a big picture of the main effects of a nutritional supplementation intervention.…”

“…In summary, basketball players must be very careful about the timing, type and amount of nutrients they must take from their diet [ 8 ]. This practical complexity usually drives basketball players to use ergo-nutritional aids to ease the achievement of their nutritional goals [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, there are numerous ergo-nutritional supplements in the market, and around them, studies of dubious quality (doubtful methodologies, non-standardized protocols, and publication bias) [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Adolescent athletes have better general than sports nutrition knowledge and lack awareness of supplement recommendations: a systematic literature review

“…The remaining studies represented various sports, including track and field (47) , aesthetic sports (39) , endurance sports (34,35) and various team and individual sports (25)(26)(27)36,42,45,46) . Sporting levels included competitive (9,(21)(22)(23)26,30,32,34,35,39,40,42,49) , regional/state/national competitors (27)(28)(29)(36)(37)(38)43,47) , high school/college (19,24,27,33,41,45,57) , elite (20,44,46) and one study did not report sporting level (25) . NK was assessed using twenty-one questionnaires across thirty-two studies.…”

“…Three studies (34,35,38) using the Heikkila et al (58) questionnaire reported supplements to be the lowest scoring section. Likewise, Escribano-Ott et al (30) reported supplements as the lowest-scoring subsection, and Bird and Rushton (26) described the supplement section as the greatest source of uncertainty, with more 'don't know' responses than any other section (45 %). Similarly, two studies (26,30) that used questionnaires based on Zinn et al (59) reported poor scores.…”