Evaluation of Nutrition Knowledge and Dietary Recommendations by Coaches of Adolescent Brazilian Athletes

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to describe the dietary practices recommended by coaches working with adolescent athletes and to assess their nutritional knowledge. During a regional competition in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 55 coaches were interviewed. These coaches represented 22 cities with athletes enrolled in Olympic gymnastics, tennis, swimming, and judo events. A 3-section questionnaire was used to obtain data on demographic characteristics, dietary recommendations, and nutrition knowledge. Results showed that all coaches recommended general dietary practices during training, with no specific strategies for pre-, during-, and post-training periods. The main objectives of the recommendations for the training period were weight control and muscle mass gain. Deleterious weight control practices were recommended by 27% of the coaches. Specific dietary practices pre and post competition were recommended by 93% and 46% of the coaches, respectively. Participants responded correctly to 70% (SD = 3.2) of the nutrition knowledge questions, with no significant differences (p =.61) between sports. The knowledge test identified a tendency to over-value proteins, excessively low-fat diets, and food myths. These findings indicate the importance of developing strategies that will enhance the nutritional training of coaches.

Impact of an Interdisciplinary Food, Nutrition and Health Education Program for adolescent Brazilian volleyball players

“…Rosenbloom et al 8 also noted that athletes avoid carbohydrates when trying to lose weight. In another study 25 the belief that pineapple helps to "burn body fat" was common among coaches, and the authors highlighted the risk of propagating this information among athletes. Protein overvaluation was also observed by Almeida & Soares 26 , who analyzed the dietary profile of adolescent volleyball players.…”

Nutritional Knowledge and Behavior of Professional Athletes in Khorramabad

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study on nutritional knowledge and behavior of athletes in Khorramabad; therefore, follow-up studies of this kind can be considered as a basis for evaluation of developing nutritional programs in different periods. Evaluating nutritional knowledge and recommendations of 55 trainers, Juzwiak et al [19] observed that Brazilian trainers responded correctly to 70% of nutritional knowledge inventory. Nevertheless, no difference was found in nutritional knowledge of trainers of different sports (gymnastics, judo, swimming and tennis) (p = 0.61).…”

Conhecimento em nutrição de instrutores de musculação do município de Aracaju-SE

“…Desse modo, apesar de não existirem mecanismos legais que incluam a nutrição no currículo de educação física das instituições, já que esta não é exigência para atuação profissional, a nutrição básica está presente em parte dos cursos de educação física, visto que tais conhecimentos mínimos são de fundamental importância para profissionais cujo trabalho tem relação com a promoção da saúde, prevenção de doenças ou recuperação da saúde (BOOG, 1999;JUZWIAK;ANCOLA-LOPEZ, 2004). No caso da Nutrição Esportiva, uma hipótese para explicar um menor rendimento dos instrutores em questões relativas a essa área do conhecimento, poderia ser o fato da não realização de cursos ou disciplinas na área de nutrição esportiva, apesar destes terem relatado utilizar fontes sobre informações da ciência da nutrição que oferecem maior confiabilidade, como palestras, seminários e cursos.…”

“…Considerando aqui as academias como conglomerados e baseando-se numa prevalência de 37,2% de baixo conhecimento em nutrição (ZINN, 2004;JUZWIAK;ANCOLA-LOPEZ, 2004), e ainda assumindo um erro de dois pontos percentuais, nível de confiança de 95% e 20% de possíveis perdas e recusas, calculou-se necessá-rio estudar 39 academias. Destas, foi realizada amostra estratificada proporcional por região.…”