Key Factors Influencing the Food Choices of Athletes at two Distinct Major International Competitions

Rachael Thurecht; Fiona Pelly

doi:10.3390/nu12040924

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Key Factors Influencing the Food Choices of Athletes at two Distinct Major International Competitions

Journal article

Open access

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Key Factors Influencing the Food Choices of Athletes at two Distinct Major International Competitions

Rachael Thurecht and Fiona Pelly

Nutrients, Vol.12(4), 924

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12040924

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Abstract

performance

nutrition

food selection

food behavior

diet

This study aimed to identify the factors influencing the food choices of athletes at the Universiade and Commonwealth Games and explore di erences in the cohort across sport, competition history and demographic characteristics. A sample of 385 athletes (n = 153, 2017 Universiade, Taiwan; n = 232, 2018 Commonwealth Games, Australia), from 69 countries and 29 sports participated in this cross-sectional observational study. Participants rated 36 items from the Athlete Food Choice Questionnaire and 11 additional items (gut comfort, doping risk, availability, location, money, convenience, time of day, hunger, medical conditions, and food allergies) on how frequently (1 never to 5 always) each influences their food choices. "Performance", "sensory appeal", "food and health awareness" and "weight control" were reported as most frequently, while the least were "emotional influence", "influence of others" and "food values and beliefs". Commonwealth Games athletes were older, more experienced and more likely to report "performance" (median = 4.33 versus 4.00, U = 20250.0, p = 0.012) and less likely to report "emotional influences" (median = 2.80 versus 3.20, U = 14273.0, p = 0.001) than Universiade athletes. Greater numbers of younger athletes were often or always influenced by available money. Athletes across all sports reported frequently considering gut comfort in their food choices. These results can inform nutrition education strategies of high-performance athletes.

Details

Title: Key Factors Influencing the Food Choices of Athletes at two Distinct Major International Competitions
Authors: Rachael Thurecht (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health and Sport Sciences
Fiona Pelly (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health and Sport Sciences
Publication details: Nutrients, Vol.12(4), 924; 12
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.3390/nu12040924
ISSN: 2072-6643
Copyright note: Copyright © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450829002621
Output Type: Journal article

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