Following this, participants were required to provide their informed consent to participate. This questionnaire was carried out using the online platform Qualtrics Qualtrics, Utah, USA. The questionnaire utilised a series of thirty-four questions including multiple-choice questions, rating scale questions, rank order questions and matrix scale questions.

Questions were designed to assess the current priorities, practices and preferences of athletes and active individuals regarding their nutrition and food choices. Questions related to preferences for product characteristics and food types were based of common product offerings in the sports nutrition market following review of various a wide array of sports nutrition product offerings available in Ireland and online.

Data was extracted from Qualtrics for further statistical analysis. All data was analysed statistically using IBM SPSS IBM SPSS Statistics version All data was initially analysed as an entire dataset, following this, various questions were analysed by subgroup using Mann Whitney U tests.

Subgroups assessed were gender, competition level and total activity time per week. Four-hundred and five female, male athletes and active individuals successfully completed this questionnaire and were eligible for inclusion in analysis.

Participants reported undertaking Figure 1. The most sought-after sports nutrition product claims of athletes and active individuals.

Multivitamins were the most commonly reported supplement used for health and wellbeing while protein supplements were the most commonly used exercise-related supplements Table 2.

Caffeine-containing functional foods were the most commonly used group of functional foods with participants reporting ingesting coffee or other caffeine containing food products to support their exercise performance Table 2.

Table 1. Table 2. Seventy percent of participants reported altering their routine surrounding exercise with the intention to improve their recovery.

Figure 2. When asked to rank the importance of various features of a product for exercise performance or recovery, nutritional profile was ranked as the most important with an average rating of 3.

Table 3. Importance of product features and scientific proof on nutrition product choice using a scale of 1 not important to 4 crucial.

Whole food type nutritional products received the most first preference selections and most top 3 selections when presented with a number of popular performance and recovery products on the market Table 4. Whole foods received and first preferences for recovery and performance products, respectively.

Powder-based products received the second most number one preferences in recovery and performance categories with 56 top preference selections in the recovery category and 58 top preference selections in the performance category. When presented with a list of common food products which often carry performance or recovery claims, a smoothie or juice option received top three rankings, however a hot food option received the most top rankings with participants responding that it was their favourite of the food options presented.

Table 4. While there has been substantial research advancement in efficacy testing of potential product prototypes 37 ; there is often considerable difficulty when it comes to translation of theoretically efficacious product prototypes to successful adoption amongst consumers In order to achieve this, an evidence-based needs analysis of target market must be evaluated to inform the conversion from food prototype to successful product.

The data gathered from this study has identified a clear disconnect between certain aspects of current practice of this population and advised evidence-based best-practice.

While effective sports nutrition solutions to provide support to post exercise recovery are deemed of critical importance to these end-users; we detected that there is a clear disconnect between the current practice of end-users and the recommended scientific best-practice within the topic.

There is also undoubtedly a desire for more food-based solutions to be developed, yet it is clear from current practice that supplementation still represents a considerable majority of the sports nutrition products produced and consumed Future ventures should prioritise the development of fortified and functional food alternatives as evidenced in findings of this research study.

It is critical to gain a quantifiable understanding of what aspects of physiological function this population prioritise as being important to support both their health and athletic performance. To the best of the authors knowledge this is the first study to analyse the specific product claims and attributes which athletes and active individuals prioritise when it comes to selecting sports nutrition products.

This study demonstrates for the first time that post-exercise recovery is the most sought-after sport and exercise nutrition product claim with almost 3 in 4 participants ranking muscular recovery as one of their top three priorities, and one quarter ranking it as their top priority.

Exercise-induced muscle damage EIMD is wide ranging in its prevalence with 7 in 10 participants reporting frequently experiencing muscle stiffness or pain post exercise. EIMD is caused by unaccustomed strenuous exercise particularly when such exercise is at high intensity or contains high eccentric loading 40 , Over half of participants, reported experiencing stiffness or pain caused by EIMD at least once per week, highlighting the magnitude of this issue and the urgent need for an evidence-based food solution.

Using appropriate methods to recover from EIMD allows athletes and active individuals to achieve the greatest possible adaptation to strenuous exercise through allowing for increased training frequency and also reduced the time spent in a state of compromised muscle function To enhance recovery after exercise, evidence suggests that protein supports muscle adaptation, and polyphenol-rich foods like tart cherry juice can be effective nutritional strategies to improve recovery from muscle soreness and damage 42 , Improving both endurance and strength through the use of nutritional products followed closely as important product claims prioritised by this population ranking them second and third respectively in terms of product claim importance The emergence of food forms such as isotonic sports drinks, gels and shots have attempted been developed to provide in-competition carbohydrate fuelling options, further innovation is duly warranted in this area.

While protein ingestion coupled with resistance training improves strength and power adaptation in the long term 44 , 45 ; improving acute strength and power performance through nutritional means is a decidedly more difficult challenge.

Caffeine shows considerable efficacy in this regard 46 , and also in improving acute endurance performance 47 , however issues relating to dosages, habituation and genetic variance in response 48 mean that achieving an optimal ergogenic effect may prove challenging for the athlete.

Creatine monohydrate supplementation also provides potential for an ergogenic effect, increasing short term strength and power performance 49 , 50 , however doses, particularly during loading phases appear achievable via supplementation and not by dietary means Despite this research being carried out during the covid pandemic which likely placed greater emphasis on maintaining health and immunity, this product claim was less prioritised in comparison with muscle recovery, enhancing strength and enhancing endurance.

This strongly suggests that when it comes to nutrition and dietary interventions this population of athletes and active individuals prioritise seeking products that can have a direct impact on sporting performance rather than products that help maintain health and wellbeing exclusively.

Given the considerable risk of absence from training and competition associated with illness and infection surrounding major sporting competition, this poses a considerable under prioritisation within this population 51 , Due to the lack of regulation of the sports nutrition market, along with the recent growth in the industry, a considerable level of scepticism over the use of sports nutrition products has emerged in recent years 53 , Particularly, the prevalence of mislabelling and contamination of sports supplements has led to a notable movement away from advocating for the use of sports supplements and towards a food first approach to sports nutrition Within the wider food industry there has been considerable improvement within regulation of health claims of food products in recent years with the European Food Safety Authority and the European Commission introducing regulations on Nutrition and Health claims in [Regulation EC No.

Establishing a minimum standard of scientific evidence underpinning these claims through regulation is a priority This is now extending into the sports nutrition sector with the development of the Australian Institute of Sport ABCD classification of sports foods and supplements Australian Institute of Sport and the International Olympic Council releasing their consensus statement on dietary supplements and their claims It has been shown previously that scientific evidence backed health claims influence overall perception, food choice and willingness to pay 58 This finding highlights the importance of a rigorous scientific process in new product development practice for sports nutrition food products, and also emphasises the importance of regulating sports nutrition efficacy claims to protect the consumer from spurious or fraudulent efficacy statements.

Even when sports nutrition products have well established science-backed efficacy claims, risk of inadvertent product contamination is another particular issue within the sports nutrition industry.

Paired with regulation of product claims, recommendation of third-party testing of sports nutrition products and their batches to ensure products contain the stated ingredients only and in the stated dosages is essential for the safety of end-users. Along with this education of end-users around the risks of supplement contamination and the importance of third-party testing is essential for the future of product regulation Supplementation type products represent a majority of the market share for sports nutrition products 1.

These findings closely align with those reported in the meta-analysis of Knapik et al. One notable distinction between the results of this study and those presented in Knapik et al. This data was collected in Ireland which has an increased prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency This study was conducted during the covid pandemic during which increased focus was placed on vitamin D supplementation to support immune health Given the growing knowledge surrounding the importance of avoiding vitamin D deficiency in athletes this is likely a positive development When participants reported the methods employed to improve recovery post-exercise the most commonly used methods were static stretching and foam rolling.

Research into the effects of static stretching on recovery from EIMD have shown little to no effect on recovery of muscle strength or muscle soreness 65 , while foam rolling has been shown to have little effect, other than recovery of range of motion 66 , Despite the relative importance to the individual, the management of recovery post exercise appears to be largely misunderstood.

Promotion of good sleep hygiene 68 and the incorporation of appropriate changes to daily nutrition practices 42 during periods of intense exercise should be prioritised for the improvement of recovery over practices such as static stretching and foam rolling. Our research indicates that protein supplementation was the most employed supplementation strategy relating to sporting performance or recovery in this population.

While increased protein intake has been shown to positively impact muscle protein turnover and as a result augment the regeneration of muscle tissue post exercise and promote optimal muscle and strength gains particularly during resistance training 69 — 71 , it remains unclear as to whether protein supplementation improves the time course of skeletal muscle recovery.

A systematic review and meta-analysis showed little effect of protein supplements on recovery from symptoms of EIMD including muscle strength and muscle soreness Another meta-analysis showed that whey protein supplementation had a small to medium temporal ergogenic effect on recovery of muscle function post resistance exercise training, however less than half of the included studies reported a beneficial overall effect Although increasing protein intake will undoubtedly enhance adaptation to resistance training for most individuals, given this evidence, it cannot be relied upon as a primary method to curb the issue of post exercise discomfort and reductions in performance capability in the aftermath of intense exercise.

Alternative solutions should be sought to enhance recovery from EIMD such as those discussed in the key review of this topic by Harty et al. A particularly underutilised avenue in the sports nutrition sector appears to be that of bioactive functional foods which provide physiological benefit beyond that of their macro or micronutrient content.

Although there is a strong uptake in the use of caffeine-based functional foods, particularly coffee, the majority of participants in this study reported not using such functional foods at all. Only 24 participants reported using polyphenol-based functional food products such as tart cherry products, green tea and dark chocolate, and 14 participants reported the use of dietary nitrate based functional foods such as beetroot juice.

While underutilised, the use of polyphenols for sporting performance 74 , recovery of muscle soreness and muscle strength 75 as well as providing health benefits 76 , 77 has been the focus of recent research with much of the research showing performance, recovery and health benefits, although effects may be small and precise dosage required requires further investigation.

Given the myriad of food sources naturally rich in polyphenols 78 , and their demonstratable capacity to address key priorities of athletes and active individuals, there appears significant scope for development of polyphenol rich functional foods for the sports nutrition market.

The efficacy for the use of dietary nitrate functional food products, particularly beetroot juice is also well established with meta-analyses showing clear benefits in endurance capacity 79 , The emergence of functional foods has been a notable trend in the wider food industry in recent years and it is clear there is strong potential for this to extend to the sport and exercise nutrition sector, however challenges translating research to engaging strategies to support consumer uptake must be addressed Nutritional profile was voted as the most important factor affecting a purchasing decision of a sports nutrition product, followed closely by taste.

Although there is a fast-growing interest in sustainability in the wider food systems, the sustainability of a sports nutrition product received the lowest mean rating of features presented in this question.

This suggests that athletes and active individuals are unlikely to be willing to compromise on other factors in favour of having an improved environmental impact, especially with regards nutritional profile and taste. However, product sustainability still has some importance to this population and may be a viable selling point of a product once other key factors are intact Gender appears to be a particularly important demographic influencer in this population with gender having a significant influence on the rank importance of taste, price, nutritional profile, ease of access and sustainability, which have been previously shown to influence the adoption of functional foods in the diet Outside of gender, competition level and time spent undertaking sport or structured physical activity may also be a factor in the food preferences of participants, particularly in the aspects of taste, ease of preparation and price 26 , 29 , Food choice in athletes is heavily influenced by the demands of the sport or exercise they are participating in, as well as the timing surrounding the exercise event As a result of this, separate questions were asked as to the types of sports nutrition product they would prefer for either performance or recovery.

A food first approach has been widely advocated for by sporting bodies as well as in three notable expert consensus statements on sports nutrition 57 , 82 , There is also clearly considerable demand for sports nutrition food products given the results of the product preference section of this study Table 4.

This approach has been shown to be particularly beneficial when it comes to protein intake and muscle protein synthesis and the resulting remodelling of muscle tissue as a result of exercise While protein supplements have shown significant benefits for athletes and healthy ageing populations 69 , 71 , 86 , and research using protein supplements has been integral to the development of protein intake guidelines for these populations, whole protein foods have been suggested to have greater beneficial impact than that of their constituent amino acid content alone Despite consumer demand and the scientific support for food-first approaches to sport and exercise nutrition, market insights note that There is evidently major potential for a significant market swing towards foods for sport and exercise in the coming years.

Although a food-first approach should be the first option for nutritional practice in sport and exercise, there is potential to include supplementation to augment this practice, particularly for nutrients which are difficult to consume in sufficient quantities from dietary sources to gain an ergogenic benefit.

This approach posits that athletes should adopt a food-first approach unless faced with one of six pre-defined scenarios which suggest supplementation may provide additional benefits Future innovations in the sports nutrition market should reflect this and prioritise whole food products where possible, reserving supplementation approaches predominantly for nutrients in which it is impossible or wholly impractical to achieve exclusively from diet.

To date there is no previously published research to the authors knowledge that addresses end-user desires for particular product forms. As previously discussed general food preference factors such as taste are of great importance to this population and as such creating products which meet the desired specifications are crucial for success in the sports nutrition market Table 3 In this online survey participants were asked to rank their most preferable food products, when provided with a list of food product types found commonly on the sports nutrition market.

This aligns considerably with the move towards a food first approach to sports nutrition as discussed above 55 , 85 Given the fruit and vegetable derived nature of underutilised bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and dietary nitrates, smoothies and juices represent a particularly interesting direction for future development with juices such as beetroot juice and tart cherry juice showing particular scientific evidence 87 , The creation of convenient and accessible hot meal solutions such as recipes and meal preparation methods for hot food, which meet the macronutrient nutritional demands of this population also appear to be in particular demand.

Participants were also asked to rank their most likely place of purchase for a sports nutrition product with supermarkets being ranked the most likely place of purchase for such products Table 5. Developing food products which combine appealing sensory factors with favourable nutritional profile could revolutionise the sports nutrition sector from a supplement focussed one, to that of a food industry.

Table 5. Descriptive data outlining preferences for place of purchase of a sports nutrition product. It is worth noting that this study was undertaken in Ireland so the results may not be fully generalisable to that of the wider athletic population. The sporting activities of this sample, contains a considerable proportion of participants reporting engagement in random intermittent dynamic type sports such as soccer, rugby, Gaelic games and basketball which may not be representative of the sporting populations in certain areas of the world.

As a result of the convenience sampling nature of this sample it may not be fully representative of views on a population level and it is impossible to assess whether there would be a notable difference between responders and non-responders to the survey.

Due to the nature of the format of the rank order questions, it was not possible to statistically compare answers against different population groups such as across gender and competition level, further research should be considered to elucidate trends of these topics across population sectors and among specific sporting sectors.

There has been both significant growth in the sports nutrition sector as well as significant progression in the scientific knowledge surrounding nutritional practices to support sport and exercise in recent years.

However, at this pivotal juncture for the sector it appears that by listening to the end user, greater efficiency and efficacy can be gained in the new product development process. In fields such as skeletal muscle recovery there are clear disparities between the current practice of athletes and active individuals and the scientific evidence of best practice.

A transition towards a food first approach in sports nutrition is vital for athletes and active individuals to achieve their goals, with the development of functional foods, particularly with the focus of muscle recovery, endurance, and strength enhancement at the forefront.

This population has also shown considerable support for the scientific process in developing such products and testing their respective efficacy.

There appears to be particular enthusiasm towards beverages such as smoothies, juices and shakes as well as food products in bar or hot food format. This research merits consideration and priority in future new product developments in the sport and exercise nutrition sector.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Social Research Ethics Committee, University College Cork. All authors contributed to the study conception, design, implementation and data-analysis.

The manuscript was written by CCC and all authors contributed to and commented on previous versions of the manuscript.

All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. This research was funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, under the Food Institutional Research Measure FIRM Agreement no. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers.

Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Zinn C, Schofield G, Wall C. Development of a psychometrically valid and reliable sports nutrition knowledge questionnaire. J Sci Med Sport. Ares G, Gámbaro A. When making meal plans for athletes, it's essential to consider how they react to different foods and their nutritional needs.

The bacteria in one's stomach significantly influence how long it takes them to perform and recover. Since the human body is home to millions of viruses, bacteria, and fungi, every person is a walking microbiome. Athletes' gut flora dramatically affects how well they compete and how quickly they recover.

In addition, gut bacteria affect mental toughness, how well you deal with stress, inflammation, and other essential things for athletic performance. Since lactate threshold testing and training is one of the best ways to evaluate performance in endurance sports, athletes, teams, and coaches use it.

The goal is to find out how much effort an athlete can put into training or a game before their blood lactate levels get too high and they can't go any further.

Athletes know that one way to do well is to keep getting faster and more robust, even at the lactate threshold. As the name suggests, nitrate testing strips help determine how many nitrates is in the body, which is essential for athletic performance.

A higher level of nitric oxide may help an athlete's overall performance and endurance, especially if fit and healthy. The various exercises that makeup training have varying degrees of strain. You may maximise your energy for practice by putting a minimal load on yourself during the day.

Watching how athletes act and move makes it possible to figure out how much they train and their physical needs. It can also tell if they are going too far. Another crucial component of sports nutrition is recovery, essential for improving performance.

With the correct information, we can make the required adjustments to the routine to prevent certain habits and behaviours from impeding good healing. Sweat testing measures your sweat rate how much water you lose per hour and sweat salt concentration how much sodium you fail in your sweat to help athletes figure out how much water and sodium they need to drink.

The results of a sweat test will allow you to make a rough schedule for when to take in salt and water. Because their bodies get better at handling the regular load, trained athletes usually have lower resting heart rates and can return to normal faster after a workout.

Lung function must be maximised for essential physiological functions to operate at their best. The lungs must send oxygen to all body parts for healthy blood pressure, metabolism, and muscles. Exercise is better by maintaining oxygen levels within normal ranges.

Thanks to scientific progress and innovative technology, athletes can now use accurate portable pulse oximeters to check their oxygen saturation levels before, during, and after exercise. Reaction time is one of the most critical skills a sportsperson can possess. Athletes who wish to compete at the highest level must improve their coordination.

Professional athletes use stroboscopic sensory training to strengthen their brains and hasten information processing. It is comparable to how the world seems to be moving slowly, but the brain is processing information more quickly because it operates in hyperdrive. By using the physiological benefits of light therapy, retiming light therapy glasses helps people sleep better.

Furthermore, restoring your circadian rhythm to its ideal state aids in regaining control of your body clock. For the quality of your sleep and overall health, your circadian rhythm's proper operation and ongoing synchronisation with night and day are crucial.

For example, when athletes get more and better sleep, they may do better at their sport, learn faster, recover faster, and grow more quickly. With the help of pulsed electromagnetic field treatment, cells may be able to heal themselves and stay healthy on their own.

The average American toddler spends up to two hours per day in front of a screen, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics AAP , whichRead more.

Coughs due to respiratory infections such as colds are common this time of year. An effective treatment for a disruptive cough might be sitting in your kitchenRead more.

By Jennifer O'Hara. Share this:. Understanding whooping cough with a Mayo Clinic expert. The goal is to find out how much effort an athlete can put into training or a game before their blood lactate levels get too high and they can't go any further. Athletes know that one way to do well is to keep getting faster and more robust, even at the lactate threshold.

As the name suggests, nitrate testing strips help determine how many nitrates is in the body, which is essential for athletic performance. A higher level of nitric oxide may help an athlete's overall performance and endurance, especially if fit and healthy. The various exercises that makeup training have varying degrees of strain.

You may maximise your energy for practice by putting a minimal load on yourself during the day. Watching how athletes act and move makes it possible to figure out how much they train and their physical needs. It can also tell if they are going too far. Another crucial component of sports nutrition is recovery, essential for improving performance.

With the correct information, we can make the required adjustments to the routine to prevent certain habits and behaviours from impeding good healing. Sweat testing measures your sweat rate how much water you lose per hour and sweat salt concentration how much sodium you fail in your sweat to help athletes figure out how much water and sodium they need to drink.

The results of a sweat test will allow you to make a rough schedule for when to take in salt and water. Because their bodies get better at handling the regular load, trained athletes usually have lower resting heart rates and can return to normal faster after a workout. Lung function must be maximised for essential physiological functions to operate at their best.

The lungs must send oxygen to all body parts for healthy blood pressure, metabolism, and muscles. Exercise is better by maintaining oxygen levels within normal ranges. Thanks to scientific progress and innovative technology, athletes can now use accurate portable pulse oximeters to check their oxygen saturation levels before, during, and after exercise.

Reaction time is one of the most critical skills a sportsperson can possess. Athletes who wish to compete at the highest level must improve their coordination.

Professional athletes use stroboscopic sensory training to strengthen their brains and hasten information processing. It is comparable to how the world seems to be moving slowly, but the brain is processing information more quickly because it operates in hyperdrive.

Organizations involved in sports nutrition also have the opportunity to engage in quality assurance processes to safeguard the credibility of the innovations in sports nutrition.

However, a key question is if there is an added value of personalized nutrition vs. general guidelines? Importantly, technology innovations will allow the individual response to a sports nutrition intervention to be determined. For instance, to find the individual recommendation of carbohydrate and fluid during exercise, we need knowledge about the energy demands of the sport, sweat losses, gastrointestinal limits, personal taste preferences and every element of the event.

This needs to include research on different sport categories and target groups. This also presents the opportunity to follow athletes over a longer period of time, without associated human labor or time costs. For instance, to establish the extent to which an individual responds to different nutritional interventions, we need to conduct repeated testing in the same individual on several occasions.

And the more complex the sport and its environment, the more test repetitions may be needed to establish the magnitude of impact of an intervention. It is also imperative that we determine athlete compliance with prescribed nutritional interventions. Such data will allow the evaluation of education and behavior change strategies, which may also provide opportunity for personalization.

The research on personalized sports nutrition will undoubtedly be the focus in the near future due to the technological advances in genomics technologies such as genetic sequencing. For instance, is has been suggested that the impact of DNA sequencing will become on a par with that of the microscope Shendure et al.

Sports nutrition and sports science are encouraged to use these powerful technologies and to keep up with rapid developments to increase the chances of finding the best solutions possible.

Such technologies are routinely used in biomedical research and precision medicine applications, such as for cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's disease, thus, vital lessons can be learned and transferred to sports nutrition.

At present, the use of genetic testing in both sports nutrition and sports science is at a very early stage. The consensus in the scientific literature being that genetic testing in sport science has very low clinical utility and should not be sold Guasch-Ferré et al.

This is in contrast to the ever-increasing number of companies selling genetic testing, supported by unfounded claims Webborn et al. The market value of genetic testing; USD The identification of relevant non-invasive biomarkers are attractive to athletes and practitioners, due to the speed and increased frequency of collection vs.

traditional blood draws or questionnaires. Given recent technological breakthroughs, there are exciting opportunities for sports nutrition research to take gigantic leaps in the near future.

Until now, most sports nutrition and sports physiology studies are performed in controlled laboratory environments and often study the effect of single nutrients.

egg whites on post exercise muscle protein synthesis van Vliet et al. New study designs should focus on real life settings that are strictly monitored with use of new technological advances, apps, and systems.

As such, with a clear overview of nutritional demands of the sport and individual factors of impact, the extent of real-life effects of sports nutrition elements can be established. Beyond the physiological impact of nutrients, there is also opportunity for sports nutrition research to study of cognitive and mental performance Habay et al.

This shift will require sports nutrition researchers and nutritionists to adopt and further develop technological methods to allow the psychobiological determinants of performance to better defined.

New research paradigms and technologies could revolutionize sports nutrition research from small landmark studies of the s with mainly the authors as subjects taking muscle biopsies on themselves Bergström and Hultman, , to the use of big data and collaboration between large groups of researchers.

Examples of the latter are studies identifying genes implicated in hand grip strength involving over , subjects Willems et al.

The field of sports nutrition has the opportunity to adopt such collaborative practices combined with the application of the new and established technologies see Table 1. It is reasonable to suggest that this approach will inevitably become the mainstay of personalized medicine, where treating the individual will be the norm rather than the average.

If sports nutrition can embrace these challenges, it will thrive as an essential discipline and its relevance recognized in other fields Oikawa et al. While innovations are necessary and appealing, there needs to be a considered approach to implementation. Soon almost any parameter will be able to be measured or inferred, yet the use of such data especially during live performances remains to be explored.

Caution is encouraged when moving from too little or no assessment to over monitored and scheduled, as a result of too much feedback and reliance on devices. Tracking may also be potentially stressful Andersen et al.

When evolving sports nutrition research with new technological advances, it is important to continuously question the application to practice as well as the reliability and reliance of devices. The integration of new technologies in elite populations will also require closer collaborations between research and practitioners, and then directly to the athlete and coach Bartlett and Drust, However, multidisciplinary sport science and medicine teams do not come without challenges and clear communication, roles and responsibilities are essential Dijkstra et al.

Finally, impactful implementation of these innovations and technological developments especially in elite athletic populations is going to require the continued and better integration of behavioral change psychology in sports nutrition. A recent systematic review highlighted some of the most effective behavioral strategies used in sports nutrition Bentley et al.

Innovation is at the core of sports nutrition research and has pushed the field forward even before sports nutrition was recognized as a separate discipline. We are at a critical juncture in the evolution of this discipline primed to utilize new technologies to support the success of specific sports and individual athletes.

Sharing data in new and more efficient ways, integrating field based physiological measures, and personalized prescriptions are key opportunities to advance sports nutrition.

However, technological advances should not be used in haste and must first be evaluated to determine their functionality and value to the athletes health and performance. In summary, nutrition is but one of many complex and integrated sport performance determinants, and the impact of any new intervention should be assessed along a risk-reward continuum.

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of PepsiCo, Inc.

IR and MK are employees of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, a division of PepsiCo, Inc. KJ, TS, and YP, received speaking honoraria, for the GSSI ECSS pre-conference symposium which inspired this article.

YP is the founding member of the Sub2 project www. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers.

Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. Andersen, T. Experiences with wearable activity data during self-care by chronic heart patients: qualitative study.

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