Narrative Review of the Nutritional Knowledge and Dietary Intake of Team Sport Athletes Including Potential Interventions for Improving Nutritional Knowledge

Nutritional knowledge (NK) and dietary intake (DI) are key components to the success of team sport athletes (TSAs). Despite this, inadequate NK and suboptimal DI have been observed in many TSAs. Amateur to elite-level TSAs are often observed to have poor levels of NK and an inadequate DI to meet the demands of their sport, typically consuming below recommended intakes of carbohydrate and failing to meet their energy requirements. Athletes that do not meet DI recommendations are at risk of suboptimal sports performance and poor health. It is hypothesized that, if TSAs have poor NK, this may contribute to suboptimal DI, suggesting that improvements to NK will positively influence dietary intakes. For positive improvements in dietary behaviors to occur, TSAs need an environment conducive to behavior change (BC). The process of successfully implementing this BC is multifaceted and, although the relevance of the relationship between NK and DI has yet to be quantified, it is clear that NK may play an important role. Furthermore, there are limited studies investigating nutritional educational interventions using BC theory to improve the NK of TSAs within the literature, which have provided varying results, highlighting the need for alternative and/or improved methodologies. This narrative review critiques the current literature surrounding the NK and DI of TSAs, including potential interventions for improving NK, which may provide a suitable framework for future research using multimodal tools, including BC theory and in-person and online educational interventions to beneficially enhance NK and DI of TSAs.