Miwako Deguchi, a professor at the Graduate School of Life Sciences, Osaka City University, says that 4% of para-athletes who participate in international sports competitions for people with disabilities and have athletic ability at the national polity level cannot achieve their ideal diet on their own. It was found in the research of assistant professor, Associate Professor Hisayo Yokoyama of Urban Health and Sports Research Center, and specially appointed professor Nobuko Motomiya of Graduate School of Life Sciences.
According to Osaka City University, the research group conducted a questionnaire to 32 para-athletes participating in international sports competitions for persons with disabilities, asking them about their nutritional knowledge, eating behavior, and their unconscious image of the body.
As a result, it was found that 4% of them need assistance in procuring ingredients and cooking, and cannot realize the ideal meal on their own.Para-athletes who have a good image of their body thought that their eating habits were healthy, but there were many wrong answers to their nutritional knowledge, and the amount of food they ate with subjective feelings such as "good physical condition" and "no abnormality in the body". Was judged to be appropriate.
The fact that there is little contact between para-athletes and nutritionists and that they have limited opportunities to acquire correct knowledge of sports nutrition has also been highlighted as a new issue.
The research group believes that increasing contact with nutritionists will improve the nutritional knowledge of para-athletes, and will promote the development of methods for estimating energy consumption of para-athletes and practical research on nutritional support based on actual dietary surveys.
Paper information:[Nutrients] Eating Perception, Nutrition Knowledge and Body Image among Para-Athletes: Practical Challenges in Nutritional Support
