Nutrition Myths, Compulsive Behaviors, and Sports Culture
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Apart from volume of nutrition information, marketing of nutritional products adds to the confusion. An athlete will often react to what they are told through the media, instead of sound scientific references. Images of athletes on TV and from celebrity sports figures can be also be luring. There may be a compulsion to “do whatever it takes” to emulate the top-performing athletes. This can put a novice athlete in a dangerous frame of mind and perhaps lead to problems such as eating disorders.
Word-of-mouth is another common source of misinformation… “If it works for him, it should work for me too.” Every experienced athlete has their own testimonial of how best to accomplish nutritional goals. These expressions of opinion can be very powerful, and influential, to an athlete with less experience. However, it does not make the information valid.
Even health professionals can also be a source of confusion for athletes. There are a variety of trained professionals that have differing approaches to sports nutrition. When an athlete is injured or sick, they are vulnerable. During these times it is not uncommon for athletes receive treatment advice that includes recommendations for what to eat or not to eat. This information may be credible or anecdotal. It is up to the athlete to develop means of sourcing out sound nutrition advice (which has been discussed in Section 2 of this unit).