Lucas Thurnherr was rewarded with the poster prize at this year's annual academic celebration for his poster entitled "Nutrition Knowledge of German Elite Athletes".
Proper nutrition is crucial for elite athletes, but do they put theoretical sports nutrition guidelines into practice? This question is the focus of Lucas Thurnherr's current research. He conducted a pilot study at the Bavarian Olympic Training Center to investigate whether German competitive athletes put the theoretical sports nutrition guidelines into practice. In particular, the focus is on researching the nutritional knowledge of athletes, as this has a significant influence on their diet. This knowledge is currently unknown among German competitive athletes.
The investigation of this topic is of practical relevance, as nutritional myths and knowledge gaps must be recognized and corrected time and again in nutritional consultations. The GSNKQ-AC questionnaire, which was used in collaboration with Helena Engel to assess almost 200 athletes, was used to systematically record these knowledge gaps.
Data analysis makes it possible to find out which groups of athletes have the greatest deficits in which aspects of nutritional knowledge. These findings will serve as the basis for future research and intervention strategies. Lucas Thurnherr is also planning to collaborate with other scientific institutions in order to comprehensively analyze athletes' nutrition in addition to basic nutritional knowledge.
Further information on the pilot study and the results can be found on the poster.