Efficacy of Nutritional Strategies on the Improvement of the Performance and Health of the Athlete: A Systematic Review

J. Javier Perez-Montilla, Maria Cuevas-Cervera, Ana Gonzalez-Muñoz, Maria Carmen Garcia-Rios and Santiago Navarro-Ledesma
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J. Javier Perez-Montilla: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Campus of Melilla, University of Granada, Querol Street, 5, 52004 Melilla, Spain
Maria Cuevas-Cervera: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Campus of Melilla, University of Granada, Querol Street, 5, 52004 Melilla, Spain
Ana Gonzalez-Muñoz: Clínica Ana González, Avenida Hernan Nuñez de Toledo 6, 29018 Malaga, Spain
Maria Carmen Garcia-Rios: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Santiago Navarro-Ledesma: Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Campus of Melilla, University of Granada, Querol Street, 5, 52004 Melilla, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: Evidence shows that the use of food strategies can impact health, but a clear consensus about how the effects of different food strategies impact improvement in the athlete’s performance and health remain unclear. This study evaluated how food strategies, specifically intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet affect health and performance in healthy athletes. Study selection for this review was based on clinical trial studies analyzing changes in performance and health in athletes. The Pubmed, Web of Science, PEDro, Dialnet, Scopus, CINAHL, ProQuest, Medline and Cochrane databases were searched. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale, PEDro Internal Validity Scale (IVS) and Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a variety of fields (QUALSYT) checklists were used to evaluate the risk of bias of the included studies. Articles were selected based on criteria concerning the effectiveness of nutritional strategies on athletes’ performance; articles should be randomized clinical trials (RCTs) or uncontrolled clinical trials; they should be human studies and they should have been published less than 7 years ago. A total of 15 articles were evaluated, 8 randomised clinical trials and 7 non-randomized clinical studies, with 411 participants who satisfied our inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The results of the study showed intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding as strategies that produce health benefits. On the other hand, the ketogenic diet did not reach an appropriate consensus. The articles presented a medium level of methodological quality in the PEDro scale, low quality in IVS scale and high quality in QUALSYT scale. Despite the lack of studies analyzing changes in the performance and health of athletes after the use of different nutritional strategies, intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding should be considered since they seem to be effective, and further studies are necessary.

Keywords: intermittent fasting; sport; caloric restriction; fasting; ketogenic diet; time-restricted feeding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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