Nutritional practices of coaches in the big ten

The responses of 137 coaches representing 153 teams in the Big Ten Conference indicate a recognized need for more information about nutrition, a need that apparently is not being met very satisfactorily by traditional methods of communicating knowledge, including a number of excellent review articles. Prescribing nutritional supplements with little or no assessment of the athlete's nutritional status (for example, the use of protein supplements in 22 teams respresenting 11 different sports), belief in steak and other high protein foods by some coaches as essential to the precompetition meal, use of high carbohydrate diets by a number of sports requiring limited endurance capacity, and the subjective appraisal of optimum body weight are practices that underscore the need for more effective communication between coaches and the scientific community. Nevertheless, the fact that coaches recognize their need for more information on nutrition is a healthy sign for better communication in the future - and for better care of athletes.