Sex and gender in sports nutrition research: Bridging the gap
Sports Nutrition or Sport and Exercise Nutrition Science is the application of nutrition principles to improve training, recovery, and performance. Athletes have always consumed food but an academic focus on sports began in the 1930s when human physiology research studies began examining carbohydrate and fat metabolism in athletes engaging in endurance exercise. As the understanding of the complex nutritional needs of athletes and trained personnel grew, a greater focus was shifted to protein metabolism and its impact on muscle anabolism and catabolism. Over the last decade, the lack of sex and gender diversity in scientific sports nutrition research has become clear. Failure to consider either or both sex and gender in study design and analysis is widespread and the literature is showing that not only are females underrepresented in the research but, co-conflation of the terms sex and gender was widespread, causing further confusion.
A summary of the evidence and highlights from studies will be presented for several key areas of sports nutrition. This webinar will highlight many of the latest studies in the area and provide new perspectives.
What will I gain from this webinar?
- Be able to describe the current landscape concerning sports nutrition and how it impacts males and females.
- Identify the areas where further research is needed and why it is required.
- Look specifically at Energy Availability and how ongoing applied research at an elite level has been filling some gaps in the research field.
Endorsement No EN175.70
Curriculum
- 1 Section
- 2 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Sex and gender in sports nutrition research: bridging the gap2
Instructor
Professor Sharon Madigan (RD SENR) is Head of Performance Nutrition at Sport Ireland Institute and Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick. She completed her PhD (2005) in the area of Nutrition Education at Ulster University. She has significant clinical experience as a dietitian within the NHS and took up her current role in 2010. She has worked across team sports, individual sports, and weight-category sports and has supported several Olympic medalists and World champions. She has delivered nutrition support to athletes over six Olympic cycles and other major championships such as European, World, and EU championships. A strong focus of her position within the Institute of Sport is also the engagement in applied high-performance research. Sharon’s main research interest focuses on the interaction between diet and health and diet and sports performance. She is currently involved in the supervision of several research projects.
As well as working with individual athletes has been involved with the science and medical committee of the OFI in the planning and logistics at two camp bases. She was the assistant camp manager for the Tokyo 2021 OG and is the Lead Scientist for the Paris cycle. She was awarded an Hon Fellowship of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, RSCI in Sept 2016 and in April 2021 was appointed to the Adjunct Professor role at the University of Limerick.
