Co-design a gender inclusive nutrition education intervention

Teens who participate in high school sports experience unique pressures over their dietary habits such as having energy to play, performing better, or developing certain muscles. These pressures can be harmful when teens’ dietary habits become focused on attaining a certain body shape over fueling for their sport. When this happens, an athlete has a greater risk of injury, poorer mental health, restricted growth. In high schools, ~30% of teens participate in school sports. At this time, there are no resources in place to help these athletes navigate their dietary habits, and these athletes typically do not have access to trained coaches or dieticians to help them decide what to eat. This places a large number of teens at risk for deciding what to eat based on appearance, having the potential to negatively impact their well-being. With the support of the CBITN & Michael Smith Health Research BC Doctoral Studentship 2023 Award, Alysha Deslippe (University of British Columbia, PhD candidate) is working with BC high school athletes and coaches to develop an app to support high school athletes’ dietary habits. Alysha is guided by the expertise of Dr. Tamara Cohen (UBC, director of dietetics and assistant professor) and Emilie Comtois-Rousseau (ECR Nutrition, sport dietitian). Using bi-monthly meetings with athletes and coaches over 12 months, the content and design of the app is being co-developed to ensure it meets athletes’ needs and is feasible to use in high schools. As teens’ dietary habits often carry forward, this app has the potential to help improve BC high school athletes’ life-long health by promoting a shift away from eating for body shape.