Features of consumption of specialized food products and biologically active additives in athletes of various sports

Introduction. In the last decade, specialized food products (SFP) and food supplements (FS) have been actively used in high-performance sports. Their contribution to providing athletes with nutrients and energy can be extremely significant, which seems to be an urgent problem for study.

The purpose of the study. To study the frequency of prevalence of SFP use, the reasons for their choice in athletes of various disciplines.

Materials and methods. There were examined one hundred seventy two athletes of various disciplines as follows: synchronized figure skating, freestyle, basketball, ice hockey, rowing, archery.

Results. Significant differences in the frequency of intake and range of SFP and FS were revealed. Among athletes of the Olympic reserve level, up to 92% use such products, in contrast to student (64–83% inconstantly) and regional teams (50–54%). At the same time, the total levels of intake of some biologically active substances are not taken into account, exceeding not only the adequate (by 34.8 times), but also the upper permissible level of consumption (by 10.4 times). The leading reasons for choosing SFP for athletes’ nutrition were acceleration of recovery (up to 72%), build-up of muscle mass (up to 60%) and improvement of productivity (up to 48%).

Research limitations. Athletes do not always have full information about the SFP and FS they use, which are provided at the expense of budgetary funds by coaching staff specialists during training events (camps).

Conclusion. Insufficient knowledge in athletes, coaches and sports medicine doctors in the field of application of specialized products leads to additional overstrain of metabolic systems and cannot contribute to high sports results. Systematic training and advanced training of specialists is necessary for practical implementation of nutrition strategies for athletes of various sports, supplementation of diets with biologically active substances, elimination of adverse effects on health.

Compliance with ethical standards. Research protocol No. 11 dated 12/15/2021 was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal Research Center for Nutrition, Biotechnology and Food Safety. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Contribution of the authors:
Kobelkova I.V. — concept and design of the study, editing, approval of the final version of the article;
Seledkova Yu.A. — design of the study, writing the text;
Korosteleva M.M. — writing the text, compiling the list of references.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Funding. The work was carried out within the framework of the FNI topic No. FGMF-2022-0004.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no obvious or potential conflicts of interest in connection with the publication of this article.

Received: February 7, 2025 / Revised: March 27, 2025 / Accepted: October 8, 2025 / Published: December 17, 2025

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