Researchers in China used an eight-week cross-sectional mixed-methods study of competitive athletes to examine links between a variety of health metrics with sustainable sport nutrition choices such as plant-forward eating, diverse protein selection, and local food choices.
“Sustainable diets have become an important topic in sports nutrition because they connect athlete health, long-term performance, and environmental responsibility,” they wrote.
“Findings suggest that sustainable sport nutrition should be promoted as practical, performance-compatible, energy-adequate, and protein-sufficient rather than only as an environmental behavior.”
Supporting athletic performance and mental resilience
Dietary practices support athletes in maintaining high performance while protecting their physical and psychological well-being by influencing energy availability, glycogen restoration, protein synthesis, recovery, mood, sleep quality, immune function, and training consistency.
“For this reason, sustainable nutrition in sport should not be viewed only as an environmental concept but also as a potential lifestyle behavior associated with preparation, recovery, and psychological readiness,” the researchers wrote.
Despite growing research on sport nutrition and performance, the relationship between sustainable nutrition and mental resilience remains insufficiently explored, they noted.
Unlike conventional sport nutrition research, which primarily examines nutrient intake, supplementation, hydration, and body composition, the new study examined sustainable sport nutrition as both a behavioral and psychological construct.
“This gap is important because sustainable sport nutrition may contribute to a more holistic model of athletic performance, combining physical recovery, mental stability, and value-based motivation,” they wrote.
Study links sustainable nutrition with recovery
The researchers recruited 202 competitive athletes from university teams, sports clubs, training centers and national-level settings.
Participants completed online or paper questionnaires and the researchers conducted interviews with randomly selected athletes to examine dietary patterns, sustainable food choices, perceived effects of diet on mood and concentration, recovery, competition readiness, and barriers to sustainable eating.
They defined sustainable nutrition choices to include plant-forward eating, consumption of minimally processed foods, reduced intake of ultra-processed foods, meal planning, diverse protein selection, local and seasonal food choices, food-waste reduction, and consistent hydration.
Results showed that athletes who followed more sustainable eating habits tended to have better mental resilience, better recovery and felt they performed better. The interviews also showed that healthy, planned eating helped athletes feel prepared, focused and confident.
The researchers suggested that athletes who make more sustainable food choices may also be more intentional and self-regulated in their eating habits.
“Athletes who plan meals, maintain consistent hydration, limit ultra-processed foods, and make deliberate dietary choices may develop routines that promote discipline, emotional control, and training consistency,” they noted.
They did, however, add that time, cost, travel, and access to suitable food made sustainable eating difficult for some athletes. Furthermore, the researchers noted that some perceptions of sustainable choices can be a further barrier.
“Athletes may worry that sustainable diets reduce protein quality or quantity,” the researchers wrote. “This concern can be addressed by teaching athletes to combine diverse protein sources across the day.”
They added that nutrition experts could help implement sustainable sport nutrition in ways that protect energy availability and athletic performance.
“Coaches can support this process by treating nutrition routines as part of preparation and recovery, not as an optional lifestyle message,” the researchers concluded. “In this way, sustainable nutrition can be framed as a realistic performance-supportive behavior that protects energy intake, recovery quality, and psychological readiness.”
They noted that findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal evidence, and that future studies should use longitudinal designs, objective dietary records, validated instruments and direct performance measures to confirm these findings over time.
Source: Frontiers in Nutrition. doi: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1935463/full; “Sustainable Sport Nutrition Linked to Better Recovery and Mental Resilience in Athletes.” Authors: Xitong, F. et al.
