The current study aimed to compare the differences in Total Nutritional Knowledge (TNK) of Plant-Based (PB) protein scores in a Resistance-Trained (RT) young adult population. Inadequate nutritional knowledge is perceived as a barrier towards dietary adherence, nonetheless with the increasing trend of PB individuals in sport, a reoccurring theme concerning PB dietary protein quality and performance is apparent. The RT population was previously observed in research to have higher TNK praised for their knowledge of protein, identifying this population of interest to establish their TNK of PB protein. The characteristics to be investigated to establish a difference within the data include male and female participants, exercise experience, and diet preferences. Twenty-eight participants (male= 14, female= 14, age = 21.71 ±1.34 years) completed the modified Abridged-Nutrition for Sport Knowledge Questionnaire (A-NSKQ) assessing PB TNK administrated on Microsoft Forms.
The overall TNK scores in the current study (45.32%±17.26) classified the outlined population with “poor” PB nutritional knowledge. No significant differences (P<0.05) were identified between the participants’ characteristics, on average higher nutritional knowledge scores were identified in; (a) male participants (P=0.144), (b) longer exercise experience (advanced/ 24 months plus) (P=0.38), and (c) adhering to a vegetarian diet (P=0.54). A trend of increased nutritional knowledge was found as a linear relationship with exercise experience which was justified by the exposure to informative- resources. Findings provide a need to educate the resistance-trained young adult population concerning PB protein. More specifically, social media was considered the most effective platform for reaching this population, as a result, it is advised that appropriate social media resources should be sign-posted to promote PB diets and remove concerns regarding PB protein quality in a sports context.
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