Periodized nutrition is necessary to optimize training and enhance performance through the season. The Athlete’s Plate (AP) is a nutrition education tool developed to teach athletes on how to design their plates depending on training load (e.g., volume x intensity) from Easy (E), Moderate (M) to Hard (H). The AP was validated confirming its recommendations according to international sport nutrition guidelines. However, the AP had significantly higher protein content than recommended (up to 2.9 + 0.5g·kg-1BodyMass·day-1; p<0.001 for H male). The aim of this study was to evaluate the protein content and the environmental impact (EnvI) of the AP and provide recommendations to decrease it, while maintaining an adequate diet for sport performance and health. Nutritional content of 216 AP created by 12 registered sport dietitians were evaluated using Computrition Software (Hospitality Suite, v. 18.1, Chatsworth, California). The EnvI of the plates was analyzed by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expressed by total amount of food on the AP, kg, and kcal, according to SALCA methodology. The EnvI of the AP varies depending on the functional unit used. Higher EnvI is directly associated with higher training load when total amount of food on the plate is considered for E (5.7 + 2.9kgCO2eq/day); M (6.4 + 1.5kgCO2eq/day); and H (8.0 + 2.1kgCO2eq/day). However, there is a large variation on EnvI of the AP. Global warming potential, exergy and eutrophication are driven by animal protein and mainly beef, while ecotoxicity is influenced by vegetable content on the AP. The EnvI is influenced by the amount of food, training load and sex. This study is the first to report the degree of EnvI in sport nutrition. These results not only raise the need for sustainability education in sport nutrition in general but also the urgency to modify the AP nutrition education tool to ensure sport nutrition recommendations are met, while not compromising the environment.
