The new challenge of sports nutrition: Accepting insect food as dietary supplements in professional athletes

Background: The dietary supplements market is growing, and their use is increasing among professional athletes. Recently, several new protein supplements have been placed in the marketplace, including energy bars enriched with insect flour. Edible insects, which are rich in protein content, have been promoted as the food of the future and athletes could be a reference sample for their continued emphasis on higher protein demand. The present study investigated the potential motivations to accept an energy protein bar with cricket flour, among a group of selected Italian professional athletes. A second aim was also to measure how an information treatment about the benefits of edible insects would have impact on acceptance. Methods: 61 Italian professional athletes (27 females) completed a structured questionnaire regarding supplements and eating habits, food neophobia, nutrition knowledge, willingness to taste edible insects and the associated factors. A question about sports endorsement was also posed at the end of the survey. Results: all subjects consumed supplements, generally recommended by medical personnel, even though their general knowledge of nutrition was poor (47.8%). Our main results shown that on a seven-point Likert scale, the protein content (5.74 ± 1.01) and the curiosity about texture (5.24 ± 0.98) were the main drivers to taste the cricket energy bar; whereas the feeling of disgust (5.58 ± 1.08) justified the rejection of tasting insects. In addition, the level of food neophobia increases with age (p < 0.05) and reduces willingness to endorse the cricket bar (p < 0.05). Male athletes (4.47 ± 1.69) were more likely to endorse the product than females (3.3 ± 1.49). An increase in willingness to taste was observed after the information treatment (z = 4.16, p < 0.001). Even though the population under investigation is unique, it is important to mention that this study involves a relatively small and convenience sample, and therefore generalizability of the results should be done with caution

Stima della funzione inversa di domanda degli attributi secondo l’approccio edonistico: un’applicazione al settore del vino.

Dipartimento PRIME. Università di Foggi

Shadow prices of human capital in agriculture. Evidence from European FADN regions, CSEF Working Papers, N. 415, 2015

The aim of this paper is to measure the shadow pric e of human capital in EU agriculture and to determin e whether the CAP has affected the productivity of this growth-enha ncing factor. For this purpose, we used the balance sheet data for the period 1986-2012, referring to the Standard Res ults of the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) f arm, which is representative of commercial agriculture at regi onal level. Data concerning output and input price indices and education attainment levels were obtained from Euro stat and from national FADNs. DEA-VRS input-oriented an nual frontiers were computed to estimate the shadow pric e of three levels of human capital: low, medium and high. The results show an increasing trend in the shadow pric es of human capital and suggest that the shadow pri ce of the high level of human capital has been significantly great er than the shadow price of the medium level of hum an capital since 1990