Sports nutrition as curricular component in the nutrition and physical education courses of the northern region of Brazil

The practice of physical exercise and healthy eating for the purpose of improving sports performance has grown and along with the need for professionals duly trained to work in this area. Thus, the inclusion of the discipline Nutrition in Sport in the curricular matrix of the undergraduate courses in Nutrition and Physical Education is necessary. This study aimed to characterize the discipline of Nutrition in Sport in the Nutrition and Physical Education Undergraduate courses of the Northern Region of Brazil. Only the courses of Higher Education Institutions (IES) recognized by the Ministry of Education were evaluated. The Institutions were selected through the Database of the System of Regulation of Higher Education - e-MEC System, considering the presence or not of the discipline Sports Nutrition and its characterization as denomination; nature (compulsory or optional); workload and time period. Most Nutrition courses (88.9%) offer the discipline, a higher percentage than in the Physical Education courses (56.5%). Similar behavior was observed in relation to the nature of its offer, being compulsory in 88.2% of Nutrition courses and 77.0% in Physical Education. Both courses presented wide variability in the period of supply, as well as in their total workload (higher in Physical Education) and its subdivision between theory and practice. It is concluded that there are considerable intra- and inter-course differences in relation to the discipline of Sports Nutrition and that require a qualitative evaluation in order to investigate its impact on the teaching-learning process and consequent capacity building in this area.