This paper examines two sources that studied high-protein intake among professional athletes. The first article presents an extensive literature review to probe the impact of high protein consumption on professional athletes (Antonio, 2019). I chose this source because of its depth and breadth of literature synthesis, which helped generate nuanced insights into the health effects of high-protein intake. This information will enable me to produce a high-quality literature analysis. The comprehensive assessment of protein diet recommendations and restrictions helped Antonio (2019) to uncover the existing literature gap. The researcher found that little empirical evidence links high-protein intake to adverse outcomes among healthy, exercise-trained people.
These insights will benefit my research proposal by establishing what previous researchers have done and what is unknown about the research topic. Moreover, this source is relevant and useful to my research topic because it defines and explores the main variables of the proposed study. Antonio (2019) examined how high-protein diets affect health outcomes such as bone growth and repair, body composition, and athletes’ performance. Establishing the relationship between these variables will help advance existing knowledge and understanding of this topic.
The second source reports the results of a randomized controlled trial that sought to establish whether and how taking extra protein affects female athletes’ physical health and the lumbar bone mineral composition. Participants in the control and high-protein groups did not report any effect despite exhibiting significant protein consumption differences six months after the intervention (Antonio et al., 2018). I selected this article because it used randomized control trial design which generates higher-quality scientific data more openly and objectively. The experiment derived more reliable evidence because randomization enabled the researchers to measure the effectiveness of the high-protein diet intervention by reducing bias inherent to non-experimental studies and rigorously examining cause-effect relationships between the intervention and associated health outcomes.
This source is relevant and valuable to my topic because it identifies the research variables I will examine. Moreover, Antonio et al. (2018) substantiate the health benefits or risks of consuming extra protein. Besides, this study exposed me to current debates on the health effects of higher protein diets which helped me gain a nuanced understanding of this topic. Lastly, the source will benefit my research proposal by identifying gaps in the existing literature. Establishing areas that have not been covered adequately will help narrow and refine my research topic.
References
Antonio, J. (2019). High-protein diets in trained individuals. Research in Sports Medicine, 27(2), 195-203.
Antonio, J., Ellerbroek, A., Evans, C., Silver, T., & Peacock, C. A. (2018). High protein consumption in trained women: Bad to the bone? Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15(6), 1-5.