Manuscript received April 16, 2026; accepted June 14, 2026; published August 18, 2026.

Abstract—This narrative review examines the digital transformation of sports nutrition education. Digital technologies are increasingly used to deliver sports nutrition education, offering new possibilities for personalization, accessibility, and learner engagement. However, the rapid expansion of digital tools has resulted in a fragmented body of research, with uneven evidence quality, limited theoretical grounding, and inconsistent integration into professional practice. The study aims to critically examine the digital evolution of sports nutrition education and to develop a structured framework to support the effective evaluation and integration of digital tools. The review adopts a structured narrative approach to synthesize peer-reviewed literature published between 2015 and 2024 across the domains of sports nutrition, digital education, and educational technology. Relevant studies were identified through systematic database searches and analyzed thematically and chronologically to capture key technological trends, pedagogical approaches, and implementation challenges. The results indicate a clear shift toward interactive, personalized, and technology-enhanced educational models, with prominent use of mobile applications, gamification, immersive technologies, micro-learning formats, and data-integrated systems. While these tools demonstrate potential to improve nutrition knowledge, engagement, and selected dietary behaviors, the evidence is largely limited to short-term outcomes, with persistent challenges related to sustained engagement, ethical governance, and professional integration. Based on these findings, the study proposes an integrated digital sports nutrition education framework. The study concludes that digital technology adoption alone is insufficient to achieve lasting educational impact, and that theory-driven design, rigorous evaluation, and alignment with professional practice are essential for advancing effective and responsible digital sports nutrition education.
 
Keywords—sports nutrition, digital education, educational technology, e-learning, mobile health, gamification, virtual reality, personalized learning

Cite: Maryam H. Alarfaj, Sahar R. Hamzah, Aseel F. Alsaleh, and Alagab M. A. Ismail, " The Digital Evolution of Sports Nutrition Education: A Review of Tools, Trends, and Challenges," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 226-235, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).