Athletes' nutritional practices : a local study

Abstract

The 'be-thin-to-win' mentality common among athletes often leads to unhealthy eating practices. The purpose of this study was to identify nutritional practices of local athletes. Both male and female athletes from various sport disciplines participated in the study. Questionnaires requesting demographic information, food intake and athletes' behaviour were administered, whilst identification of disordered eating was based on scores from self-reported EAT-26 questionnaires. Interviews with a coach representing each sport discipline of the athletes involved in the study were also carried out. Disordered eating patterns were identified with a score of 20 or above. 14.7% of the population studied showed disordered eating traits, with a higher proportion being females (10.5 % females vs. 4.2 % males). Analysis revealed that the gender differences noted for the Eat-26 scores were statistically significant (p= 0.007). In fact the average EAT-26 score for females was also higher (14.51 ± 12.6) than that of males (6.48 ± 6.5). This corroborated with previous studies which found a higher prevalence of eating disorders in females (Hoerr et al., 2002; Pritchard et al., 2007). Female athletes participating in weight-category sports showed increased disordered eating behaviours. The athletes at risk were more concerned about body image and their behaviour reflected the desire to lose weight for improved performance. Future studies involving more reliable data collection tools rather than self-reported questionnaires may more accurately identify energy and nutrient deficiencies, which in turn can be useful to help develop strategies to address eating problems.