An investigation of dietary intake, nutrition knowledge and hydration status of Gaelic Football players

Abstract

Purpose To assess the dietary intake, nutrition knowledge and hydration status of Irish Gaelic footballers. Method One hundred and sixty-eight male club/county level Irish Gaelic footballers (median [IQR]; age 23 years [20.0, 27.0]; height 1.79 m [1.74, 1.84]; body mass 78.0 kg [73.5, 84.8]) participated in this cross-sectional study. Dietary intake was assessed using a 4-day semi-quantitative food record, with the application of Goldberg cut-offs to define acceptable reporters (n = 62). Nutrition knowledge was assessed using the validated Nutrition for Sport Knowledge Questionnaire in a sub-group of athletes (n = 24), while hydration status was measured using urine specific gravity pre-exercise (USG) in 142 athletes. Results Dietary analysis indicated an energy deficit at the group level (485 kcal [IQR 751,6]) (p < 0.001), with carbohydrate intakes (3.6 g/kg [IQR 3.0,4.1]) below current guidelines for athletes participating in one hour moderate intensity exercise per day (5–7 g/kg; p < 0.001). Average vitamin D (3.8 µg [IQR 1.8, 5.5]) and selenium intakes (54.2 µg [47.2, 76.7]) were significantly below the reference nutrient intakes (p < 0.001). A high proportion of individual athletes also had sub-optimal intakes for: vitamin D (95.2%), selenium (72.6%), vitamin A (38.7%), potassium (30.6%), zinc (25.8%), magnesium (19.4%) and calcium (12.9%). Nutrition knowledge was deemed poor (40.2 ± 12.4%), while pre-exercise hydration status (median USG 1.010 [IQR 1.005, 1.017]) was significantly below the cut-off to denote dehydration (1.020; p < 0.001). Conclusions Our findings suggest that Irish Gaelic footballers have sub-optimal dietary practices and lack nutrition knowledge. Individualised nutrition support may benefit these athletes to meet their nutrition requirements, to support health and performance.

Exploring Sports Nutrition Knowledge in Elite Gaelic Footballers

“…The overall SNK of players was poor (47.6%), and this is consistent with previous research on Gaelic games athletes [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], direct comparison of nutrition knowledge scores between studies can be difficult due to the use of different assessment tools. However, similar knowledge scores were observed for both female and male Gaelic footballers using an abridged version of the same questionnaire [ 23 , 26 ], while sub-elite Gaelic footballers reported lower levels of nutrition knowledge using the same question [ 24 ]. The difference between elite and non-elite players could be explained by the fact that the majority of elite players assessed in this study had access to a registered nutritionist/dietitian.…”

“…Athletes that demonstrated higher nutrition knowledge consume more fruit, vegetables and CHO rich foods than those with lower levels of nutrition knowledge [ 22 ]. Previous research has identified that both elite and sub-elite Gaelic football players demonstrated poor nutrition knowledge [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Similarly, elite female Gaelic games players and elite male hurlers demonstrated inadequate levels of nutrition knowledge [ 26 , 27 ].…”

“…The recent attempts to examine the SNK of male [ 23 , 24 , 25 ] and female [ 26 ] Gaelic football players is addressing a gap in the body of knowledge. On the other hand, there are some methodological limitations within the previous studies that would warrant the current study as the logical continuation of the previous research.…”

“…The inadequate discrimination between the wide variety of sports (e.g., golf, hockey, Gaelic football, netball, rugby, running and Shotokan karate) included within this study, interlinking and limiting the examination of SNK to hydration, and lack of discrimination between the level of athletes limited the internal validity of the findings [ 23 ]. Similarly, within the study of McCrink et al (2020), despite a relatively large number of participants ( n = 168) participating in the study of the dietary intake of Gaelic football players, the SNK was examined only in a small sub-sample of the study population ( n = 24) limiting the external validity and the generalizability of the findings [ 24 ]. The study of Renard et al (2021) including 68 club (sub-elite) and 84 inter-county players (elite) Gaelic football players, is the most recent and most focused examination of the SNK demonstrating a total score of 44.3 ± 12.7% (corresponding with poor nutrition knowledge) with no difference between playing levels.…”

Sports nutrition knowledge and perceptions among professional basketball athletes and coaches in Lebanon-a cross-sectional study

“…In addition, a high proportion of athletes also had suboptimal vitamin A (38.7%), potassium (30.6%), zinc (25.8%), magnesium (19.4%) and calcium (12.9%). Preexercise hydration status (median urine specific gravity 1.010 [IQR 1.005, 1.017]) was significantly below the cut-off to represent dehydration (1.020) [19]. In five studies done on Australian athletes to evaluate and compare nutritional intake to current recommendations, the study participants were found to have low NK (answered only 51, 57, 54.5%, 46, 56.9% (professional athletes) /61.3% (semiprofessional athletes) of the Sports NK Questionnaire questions correctly, respectively) and their energy and nutritional intakes of macronutrients (carbohydrate and protein) and some micronutrients (calcium and iron) were incoherent with current recommendations [8,[20][21][22][23].…”