Assessment of diet quality and nutrition status of Turkish elite adolescent male soccer players

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the anthropometric characteristics, nutrient intake levels, nutritional status of elite adolescent soccer players, and the dietary quality of athletes. Elite male adolescent soccer players of the youth soccer team of a soccer club in the Turkish Super League were included in this study by categorizing them into three separate groups as U14/U15 (n=32), U16/U17 (n=44), and U19 (n=17). Anthropometric measurements of the athletes and food consumption records for three consecutive days were recorded during the competition season. Although the available energy value of the U14/U15 group was higher than the other groups, the available energy was determined to be at a suboptimal level in all groups. The U14/U15 group had the highest Health Eating Index-2015 score (43.7±5.57), while the score was 42.9±4.79 in the U19 group and 42.1±3.69 in the U16/U17 group (p>0.05), and 93.5% of the players were determined to be in the group with poor diet quality. The carbohydrate intake of adolescent soccer players was 5.3±1.16 g/kg body mass/day in the U14/U15 group, while it was 4.4 ± 0.87 g/kg body mass/day in the U16/U17 group, and 4.4±0.94 g/kg body mass/day in the U19 group. In this study, it was found out that adolescent football players had a poor diet quality, their carbohydrate consumption was inadequate, their fat intake level was high, and the protein intake was high in the U14/15 group whereas it was at the recommended levels in other groups. Providing recurrent nutritional training to adolescent football players and their families would assist athletes in gaining healthy eating habits as well as increasing their performance.