Amateur and professional football player to investigate of nutritional habits

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to investigate the nutritional habits level of footballers, considering the different league categories. From Turkey Super League, 2. League category A, 2.League category B, 3.League, 1.Amateur League, 2.Amateur League teams 360 active football players participated in the survey. To determine their the survey form developed by the researcher, benefiting previous scientific studies, consisting of 13 personal information questions, 20 nutritional habits questions; in all 33 questions was applied during the resting time of the athletes after giving explanation by the pollster.

In statistical calculations SPSS (version 14.0) was applied. Data frequency and the percent values were calculated and chi-square test was applied to find out the differences among the teams in different categories. When P value was lower than 0.05, differences among the groups were accepted as significant.

When the questions were asked about their educational background, levels of income,  experts preparing their nutrition programs, the relations between nutrition and achievment, CHO loading, meal-skip, smoking and drinking alcohol, fluid intake before the match, the food consumed before the match, taking supplements regularly, the food containing carbohydrate, last meal preferences before the match; among the groups there were siginificant differences at level of p<0,001, in values of skipped meal at level of p<0,01, and in the values of source of knowledge about sports nutrition, fluid intake during the execise, watching out the nutrition before and after the exercise; at level of p<0,05 in the statistical values of the answers.

In conclusion, in the lights of the nutritional knowledge based on scientific studies we suggest that athletes and trainers should be supported by nutritional instruction and importance of the issue should be highlighted in the press and the other media.