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

• Published in: European journal of nutrition Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 1465 - 1473
• Main Authors: McCrink, Conor M., McSorley, Emeir M., Grant, Kirsty, McNeilly, Andrea M., Magee, Pamela J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Athletes; Body mass; Calcium; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cross-Sectional Studies; Dehydration; Dietary intake; Eating; Energy Intake; Gaelic football; Health behavior; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Hydration; Knowledge; Magnesium; Male; Nutrition; Original Contribution; Selenium; Sports Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Team Sports; Vitamin A; Vitamin D; Young Adult; Carbohydrate; Team sport; NSKQ
• ISSN: 1436-6207; 1436-6215
• DOI: 10.1007/s00394-020-02341-x

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.