Amateur and professional football player to investigate the level of nutritional knowledge

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to investigate the nutritional knowledge level of footballers, considering the different league categories. From Turkey Super League, 2.League A, 2.League 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, 12 nutritional knowledge questions; in all 25 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 groups. 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,  CHO loading, meal-skip, fluid intake before the match, the food consumed before the match, taking supplements, the food containing carbohydrate, last meal preferences before the match, vitamin C resources,  daily CHO intake; among the groups there were siginificant differences at level of p<0,001, in values of skipped meal, period between the match and the last meal, how many meals to be needed a day for an athlete and mostly needed minerals; at level of p<0,01, and in the values of source of knowledge about sports nutrition, fluid intake during the execise; 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.