Importance of Proper Nutrition for Female Athletes

"No one plans to fail, they merely fail to plan." (1)

During my years as a competitive horseback rider and WWU cross-country runner: friends, teammates, and I have fallen victim to eating disorders either clinical or sub-clinical. I noticed that my eating disorder started with the primary goal of being a better, more fit horseback rider and runner, with thinness being merely a "by-product" of that goal. An athlete's dedication, drive, focus, and intensity are characteristics, which can unfortunately become pathologically obsessive and play into the development of disordered eating. This paper will examine the effects of sports nutrition education on female athletes as well as discuss nutritional recommendations for them.

Why is it so important for girls and women to know the importance of proper nutrition? Generally, deficient nutritional intake is more common in female athletes than in male athletes. Proper diet is vital for athletes to maintain enough energy during physical activity and for post-activity recovery. Female athletes who participate in high endurance sports commonly have deficient nutritional intake. Horseback riding and Cross-country running are sports that promotes leanness because of a need to wear contour-revealing clothing or because the activities that involve scoring on the basis of appearance. Female athletes with low energy and insufficient nutritional intake are susceptible to many complications such as: chronic fatigue, dehydration, eating disorders, menstrual dysfunction, bone mineral disorders, delayed growth, decreased immune response, irritation, poor performance, loss of motivation, decreased maximal performance, increased short-term and long-term fatigue, and poor concentration.

The Female Collegiate Cross-Country Runner: Nutritional Knowledge and Attitudes

The Title IX legislation, ordered that equal money and opportunities are available to females at publicly funded institution such as elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities. This has led to dramatic increases in female athletic activity over the last few decades. With the increase in female participation in sports females have received numerous health benefits. Although physiologic variation in females, mixed with internal demands and external stresses during cross-country running, has led to health problems as well as injuries that are distinctively in female cross-country runners. Female cross-country runners are at a higher risk to what has become known as the female athlete triad: disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, and osteoporosis. This is why it is so important for coaches, athletes, and parents to have thorough nutritional knowledge. Many studies show that nutritional education is needed for such athletes and coaches. Also, studies show that athletes appear to have positive attitudes towards proper nutrition. The purpose of this descriptive study is to assess the nutritional knowledge and attitudes of female collegiate cross-country runners. If we are aware of the deficient areas of nutritional knowledge which is important for athletes performance and healing than we might be able to assist professionals in educating female runners. The subjects included female collegiate cross-country runners who took the test at their convenience. The total compliance rate was 61 percent. The subjects filled out a nutritional questionnaire with both qualitative and quantitative parts. In a 9-day period, the nutritional questionnaire was administered at 6 different colleges and universities in Illinois and Michigan. In the questionnaire the researchers measurements included a demographic section, 76 Likert-scale true/false questions, and seven open-ended questions. Also the true and false questions were divided into subscales of three or more questions based on the topic. Their statistical analysis focused on qualitative analysis. Runners who took a nutrition course in college scored significantly higher than those who did not. There were a number of particular areas of deficient nutritional knowledge identified. Runners who prepared their own meals scored higher than those whose meals were prepared for them. They obtained nutritional information mostly from magazines, parents, coaches, and teammates. Runners scored much higher in the athletic section than they did in the general knowledge section. Overall, the mean of the athletes' total positive responses for the attitude section of the questionnaire was 90.6 percent. Also, 91.7 percent agreed that learning facts about nutrition is the best way to accomplish favorable changes in the runners eating habits. In conclusion the researchers findings suggest that female collegiate cross-country runners lack nutritional knowledge that is vital for preventing nutrition-related health problems such as female athlete triad. However, because such a high percent of the runners in the study showed positive attitudes toward nutrition, female collegiate cross-country runners may be open and interested for nutritional education. It would be a good idea for colleges and universities to have a preseason seminar conducted by athletic trainers and also nutritionists where they address the importance of nutrition to performance and healing. Athletic trainers and nutritionist should be conscious of the areas of lower nutritional knowledge especially in female collegiate cross-country runners. They should also be qualified to prepare a plan of intervention through seminars, handouts, posters, and individual counseling.(2)

In previous research body image is a key factor in the development of female athlete triad, which is a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, and osteoporosis. A female athlete can have one, two, or all three parts of the triad. Researchers assume that this syndrome is caused by low energy availability/calorie shortage (the athlete's energy expenditure exceeds her dietary energy intake). "This low energy availability causes disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, which results in decreased gonadotropin-releasing hormone pulsatility and low luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone levels."(3) This leads to decreased estrogen production, causing menstrual dysfunction, and the decreased estrogen levels in turn affect calcium adsorption and bone density decreases, causing decreased bone health.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms? If a female athlete has risk factors for female athlete triad, she could be experiencing some symptoms and signs of the disorder, like: weight loss, no periods or irregular periods, fatigue and decreased ability to concentrate, stress fractures, and muscle injuries. Female cross-country runners with female