Abstract
Among many lifestyle components that professional athletes have to follow, nutrition is gradually growing to be one of the key factors for achieving and maintaining optimal sport performance. The Mediterranean diet (MD) is recognized as one of the healthiest dietary patterns worldwide; however, data regarding adherence to the MD among professional athletes are still scarce. Moreover, with the imposed need for a healthy diet among professional athletes, orthorexia nervosa (ON) could become a rising issue. This cross-sectional study included 150 professional athletes and 150 matched recreational athletes from Croatia. Four questionnaires were used for the assessment: general information, a test for the diagnosis of ON (ORTO-15), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Mediterranean Diet Serving Score (MDSS). Significantly more professional athletes were adherent to the MD (p < 0.001) and had a tendency to ON (p < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between the ORTO-15 score and the total MET min/week score (r = −0.524, p < 0.001) and a significant positive correlation between the MDSS score and the total MET min/week score in the professional athlete group (r = 0.478, p < 0.001). All of these results imply that professional athletes are more concentrated on their dietary patterns than recreational athletes, and that due to this dedication, they possibly have a higher adherence to the MD but also possibly a higher risk for developing ON. However, the association between ON and the MD should be further addressed in the future.
Highlights
In recent decades, the rapid development of science and our knowledge regarding human physiology has had a major impact on the lifestyle of professional athletes
This study shows that 24% of professional athletes are adherent to the Mediterranean diet (MD)
Our results show that almost every fourth professional athlete in our study sample is adherent to the MD, and that professional athletes have significantly higher adherence to the MD compared to recreational athletes
Summary
The rapid development of science and our knowledge regarding human physiology has had a major impact on the lifestyle of professional athletes. Among many lifestyle components that professional athletes have to follow, nutrition is gradually growing to be one of the key factors for achieving and maintaining optimal sport performance [1,2,3]. Due to a wide range of different sports and individual needs, it is impossible to determine a perfect dietary pattern that all professional athletes should follow. The Mediterranean diet (MD) is the traditional cuisine of countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and it is recognized as one of the healthiest dietary patterns worldwide [6,7]. The MD is globally one of the most studied dietary patterns due to its major health benefits [10]. Recent findings showed evidence that the MD has a lipid-lowering effect, protects against oxidative stress, inflammation and platelet aggregation, regulates signals involved in the pathogenesis of cancer, inhibits nutrient sensing pathways by specific amino acid restriction and influences metabolic health through gut microbiota [16,17]
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