Effects of Nutrition Education Providing School Lunch by Personalized Daily Needed Food Exchange Units for Adolescent Athletes in Jeonbuk Province / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of nutrition education providing school lunch by personalized daily needed food exchange units using Food Exchange System for adolescent athletes. METHODS: The subjects were 60 sports high school students (educated group, 30 vs. non-educated group 30). Nutrition education was provided for 4 weeks (40 min/lesson/week). In addition, personalized school lunch was served for 4 weeks, nutrition education period. The personalized lunch were provided Food Exchange Units according to personalized daily needed energy. The lessons were '5 Major nutrients, functions and foods', 'My daily needed energy and food exchange units by Food Exchange System', 'My meal plan by food exchange units according to my daily needed energy' and 'Smart choice of healthy snacks and eating outs'. After nutrition education, we examined the differences in anthropometric characteristics, nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude and dietary intake between the educated and the non-educated group. RESULTS: We observed improvements in lean body mass in the educated group. With regard to nutrition knowledge, there were improvements in 'Functions of vitamins', 'Functions of minerals', 'Foods of fat', 'Foods of vitamin', and 'Foods of mineral' in the educated group. In relation to dietary attitude, there were improvements in 'Taking a meal with family and friend', 'Taking a meal at ease', 'Taking a meal with kimchi and vegetables', 'Taking a meal with three kinds of side dishes', 'Priority of choosing snacks' and 'Type of snacks' in the educated group. With regard to dietary intakes according to Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans, there were improvements in intakes levels of fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, calcium, iron and zinc. The index of nutrition quality, as indicated by nutrition adequacy ratio also improved in the educated group. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed that a nutrition education program providing education lessons and personalized school lunch by food exchange units according to daily needed energy showed positive changes in nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude and dietary intake of adolescent athletes. Nutrition education program providing personalized school lunch by Food Exchange Units may improve dietary behaviors and dietary intakes of adolescents.

Comparing sports vision among three groups of soft tennis adolescent athletes: Normal vision, refractive errors with and without correction.

Background: The effect of correcting static vision on sports vision is still not clear. Aim: To examine whether sports vision (depth perception [DP], dynamic visual acuity [DVA], eye movement [EM], peripheral vision [PV], and momentary vision [MV],) were different among soft tennis adolescent athletes with normal vision (Group A), with refractive error and corrected with (Group B) and without eyeglasses (Group C). Setting and Design: A cross‑section study was conducted. Soft tennis athletes aged 10–13 who played softball tennis for 2–5 years, and who were without any ocular diseases and without visual training for the past 3 months were recruited. Materials and Methods: DPs were measured in an absolute deviation (mm) between a moving rod and fixing rod (approaching at 25 mm/s, receding at 25 mm/s, approaching at 50 mm/s, receding at 50 mm/s) using electric DP tester. A smaller deviation represented better DP. DVA, EM, PV, and MV were measured on a scale from 1 (worse) to 10 (best) using ATHLEVISION software. Statistical Analysis: Chi‑square test and Kruskal–Wallis test was used to compare the data among the three study groups. Results: A total of 73 athletes (37 in Group A, 8 in Group B, 28 in Group C) were enrolled in this study. All four items of DP showed significant difference among the three study groups (P = 0.0051, 0.0004, 0.0095, 0.0021). PV displayed significant difference among the three study groups (P = 0.0044). There was no significant difference in DVA, EM, and MV among the three study groups. Conclusions: Significant better DP and PV were seen among soft tennis adolescent athletes with normal vision than those with refractive error regardless whether they had eyeglasses corrected. On the other hand, DVA, EM, and MV were similar among the three study groups.

A Study of Dietary Habits, Nutrition Intake Status and Serum Copper and Zinc Concentrations of Adolescent Athletes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary habits, nutritional status, and serum copper and zinc concentrations of adolescent athletes. 50 high school adolescent athletes (29 male, 21 female) took part in physical education high school and 47 high school adolescent non-athletes (21 male, 26 female) in general high school. Questionnaires, anthropometric measurements, 24-hour dietary recalls and blood analysis were conducted. In the males, the mean height, weight and body fat percents of athletes and non-athletes were 174.0/172.9 cm, 67.4/68.3 kg, and 8.9/20.0% (p < 0.001) respectively. In the females, the mean height, weight and body fat percents of athletes and non-athletes were 163.7/159.3 cm (p < 0.01), 58.7/55.7 kg (p < 0.05), and 18.6/30.1% (p < 0.001) respectively. In both male and female athletes, intakes of animal fat were significantly higher and intakes of vitamin C were significantly lower than those of non-athletes. There was no significantly difference in zinc and copper intakes between athlete and non-athlete groups. The average serum zinc level of male athletes was significantly lower than that of male non-athlete. The average serum copper levels of male and female athletes were significantly lower than those of male and female non-athletes. Based on these results, exercise may effect on zinc and copper utilization of adolescent. Further studies on zinc and copper nutrition of adolescent athletes were needed to understand more mineral nutrition and exercise.