DIETARY AND BIOCHEMICAL INDEXES OF NUTRITIONAL-STATUS IN MALE-ATHLETES AND CONTROLS

To determine whether physical exercise affects biochemical indices of nutritional status, we compared four groups of male athletes (total n = 427) with two control groups (n = 150). Data about their nutrient in take for 1 month were obtained from a 122-item food frequency question naire. An estimate for leisure energy expenditure (EE) was calculated from a 15-item physical activity questionnaire. Athletes were grouped according to their EE (ModEE and HighEE athletes) and weight (light = < 75 kg; heavy = greater-than-or-equal-to 75 kg), and controls accordi ng to their weight. Mean energy intake in ModEE and HighEE athletes wa s 2805-3260 kcal/day. Leisure EE significantly (p < 0.0001) affected e nergy and nutrient intakes. Energy, riboflavin and calcium intakes wer e also higher in heavy subjects (P = 0.0006-0.03). The estimated perce ntage of subjects with deficient dietary intakes, calculated from prob ability analyses, was 0-6, depending on group and nutrient. Erythrocyt e transketolase activation coefficient (E-TKAC) was highest in control s (1.17 +/- 0.0008; p = 0.001). Serum magnesium was highest (p = 0.01) in ModEE athletes (0.85 +/- 0.006 mmol/L). No intergroup differences were found for plasma ascorbic acid, serum zinc or serum ferritin conc entration, whereas blood hemoglobin was lowest (p < 0.001) in HighEE a thletes (149 +/- 0.5 g/L). Ten percent of the control subjects had E-T KAC > 1.24. Percentage of other values outside reference range was 0-4 , depending on group and indicator. Since lowered blood hemoglobin con centration can be explained by hemodilution, we conclude that sports t raining did not have a negative effect on biochemical indices of thiam in, vitamin C, magnesium, iron, or zinc status in Finnish male athlete s.