Background: Nutritional evaluation is necessary in training program for the athletes and general people.
Objective: To determine the effect of different types of activities on nutritional status and to compare the nutritional status in people with four groups of activities: 1) national rowing athletes training using mixed aerobic and anaerobic exercises, 2) national bicycle athletes training using aerobic exercise, 3) regular exercise people, and 4) sedentary activities.
Material and method: 18 cases per group for a total of 72 participants were trained in techniques for accurately recorded dietary patterns by the interviewers. Dietary records were analyzed by using INMUCAL-N (WD 4.4) program. Body composition was measured.
Results: Mean age were 21.89±5.83, 20.71±3.62, 25.05±7.09, and 20.83±2.09 years respectively. The body mass index among groups was not significantly different (mean 21.87±3.56 kg/m(2)). Sex was not different among groups. All participants had no known chronic or cardiovascular diseases. The athlete groups (Groups 1 and 2) had more total energy intake than the others. Group 2 had the highest percentage of fat contribution per day 37.99±6.06% of total energy per day, (p<0.05). The micro-nutrients by recommended daily allowance (RDA) was not adequate in all groups, including vitamin E (VE), Magnesium (Mg), and Selenium (Se), especially group 4 had not enough ferrous (Fe), vitamin B1 (B1), Niacin (B3), and vitamin C (VC).
Conclusion: Several micro-nutrients intakes in all groups did not reach the recommended daily allowance (RDA), especially in females of all group and both sex in the sedentary activities group. The implications of these results for widely propagated sport nutrition are to control the dietary fat intake and increase the intake of fruits and vegetables. We suggest that both education and management of optimum intensity aerobic exercise and controlled dietary fat intake are essential to prevent cardiovascular diseases for the entire population including the training athletes.