The top 10 nutrition habits for youth footballers ⚽️

Focus on these areas for success.

Selecting and specifying target behaviours to enable nutritional adherence in male academy footballers

Study Details

This new study aimed to identify the dietary behaviours that enable male academy football players to meet nutritional recommendations 🔍

A challenge that many youth football players fail to achieve 🚨

Dietary behaviours (“habits”) were analysed, selected and ranked by sports nutritionists for their effectiveness 📝

Here are the top 10 habits to focus on ⬇️

Key Findings

1️⃣ Players consume at least three main meals and two snacks per day 🍽️

2️⃣ Players consume at least one portion of carbohydrate per snack and at least three portions per main meal 🍞

3️⃣ Players consume a portion of protein during at least four eating occasions per day 🥩

4️⃣ Players consume five or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day 🥦

5️⃣ Players attend and consume all club meals 🏟️

6️⃣ Players attend all nutrition workshops 🎓

7️⃣ Players routinely prepare, cook, and consume their own snacks and meals from the club recipe app 👨‍🍳

8️⃣ Players have a drink with every meal to prevent thirst 💧

9️⃣ Players increase carbohydrate portion sizes on match days and heavy training days ⚡️

🔟 Players consume club-provided drinks to hydrate during training sessions and matches 🧃

Conclusion

These habits can help development of targeted behavioural interventions to improve dietary practices among male academy footballers 🎯

Supporting growth, development, performance and health 📈

Reference

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s44410-026-00021-1

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