Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Centre and Scottish Rite for Children have found that young players face major nutritional risks that could hurt their health, performance, and recovery. Despite these results, many young players aren't going to see sports nutritionists for help, which shows that they're not getting enough care.

The research highlighted the critical importance of nutritional support for young athletes, particularly following surgery. Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UT Southwestern and co-author Dr Henry Ellis said, "Both professional and college athletes know that a healthy, well-balanced diet is essential to their performance and plays a major role in reducing inflammation and muscle loss after an injury." 

However, it's not simple for most younger athletes to get in touch with sports nutritionists who can help them build healthy eating habits, which is crucial after surgery. 

Researchers looked at the nutritional risks for 477 young athletes between the ages of 8 and 18 who had surgery on their lower limbs using the Sports Nutrition Assessment for Consultation (SNAC) survey. There were eight yes/no questions on the SNAC tool, meant to find possible food risks. About two-thirds of the participants (319) named at least one risk factor. 

Of those people, 41.5% wanted more information on nutrition for healing, and 29.8% said they skipped at least one meal daily. These signs are scary, especially since nutrition is essential for both recovery and long-term athletic success. 

64.3% of the people who participated turned down a meeting with a sports chef, even though these risks were common. "This could be because of a number of things," Dr. Ellis said, "such as the belief that athletes should handle their rehabilitation or worries about costs or schedules." However, it shows that doctors need to talk to young patients and teach them how to eat right after surgery. 

The study also suggested that SNAC might be able to find young players who are having problems with disordered eating, which could hurt their recovery and health in general. According to the study, young players face many nutrition-related problems, such as body image pressures, irregular eating patterns, and the dangers of food allergies, weight changes, and stress fractures. 

Dr. Ellis stressed the importance of being proactive and said, "Awareness of this need is the first step to helping young athletes manage nutritional risks for their sport and long-term health." Doctors and nurses could have a big effect on these athletes' recovery and health by starting a conversation and supporting nutritional consultations. 

Dr Sophia Ulman, senior author, is an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at UTSW and director of the Movement Science Laboratory at Scottish Rite. Philip Wilson, M.D., Taylor Morrison, M.S., and Jessica Dabis, P.T., all of whom work at the Scottish Rite Centre for Excellence in Sports Medicine, also contributed to the study.