Nutritional and biochemical profile of young practicers of physical activity in the use of nutritional supplementation

Abstract

The indiscriminated use of nutritional supplements has grown and the inadequate use can lead to medical emergence or induction of diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status, eating habits, liver function and renal function of physical exercise practitioners using food supplements. Healthy adults practicing exercise and supplement users participated. Weight and height were measured, body mass index (BMI) was calculated and bioimpedance was used to evaluate body composition. Food ingestion was analyzed by a 24 hours food intake. A multiple choice questionnaire was applied with questions related to supplements use. Transaminases, serum creatinine, serum urea and uric acid were measured. Twenty-seven subjects with 24 ± 3.6 years participated in this study. According to the BMI, 56% were eutrophic, 41% overweight and 4% obese. Most participants had a fat body mass above the recommended average. It can be observed that 66.6% presented a hypoglycemic diet and 88.9% presented hyperproteic diet. It was found that 26% and 18.5% presented values above that recommended for AST and ALT, respectively. Regarding creatinine, 59.2% presented values higher than recommended. All those who presented biochemical alterations had protein intake above the recommended. The consumption of food supplements is abusive by physical activity practitioners, which leads to a mismatch in the consumption of macronutrients. There is a need for new studies to correlate the consumption of nutritional supplements with biochemical alterations, since this has become a common practice.