Introduction
Unlike most adults, children naturally engage in
spontaneous, vigorous physical activity. It is
postulated that this phenomenon represents
more than mere play; rather, it is an essential bio-
logical process that likely plays a key role in the
child’s growth and development (Cooper 1995).
Adequate food intake is essential for a growing
child, perhaps more so for one engaged in physi-
cal training for several hours a day. Research into
the nutritional needs of the young athlete there-
fore needs to be addressed in the wider context of
not just the effects diet may have on perfor-
mance, but also the interactions between nutri-
tional intake, exercise and physiological growth.
In the past, there was a preoccupation with
meeting a child’s nutrient needs, but, there is
now a significant shift in thinking to address con-
cerns with regard to nutritional behaviour
during childhood and its impact on health out-
comes in later life (Lucas 1997).
Although the nutritional requirements and
nutritional habits of top-level adult sport per-
formers have been extensively researched (Burke
& Deakin 1994), there is little information with
regard to the young athlete. This limitation is not
just in the area of youth sport; our knowledge
of the dietary requirements of normal healthy
children is also still very limited. As is the case for
the nutritional needs of the young athlete, recom-
mendations for a child’s nutritional intake are
based mainly on adult requirements. The nutri-
tional preparation of the elite young athlete,
however, raises special problems for the nutri-
tionist and dietician. These physically gifted
youngsters are often highly motivated, and
undergo prolonged strenuous exercise in train-
ing on a daily basis. This period of exercise stress
often coincides with a period of rapid growth, so
there are some real difficulties in making simple
extrapolations from adult data.
Organized sport for youth is characterized
today by increasing rates of participation, at
ever-decreasing initial ages. In Western societies,
youngsters (particularly girls) in their early teens
are likely to have undergone intensive train-
ing and high-level international competition for
several years and this highlights the ‘catch them
young’ philosophy (Rowley 1987). There is a
widely held, although unsubstantiated, belief
that in order to achieve performance success at
senior level, training and competition should
begin before puberty.
As already outlined, the issue of adequate
nutrition with regard to sports performance
must be viewed in light of the physiologi-
cal changes occurring during childhood which
require increased amounts of energy for growth
(Tanner 1989). The challenge for those working
with young athletes is to integrate sports nutri-
tion into the child’s training regimen and to
ensure that the nutritional needs for growth and
development are met (Nelson Steen 1996). As
well as being highly motivated, young athletes
are often easily impressed by their heroes and
will seek to emulate not only their training
programmes but also their dietary habits. This