Nutritional intake of female dancers: A reflection of eating problems

A 24 hour nutritional survey was conducted on 79 professional female ballet dancers in order to examine the relationship between nutritional intake and eating and anorectic behaviors, measured weight, and menstrual irregularity. Dancers who exhibited anorectic behaviors and had high restrained and bulimic eating scores consumed significantly less protein and fat. Heavier dancers (from −4 to −10% below ideal weight) were found to be consuming fewer calories, exhibiting more dieting behavior, and reporting more menstrual irregularity than thinner dancers (from −11 to −21% below ideal weight). When the dancers with menstrual irregularities were examined as a group, they were found to ingest less protein, iron, and niacin and report more anorectic and dieting behaviors than dancers without menstrual irregularities. These data suggest that concerns about weight are manifested in the nutritional habits of professional ballet dancers and that dancers nearer to ideal weight are more actively engaged in dieting behavior than those who are thinner.