Dr. Richard Allison became a nutritionist twenty years ago when he left the Royal Marines.
After training to become a registered dietician with the British Dietetic Association, the former Commando’s new career saw him working for huge organisations like Scottish rugby before he moved to Qatar to take up a position at a sports medicine hospital. Six years later, he returned to the UK to take the role of Head of Performance Nutrition at Arsenal.
While at the Gunners, he worked mostly with the men’s first team, with some overlap with the women’s squad, but it wasn’t until the end of 2020 when he started a new role with Herbalife – the official nutrition partners of Tottenham Hotspur Ladies – that he began to focus on female sports nutrition full-time.
With all eyes on the Women’s World Cup – which kicks off in Sydney on Thursday night, there’s never been such interest in women’s football. And, as you’ll see from the insights Dr. Allison shared with Women’s Health, the increase in attention, awareness and funding, will go a long way to bring the industry up to speed with the men’s game.
It’s a money game
‘The biggest differences are definitely related to the resources – the money, the funds – available for the women’s teams, compared with the men’s teams.
‘For instance, with men’s Premier League football, blood tests are done routinely throughout the year. I would be able to ask the team doctor to check a player’s blood, and it’s done there and then, same day results. But, with the women’s team, we’re not quite at that stage yet.
‘They do have blood tests, and we can look for deficiencies in those blood tests, such as iron or vitamin D. But they’re not done as frequently and there has to be a good case to put forward for that blood test to be done.
‘But, with the money generated from broadcasting the WSL games, things like this have definitely started to improve and I am seeing changes and things becoming more readily available, but it all comes down to funding and money.
‘We are definitely seeing a huge, monumental shift in the support for women’s sports, not just football. I have colleagues who work in women’s rugby and they’re seeing the shift in that as well.
‘Just two years ago there was no food service provision for the women’s team at all. So my role and Herbalife’s involvement is another demonstration of how things are moving forward.’
Each player is treated as individual – for a very important reason
‘There is a higher prevalence of diagnosed eating disorders in female sport than there is in male sport, and that’s why we always treat each player as an individual. I’m a clinical dietitian and I specialise in that area, so it’s always at the forefront of my mind. Furthermore, it’s an important part of any sort of dietetic and nutritional strategy.
‘We use body composition analysis as a marker to see if a player is adhering to a training and or nutritional plan, the body composition itself is not the driver. The external pressures on a player are obviously there, but we speak to them to really emphasise that the focus is on performance over everything else, maintaining and fuelling ability on the pitch is key.
‘Obviously we are a little bit more sensitive with players, which we know at a higher risk and more vulnerabilities or triggers, but discussions around their nutrition is solely driven by their performance.’
Supplements are vital for filling the gaps
‘Nutritionally, at Tottenham Hotspur we build the team’s eating plan from real food first and then fill in the gaps with nutritional supplements. The team are very fortunate that they get breakfast and lunch provided at the training ground, and then we have discussions around what their evening meal will look like.
‘Every morning and afternoon, the team can choose what to eat from a huge buffet, and the players are given individual advice on what to choose. Generally, burritos and wraps are very, very popular, and in the colder months, the players love soups.
‘In the buffet, there will always be two different starchy carbohydrates, two different proteins and one vegan protein as well. Pasta is always a popular item and that will be on the menu pretty much all the time, but there will also be quinoa, or bulgur wheat or rice, depending on the menu that we’ve put forward each week.
‘The available dishes mean that they’re going to meet the nutritional requirements in terms of macro and micronutrients as much as possible, but this is when the partnership with Herbalife comes into being very useful. We can fill certain nutritional gaps such as electrolytes and other nutrients and vitamins that are difficult, or impossible, to get in the right quantities from simply eating real foods.
‘We look for high quality protein without increasing additional energy intake, so that usually has to be done through protein supplements, so Herbalife Tri Blend for our vegan athletes, and Rebuild Strength for the non-vegans.
‘From a micronutrient point of view, female athletes’ iron requirements are higher than male athletes, and we also look at calcium, and vitamin D, because you cannot get adequate vitamin D from diet alone – you need sunlight and for six months of the year we don’t have that in the UK.
‘In terms of taking a more performance point of view, as we get into the warm ups, hydration and sweat loss is really important so we use a product called Hydrate, which allows the players to be able to take electrolytes on board with their fluids before they train or play matches.’
New research will change the game
‘There’s a lot of research being done into female sports nutrition and menstrual cycles at the moment, but it can take two or three years for that to come out in the scientific journals.
‘So while we do look at iron, intake and supplementation, it’s not precisely tailored to an individual player’s cycle. Unfortunately, the existing research doesn’t support that at this stage.
‘Sometimes it can be that we are looking for differences that aren’t there, but we need to do the scientific research to be able to say, “actually, there is no difference between the carbohydrate requirements for 90 minutes of football between men and women”.’
Nutrition is different when preparing for a tournament – like the World Cup
‘When we’re looking at a squad as a whole, we take a periodised approach, this is also called fuelling for the work required. So essentially, protein and fat intake remain the same every day, but the carbohydrate intake changes depending on the level of activity. So if it’s a rest day, or recovery day, the carbohydrate availability is low, and then moderate and high, when building up to matches and on game days.
‘The 24 hours before the match are as important or more important than a pre-match meal. We’ll ensure that the players are having adequate amounts of carbohydrates, that they’ve stored carbohydrate in their muscle and liver as glycogen is full. Obviously, they’ll have slept overnight so some of that carbohydrate or glycogen will have been used while they were asleep, so we top it up, typically with fruit.
‘If it’s a lunchtime kick-off, they’re going to have perhaps only one meal between waking and that match. So again, that would be moderate, or high carbohydrate, low fat, moderate protein. And the reason I think it’s important to address this is the reason that it’s low fat is that high fat, or moderate fat meals stay in the stomach for longer, we call that delayed gastric emptying. And at that point, we don’t want players to obviously feel full or bloated before playing football. So it’s a reason to have a lower fat meal.’
Herbalife is a leading health and wellness company with over 40 years’ experience in creating science-backed nutritional products for consumers in more than 90 markets.
