Welcome to the Humans of Nutrition Podcast brought to you by Registered Nutritionists Anna Wheeler and Prof Danielle McCarthy.
Look at Matt Lawson’s CV and you’ll probably see under ‘Work History’ PFA Dietitian, The Football Association; Development Football Head, University of Nottingham; Team GB Dietitian, British Olympic Association. Under ‘Skills & Experience’, you’ll find UEFA Licenced Coach. Get a chance to look in his little black book, and you may see names like Sven Goran Eriksson, Ellen White and Carly Telford, Sophie Bradley and Alex Greenwood (major shout out to England’s women’s football team, past and present!). Talking of which during this episode, Nutrition Talent’s Anna reveals a secret football ambition from her 10-year-old self, and how she was an inadvertent women’s rights campaigner at this tender age – go Anna!
Matt still considers himself a dietitian, first and foremost. Just how did Matt become a top sports dietitian? He jokes that it was primarily because he “failed in (his) bid to be a footballer”! But this early love of sport triggered an interest in how the body works, how what you eat and drink impacts performance, leading him to the world of dietetics.
Matt talks about the common one-way system from dietetics towards clinical work, but he never let go of his true interest in sports and nutrition, choosing to go on to complete an MSc Nutrition with a dissertation in sports, then going on to study at Loughborough University to attain Sports accreditation.
We hear about his early days, the challenges of improving the diet (and by extension performance) of his first football club – faced with a team eating burgers and chips when he first met them, he certainly had his work cut out!
We are reminded that athletes are as human as we are – advice needs to be evidence based and individualised (seems so obvious now, but who considered that the dietary and performance needs of the striker would be different than the defence?!!). And some of these athletes live with diabetes, coeliac disease, IBS, disordered eating behaviours etc. – “they're just normal people at the end of the day”.
There’s a multitude of other topics covered – supplements (banned or otherwise), recreational players and the opportunities to have a positive impact on nutrition and exercise at a grassroots level. Matt welcomes the evolution and developments in sports science, which of course informs his practice, and ends with a wish – to see both England teams win the championships…to be continued!
Listen to the full episode here, or wherever you usually access your podcasts!
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