Rethinking Nutrition in Its Role for Performance

It’s hard to argue against the importance of nutrition. Everyone talks about it, coaches, athletes, professionals in high-performance roles, I even see a greater number of nutritionists in roles with teams and high peforming environments. I wonder how many of the leaders in these positions truly take the time to sit with nutrition as a pillar of perfomance, to understand it, or to invest in it properly and support that nutritionist? Too often, nutrition is reduced to meal plans, calories, and numbers, 'send on that plan' as if achieving health or performance is a simple formula to follow, an action to complete. Nutrition is a mindset, a key ingredient to a bigger recipe! An ingredient that helps sustain high performance and overall wellbeing, and, is complex, deeply personal, and shaped by emotions, culture, and daily life.

One of the most common patterns I’ve observed is the tendency to prescribe rather than collaborate. People want clear-cut answers: "What should I eat?" "How many grams of protein?" "How do I lose weight?" But knowing is one thing, doing is another. A simple recommendation like "increase protein at main meals" sounds straightforward, but its implementation varies dramatically from person to person. What fits into one athlete’s routine might be impractical for another, and without understanding the individual, we risk giving advice that doesn’t stick.

Often, not giving the answers but supporting people to find them is the best thing you can do, but the pressure is there to just give the answer. This can lead to short-term success but longer-term frustration, what does the person learn if you just tell them what to do?

Unfortunately, this freedom is an exception rather than the norm. Many brilliant performance nutritionists face the same challenge, constantly battling to establish the value of nutrition within the bigger picture of health and performance. While awareness has grown, we still struggle to fully grasp how nutrition impacts not just physical performance but mental and emotional wellbeing.

At times, due to the perception of nutrition as a tick-box exercise in many teams and organisations, I have seriously considered changing direction in my career or even renaming my professional title so that people might take me more seriously. There are many in power who love the idea of our approach but are unwilling to invest in it. Writing two books, Eat Up, Raise Your Game and Eat Up, The Next Level, has helped capture people’s attention and encourage deeper thinking, but this remains one of the most challenging aspects of what we do.

If you are a doctor, a vet, or a dentist, your role is more easily understood. But what about us performance nutritionists? If I told you that the most consistent feedback we receive as a team is that people feel more confident, energised, and happy, would you believe me? That people tell us we have changed their lives forever, what would you think? This is our experience, time and time again. So what’s the professional title for that? I am still thinking!

Part of the problem is a persistent overemphasis on weight and macro tracking in the nutrition and fitness industry. Not to mention the data on wearable technology and of course supplements! Everywhere you look there is a short cut being marketed to you, a supplement or drink that gives you all you need to be at your best!

While data has its place, it often skips over the crucial middle ground: behaviour change and learning. Nutrition isn’t just about reaching a target weight or hitting a specific carb intake, it’s about understanding how food choices influence energy, recovery, focus, and resilience. Every individual is at a different stage in their journey, and true progress happens when we meet people where they actually are, not where they, or others, think they should be.

If we want to advance how people engage with nutrition, we need to shift the focus from rigid prescription to meaningful education, exploration, and reflection. The real power of nutrition lies in its ability to shape long-term habits, fuel both body and mind, and support sustainable performance in every aspect of life. It’s time to stop thinking about nutrition as a set of rules and start seeing it as a dynamic, evolving process, one that requires patience, curiosity, and a willingness to learn.