THE INCREDIBLE RECOVERY STORY OF HILLARY ALLEN
The broadcast series was hosted by Hank Schultz, Deputy Editor of Nutra Ingredients USA. He kicked-off by chatting with Hillary Allen, Professional Endurance Athlete with The North Face, and one of the best trail runners in the world. Hillary has had her part of serious injury recovery over the last three years after a fall during a race in Norway.
As Hillary vividly shared, it is hard to imagine how one of her fellow runners found her after a fall of 150 feet. It looked as though she had not survived the fall, however, she was alive – with fourteen broken bones. A sport’s doctor advised Hillary to accept that her running days were over, but here athlete’s perseverance kicked in, and she embarked on a long journey of surgeries, physical therapy, hard work and emotional doubts as to whether she still wanted to race. ‘I had to try it,’ she says.
Just eleven months after the accident, she ran a 52k race – and came in second. The journey to full recovery was still not over, as she now had a broken ankle. Through Allen Lim, Sports Physiologist and Cycling Coach, she discovered two silver linings to the accident: the impact of nutrition, and the joy of gravelbiking. Now an endurance athlete in ultrarunning as well as gravelbiking, she says, ‘The accident was one of those things you wish did not happen, but I am sort of glad it did, because I learned so many lessons from it.’
COLLAGEN IS EASY TO USE FOR ALL AGES
As Hillary pointed out in her story, nutrition has a huge impact on recovery. Richard Schell, Nutritional Sales Manager at Rousselot, went on during the broadcast to highlight the critical role of collagen in our bones, skin and tendons. Collagen is one of the more well-known protein supplements. As Richard pointed out, in the last five years the idea of taking protein has evolved. Instead of focusing on protein as a whole, consumers are increasingly realizing that the peptide they need depends on the benefit they are looking for. For example, if you are an athlete wanting less muscle soreness after exercising, collagen could do the job. But as collagen is crucial for our joints and bones, it also helps agers maintain their mobility. According to Richard, in fact, agers will represent the fastest growing market segment in the next ten years. Since peptides are available in all sorts of formats, from powder and ready-to-drinks to bars, they are easy to use for consumers of all ages.
OTHER ASPECTS OF RECOVERY: SLEEP AND PLANT-BASED SOLUTIONS
Hank Schultz en Richard Schell were joined in a panel discussion by Abigail O’Connor, Director of Football Performance Nutrition at the University of Michigan, and Jeremy Appleton, Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs at PLT Health Solutions.
Abigail is daily occupied with what her 120 to 140 college football players eat. While nutrition and nutrition education are her passion, she noted that nutrition is not everything, especially for younger sports people: ‘If I could do one thing for the recovery of my college football athletes, it would be to take their phone’s away after 10 pm, so they could get to sleep.’
Jeremey shared some of his experiences of having worked in the nutrition and supplement industry for 25 years, noting that one of the basic requirements for any high-quality solution, is that it tastes good: ‘If you feel better, you train better.’
WRAPPING IT UP
In sports nutrition, protein is still a champion recovery ingredient, along with antioxidants and glycogen. At the same time, professional and recreational sports people alike are getting more specific and demanding about the benefits they want from their (sports) nutrition supplements. Scientific studies are an important help in this regard. In the Sports & Active Nutrition Summit Q&A session, it was shown that 60% of the audience feel strong science backing for effects is the most influential factor for consumers. Clearly, sports nutrition users are growing not only in numbers, but also in consumers.
Check our web pages on sports nutrition, or read our whitepaper, ‘Growing fitter, stronger and healthier’
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