Sitting in her BYU office, Rachel Higginson overheard a conversation in the hall that she just couldn’t believe. A football player was describing to his friends how he had eaten an entire chocolate cake for dinner the night before and he was feeling sick.
This was too much for the new nutritionist to bear.
“I went outside my office and said, ‘Come on, you have got to come in and talk to me. This is unacceptable. This is not how a Division I athlete is going to eat!’” Higginson told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week. “I pulled him into my office and gave him some tips.”
BYU has come a long way since that encounter in 2006 — both in successes on the field and at the dinner table. Higginson sees a direct link to both.
“I think that is a testament of how far we have come. I don’t think I’d ever hear an athlete say that now,” she said. “That used to be the mentality — just get the calories in. We know now that’s not what you do. The quality of what you are consuming is really going to impact your performance and your recovery.”
The nutrition department, that started with Higginson as the lone dietitian, has grown to five and every athlete at BYU has access to the resources.
The tools
“We have so many different things we can do to help (athletes) customize or individualize their nutrition recommendations,” Higginson said. “We have an in-body scanner. It measures body composition, body fat and inflammatory markers. We do sweat testing to determine how much sodium they will need to consume before, during and after practice, a game or a workout.”
BYU also has a veggie meter.
“This is like a dream for parents. You can actually measure how many fruits and vegetables they are eating,” she said. “Vitamins and minerals found in fruits and vegetables are so important in an athlete’s recovery. We will have athletes that regularly are low in iron and magnesium which you are going to find widely in greens. The more (vegetables) they can include, the better.”
BYU recently added a DEXA Scanner to measure bone density that can detect malnourishment. In all, a visit to the nutrition center is like taking a trip to the mayo clinic without ever leaving campus.
“We take all that information and work with the athlete on an individualized meal plan. We focus on, ‘Let’s count your protein. What is your carb-protein balance?’” Higginson said. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting them to eat. They are so busy and get so caught up in everything that’s going on in their lives that they will skip breakfast. That’s the first goal, let’s just sit down and make sure you take time for breakfast and let’s see how practice goes because now you are fueled.”
Salt for the wound
Higginson also watches BYU athletes’ salt intake.
“I had some athletes after practice every day getting these horrid headaches, and they were drinking water all throughout practice, tons of water, but they weren’t getting enough salt,” she said. “I did the sweat testing and found out these kids were losing so much sodium through their sweat. So, we started supplementing it. Salt is needed for muscle contraction. It’s needed for your body to absorb fluid, and it’s also needed for your brainwaves and any electrical things happening in your body.”
For help, Higginson turns to electrolytes.
“What it does is your body is going to absorb that water and it’s going to be available for use to act like an Uber and deliver nutrients throughout the body or act like a garbage truck and take waste out of the body. That function is very important,” she said. “If an athlete loses 2% of their body weight from sweating, they lose their mental drive and ability of focus.”
Long-term plan
Elevated to associate athletic director of performance nutrition, Higginson, who also teaches Health 201, takes a big-picture approach to an athlete’s health.
“All the food that goes into our fueling station, our nutrition center and everything that we teach them in Health 201 and (through) individual consultations and team talks, everything we are doing, we are helping to build a foundation where they can live healthy lives,” she said. “Not all of them are going to go pro. When they leave BYU, we want them to be able to maintain those healthy habits and have a healthy lifestyle.”
South Dakota start
BYU’s road to healthier eating can be traced to Rapid City, South Dakota. Bob Higginson managed his father’s sporting goods store. One morning, two Latter-day Saint missionaries walked in looking to buy some tennis balls. He thought it was strange that they both had the same first name — Elder.
One of those Elders was a BYU football player named Vai Sikahema.
“My dad told them, ‘I’ve never met two guys named Elder?” Rachel recalled. “Vai thought he was being cheeky so he said something like, ‘If you had any sense you would listen to what we have to say.’”
Bob listened and invited the missionaries back a few days later.
“My mom (Jackie) got real nervous and said, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with this,’” said Rachel. “So, dad secretly started taking the discussions at the store.”
A series of 6 a.m. meetings in the back of Du-Ell Sporting Goods — behind the baseball bats, football jerseys and yes, tennis balls, with the two guys named “Elder” helped Bob to make the decision to get baptized.
“My dad fasted and prayed all day, saying, ‘I want my wife and daughters (Rachel and Erin) to see me get baptized,’” said Rachel, who was 3 years old at the time. “It is one of my very first memories. I remember holding my mom’s hand, running down the hallway and we walked in just as my dad was getting baptized.”
Bob later baptized all three of them. Rachel and Erin graduated from BYU and Rachel now plays a key role in keeping athletes, like Sikahema, healthy and on the field.
“Vai had this promising career, and he put everything aside to serve a mission and that decision had a lasting impact on our family,” Rachel said. “We have a son serving a mission in Japan and it’s been really hard. I walk past his room every day and I want him to come home so bad, but I also want him to be there. We keep telling him, ‘Tyler, you have got to find that person that you are there for, just like Vai was (for us).’”
In a text message from his current church assignment in Africa, Elder Sikahema, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “My greatest contribution to BYU sports is Rachel — the BYU sports nutritionist.”
Higginson’s 3 steps to better nutrition
- Eat regular meals, every three to four hours. By doing that it increases your metabolism and helps prevent overeating.
- Get adequate protein at each meal. I calculate protein needs and divide that by at least three and up to four meals a day. That’s going to help you feel satisfied at meals.
- Eat more whole foods. Eat less processed foods and more fruit and vegetables. With the athletes, we have green smoothies, so spinach and kale are pretty much a staple in a lot of their diets.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.