Industry brief / PN—INSIDER
PN—INSIDER · 19 October 2026

Inside NFL

Sebastian Zorn explains why data and technology matter when performance nutrition has to scale.

This issue is powered by The Performance Nutrition Network

Dear Performance Nutrition Leaders,

A note before we start

Next week’s Issue 100 will be the final edition of PN—INSIDER in its current format, and my final issue as editor.

The final issue will look back across all 100 editions. I’ll also share a downloadable, structured archive that you can give to an LLM and interrogate.

For now, one final regular issue.

This week: Sebastian Zorn on scaling an NFL nutrition department, the latest industry news, and Beet IT’s Pickle It shot.

💡 EXPERT OPINION

Inside the 135-player nutrition problem.

The hardest part of a football nutrition department is not one athlete’s plan. It is making the whole operation scale.

In a new Performance Nutrition Network interview, Sebastian Zorn, head team performance dietitian for the Los Angeles Rams, describes technology as a significant edge in a still-young profession.

His example comes from college football. The smallest playing group he worked with was around 50 athletes; the largest around 135, before coaches and staff were counted. Feeding that population seven days a week, he says, is a “huge, really fun systems problem”.

That scale changes what good practice looks like. Zorn’s master’s work explored online dietary-intake tools that could reduce reporting friction, then combined intake data with DXA, body-composition and performance measures to identify which levers mattered for an individual and what the team needed overall.

He has carried that operating mindset through the Chicago Bears, Illinois, Stanford and now the Rams.

The lesson is practical: technology earns its place when it lowers the burden of data capture and turns information into faster individual decisions and a clearer view of the whole programme.

Connect with Sebastian →
Watch the full interview →

📈NEWS

Have an industry update you’d like to share? Drop us an email → [email protected]

💡PERFORMANCE TECH

Pickle juice has moved from the sideline bottle into a tested single-serve format.

Pickle It is a 70ml vinegar-and-dill shot listed by Beet IT for use when muscle cramp starts.

The published formulation contains 0.6% acetic acid, 266mg sodium and 301mg potassium.

Pickle Shot appears in the official Informed Choice certified-products list. The listed single-shot price is £2.25.

Directions are to take one shot at the onset of cramp, briefly holding it towards the back of the mouth before swallowing.

Explore Form Performance Protein →

Read by teams at…

Written by Dr. Alfie Gordon

Published first to ~1000 performance nutrition leaders at top-flight clubs, federations, WorldTour teams and the sector's brands.

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