The Falcons, focused on getting better and healthier, enlist a sports nutritionist

As I sit here, still regretting the beer and cheeseburger I had last night, I can certainly tell you there’s a right and a wrong way to gain weight. The Falcons, thankfully, have chosen the right way.

Vaughn McClure’s quality piece on the team’s new sports nutritionist, Marie Spano, who has the team looking for ways to get healthier, and to add pounds in a different way than you or I might. That means cutting out sugar and other blatantly unhealthy food in favor of fruit and, I dunno, dandelion greens? Both Devonta Freeman and Deion Jones alluded to adding muscle and cutting out junk, and I guess we now know who is responsible for driving those efforts.

Here’s Quinn on Spano and the effort:

"We do have a new nutritionist who is helping support the team," Quinn said of Spano. "Honestly, it's a good way for the players even in their own games, is there something they can challenge themselves on to find that edge to get better. Like I've said, marginal gains sometimes are the biggest ones. If you can get 1 percent better today, and then your eating habits are better, then your film study is better ... all those little things, they add up. I'm encouraged by how many guys are really trying to apply lots of way to improve."

Quinn’s got so many mantras going at any one time that it’s hard to keep up with all of them, but besides the “Embrace the Suck,” “getting 1 percent better each day” seems like the one we’ll be most likely to hear all throughout the summer. The Falcons will need to get better and stay healthy to repeat as the NFC’s Super Bowl representative in 2017, and eating better is certainly one potential way to get there.

Go read the full article, and let’s hope we can see the results of this effort when the Falcons take the field.