It’s hard to feel sorry for professional footballers, but 20-odd years on a strict diet would test most of us. Pizza’s off the menu for a start.
But not according to MuscleFood.com, whose specialist pizzas are proving popular with the pros. Simon Mignolet is a fan, his Liverpool team-mates Alberto Moreno and Jose Enrique having tucked in last season, and Connor Wickham and Jack Rodwell
are also on the delivery list. You might think healthy pizzas involve no toppings and taste like cardboard. But you’d be wrong.
“You can lower calories by leaving off the mozzarella, but then it wouldn’t taste great,” says MuscleFood’s Darren Beale. “Instead, we scrapped the traditional
white-flour base, packed with additives, oil and sugar, for a rice-flour alternative fortified with pea protein. Our pizzas contain just one fifth of the carb content, a quarter of the fat and only 600 calories.”
High in protein, they’re best served after the match. “After 90 minutes of intense exercise, muscle glycogen stores are depleted so the body looks to other sources, such as muscle tissue, for fuel,” explains Beale. “This ups your chance of post-match stiffness. A high source of protein can reduce the cannibalisation of your muscle tissue, helping you recover much faster. Plus it’s a nice way to treat yourself.”
Delivered chilled, one 10-inch pizza is £4.95 and a six-pack variety of the seven toppings £22. Just ditch the Haagen-Dazs afterwards.
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