Tigers and The Turmeric Co. give it a shot with partnership agreement
The firm becomes the latest nutritionally focused partner of the team after the Tigers bid farewell to Holland & Barrett at the end of last season, ending a 10-year association with the club.
The latest deal sees The Turmeric Co make available its Original Raw Turmeric, Raw Turmeric & Ginger and Raw Turmeric and Beetroot shots, to the team as well as the club supporters.
“With beneficial anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, the turmeric shots are used by our players regularly to enhance recovery and support a healthy immune system,” says Leicester Tigers nutritionist Simon Wallis.
“Turmeric has certainly grown in popularity in recent years, across all sports, and is widely-used.”
The use of botanical based products, particularly by elite level athletes, lends further weight to the case for these ingredients’ effects as a powerful anti-inflammatory remedy and relieve muscle soreness.
English Premier League champions Leicester City partially credited their remarkable title triumph in 2016 to the restorative and performance enhancing properties of the humble beetroot.
The East-Midlands based team detailed how the consumption of this root vegetable coupled with an innovative training regimen created a perfect model for success.
Sports nutrition tie-ins
Sports nutrition businesses like Holland & Barrett and Optimum Nutrition are a natural fit as sponsors to rugby and football teams due to the physical nature of the sports and the need to effectively recover using specially formulated protein powders, creatine and shots amongst other products.
As well as the Tigers, fellow professional rugby club Saracens recently extended its partnership with protein powder specialists Optimum Nutrition until 2022, having been official partners for eight years.
Another Premiership rugby team, the Bristol Bears announced a deal in the Summer with PAS to become the team’s the official performance nutrition partner ahead of the restart of the 2019/20 campaign.
The agreement will see Pro Athlete Supplementation (PAS) supply the Bears squad with a range of products to fuel performance and aid recovery.
PAS support a number of elite teams across the sporting sector, including the British & Irish Lions, the Welsh Rugby Union and Premier league clubs Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Thomas Hal-Robson Kanu, founder of The Turmeric Co, said of the deal with the Tigers, “As a current professional athlete, I understand first-hand the difference that nutrition can make in enhancing athletic performance and maintaining good health.
“This partnership is another exciting and progressive step for everyone at The Turmeric Co. I am looking forward to seeing the impact our range can have on not only on the Leicester Tigers team, but also the supporters who will benefit from the product immensely.”
Turmeric tests
Turmeric and its bioactive compound curcumin have been the subject of much research that suggests the root has a core role in physical benefits that can greatly aid physical performance.
Supplements of curcumin, may reduce pain associated with exercise, and perhaps boost performance, a study said in 2015, which found five grams per day were associated with a reduction in pain associated with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
Likewise a recent paper published in Sports Medicine, looked at the impact of curcumin specifically relating to muscle injury.
Along with tart cherry juice, pomegranate juice, beetroot juice, and watermelon juice, curcumin may “help to reduce symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage and improve muscle function in a variety of populations.”
“Curcumin shows promise as a strategy to blunt the negative effects of damaging exercise, though further information is required in a wider variety of populations,” the study adds.
