Ruth James – The Oxford Sports Nutritionist

Ruth James – The Oxford Sports Performance Nutritionist

Fuel Your Sports Performance

Welcome to my website, I’m Ruth James, Registered Performance Nutritionist & Sports Dietitian working with young athletes and sports people to fuel your success by helping you to eat to be a champion.

The Sports Nutritionist Helping Young Athletes Eat To Win

I am registered dietitian and sports nutritionist giving personalised, evidence-based and up to date nutrition advice to young athletes so that they eat to perform maximally, achieve their goals and become champions.

Food And Nutrition Is Vital For High Performance

As an experienced personal coach and mentor, I work with athletes who are serious about success to ensure their highly personalised nutrition plan is both practical and gets the results my clients deserve.

Optimum Performance Through A Personalised Sports Nutrition Plan

With my daughter a GB rower, I understand the demands and challenges of young athletes and the need to balance nutrition for growth and optimum performance. Following detailed dietary analysis, I can provide you with eating strategies and a clear plan to maximise your performance and prevent nutrient deficiencies, which could hold you back.

Body Composition Analysis For Sporting Success

I am also qualified to give body composition anthropometric measurements to give you detailed and insightful information for sporting success. As a recent Masters graduate, from Oxford Brookes University in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, working with means me you’ll receive cutting-edge, evidence-based sports nutritional information and eating plans.

Working With Your Support Team Towards Your Sporting Success

As a dedicated sports nutritionist, I have a strong track record of working in collaboration with other professionals, both as a clinician and manager, and recognise that engaging with not just you, the athlete but your support team, e.g., your coach and your parents, is critically important to your sporting success. I like to think of myself both as a scientist who has a thorough understanding of the evidence behind sports nutrition and performance, but also as a practitioner, applying this in the real world and to you, the athlete.

A Sports Nutritionist Who Believes In Real Food For Sports Performance

For top sports performance, I advocate having a personalised nutrition plan, which recognises that every athlete is different with different food preferences and that we eat food, not nutrients. The importance to stay clean. Making food cheap to buy and easy to prepare and cook is so important for every busy athlete.

Passionate About The Importance Of Nutrition In Sports

Ever since I qualified as a Dietitian over 20 years ago, and I worked in the NHS first as a clinical dietitian and then as a general NHS Manager, I’ve been passionate about the importance of nutrition in sport. Little was known about the effects of nutrition on sports performance back then.

Proud Mum Of An Elite Rower

My passion for sports nutrition reignited when my daughter, an elite rower, was selected to represent GB. Being a proud mum and wanting to support my daughter’s rowing career, I decided to take a career break and study for an MSc in Sports and Exercise Nutrition at Oxford Brookes University. I have the insight from being a parent and a sports nutritionist of what it takes to support and feed a junior champion.

Now, I work with other elite athletes, write regular sports nutrition articles for publications such as Row 360, the international rowing magazine, and I am an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University.

Working With Ruth James, The Oxford Sports Nutritionist

“Ruth was hugely helpful to my team of rowers in the lead up to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. She took the time to understand our individual needs and provided us with tailored yet flexible nutrition advice. Ruth is extremely personable, knowledgeable, and a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend Ruth to anyone looking for nutrition advice both for individuals and for larger groups.”

– Sophie Paine, Women’s president of the Cambridge University Boat Club

“I started with Ruth as my TASS nutritionist at the beginning at September 2020 soon after being granted my TASS award. Since then I have had three sessions with her helping me to improve and focus on my nutritional side of my performance and how I can go about preparing myself for the Para-Powerlifting World Cup which took place last week. Prior to this event I had lots of questions that I asked Ruth based around nutrition, in which she answered all of them to a high quality and professional standard, giving me advice on how to prepare for the event, what I should and shouldn’t try to avoid etc. I still have two remaining TASS sessions left, both of which I will definitely consider going down the nutrition route again.”

– Tom Smith, 2021 Para Powerlifting World Cup champion

“I have two sons, 19 years old and 17 years old, who are both elite Snowsports athletes, competing at international level. Ruth has analysed their diets over the last year and then provided them with nutritional advice. She has made both boys think carefully about their food and the role that this has in performance. Following this they have made changes to their food choices. In their last season this has been one of the factors responsible for the significant improvement in their consistency of performance and their overall results in competition.We would all highly recommend Ruth for her individual and comprehensive analysis and recommendations.“

– Jane Feneley, B.Vet.Med. MRCVS GPCert(SAS) GPCert(EM&S)

“As a competitive runner blighted by regular illness, I reached out to Ruth to try to fix my nutrition. From start to finish she was excellent. She asked lots of questions when I first called – Ruth was keen to understand all aspects of my lifestyle and my problem and spent a lot of time listening. Then her analysis of my four-day food diary was excellent and comprehensive, exactly what I was looking for. I would recommend Ruth to anyone!”

– James Currah, Princeton University USA

Ruth James has tackled a wide range of sports nutrition related topics in numerous issues of our globally published print publication, ROW 360 magazine. Her regular articles demonstrate a high proficiency and enthusiasm for the subject and continue to be well received by our readers for their both informative and engaging content.

– Ben Tufnell, Editor Row 360

“Ruth is an accomplished sport nutritionist who works hard to help her clients achieve their goals. She is particularly good at translating current research into practical ideas and guidance, both for individuals and for wider audiences through the article that she writes for popular magazines. I regularly invite Ruth to contribute to the teaching of our MSc Applied Sport and Exercise Nutrition students.”

–Dr Charlie Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Exercise & Sports Science, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University.

“Thank you so very much for an excellent talk: We see athletes making adjustments all the time, milk is being drunk, snacks are going in closer to the hard work, & the athletes are just buzzing with all the fabulous tips and ideas you provided. You really did a great job…they loved hearing about your daughter & really appreciate how much you understand the demands on the adolescent rower. Thank you, you have made a real difference to how our squad think about nutrition & fuelling themselves to meet the demands they ask of themselves”

– Robs Juniors Squad Cambridge

“Ruth has provided the centre with excellent nutritional articles covering a wide variety of subjects which are interesting for all to read. Many members actually stop to read these articles which we put on our information notice boards. Many thanks for your help & knowledge.”

– Danny Kavanagh, Fitness Manager & Class Co-Ordinator Fusion Lifestyle Oxford

“My child got inspired by the dieticians talk and now more motivated to keep a food diary “

“Food intake has improved”

“Speaker had experience and knowledge of rowing”

– Audience members of the Cambridge boat club

“Thankyou for being so friendly and for giving such sound advice, It’s been a pleasure to work with you”

– Lizzie Fox, Oxford University Rower

“I have found working with Ruth hugely beneficial the last few months. She has been able to offer me practical ways to address the issues in my diet in a student-athlete environment”

– Arthur Doyle, Cambridge University Rower

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I offer a 20-minute complimentary sports nutrition consultation, where we discuss your needs and requirements. I’ll ask you a few questions like what you are looking to achieve and then explain how I can support you.

To book your 20-minute sports nutrition consultation, send me an email giving your details, and I’ll contact you, usually within 24 hours.

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