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Not all college football players are excited about eating their vegetables. But Bill Belichick’s North Carolina staff has found ways to make sure their players are.
Through a precise food science that requires chopping vegetables into “micro” pieces, or even sneaking extra grains and vitamins into the batter used to fry chicken, the staff takes every liberty to gain a competitive edge in the lunchroom. UNC’s nutrition, hydration and training strategy has become more critical than ever as the team looks to make a second year jump as each player has a specific strategy put together for them and their biology.
The strategy even includes a contingency plan for when the team is on the road, sometimes in places where access to anything but fast food is limited. Public records show the team spent $129,644.38 at vendors classified as fast food or fast casual during the 2025 season, but chief nutritionist Amber Rinestine-Ressa claimed there was a scientific method behind those transactions.
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North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick looks on from the sidelines during the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, NC on September 1, 2025. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
UNC head football coach Josh Grimes was the New England Patriots executive chef under Belichick from 2018-24. When they came to UNC last year, they recalibrated the nutrition strategy, an NFL-style approach that Belichick says aligns with the fundamentals of Tom Brady’s approach to nutrition.
“In New England, we had a lot of components, and some of Tom’s things were definitely important,” Belichick told Pakinomist Digital.
“In the NFL, we coached a lot of players who were significantly older than our players are here, and so some of the things that Tom did had more application than players who are older. But still fundamentally, good nutrition, good hydration, flexibility in the muscle tissue and so on are basically good things that Tom worked on and that we embrace as well.”
For UNC and its players, the strategy could also have NFL Draft implications.
“When you’re looking at an NFL performance. Everything is important and everything that leads to your performance is important. So prep training nutrition hydration, technique, fundamentals, it’s all connected,” Belichick said of whether he’s previously looked at a college player’s diet and nutrition program when scouting them for the NFL.
Cooking trick game
Director of Nutrition Amber Rhinestine-Ressa and Grimes aim to make food the players will actually eat to keep them eating in the team cafeteria and not out. To do that, they prioritize taste and work in nutrition from there.
“If they won’t change for me, I have to change my approach for each one of them,” Rhinestine-Ressa said.
“We don’t live in a perfect world, and to create buy-in I have to have a little leniency… 80% of our diet we eat great food for us.”
Of the remaining 20%: “Would we rather eat brown rice or a piece of bread? Well, brown rice might have more fiber, but what does our whole day look like? Okay, so maybe we could eat this piece of bread.”
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She admitted that some players have a harder time eating their vegetables than others.
“Some of these kids come in and they see a whole green bean and not a canned green bean and they’re not receptive to that,” she said. “A lot of guys come in here and they have a very small box.”
Once they work out what kind of food the players will eat, then comes the “sneak” games to make it as healthy as possible.
“Anywhere we can manipulate an ingredient to where it tastes good, but they don’t know we do,” Grimes said.
The kitchen micro-dices vegetables into barely perceptible pieces and mixes them in several dishes with quinoa to boost the vitamin value.
The nutrition team even has a way to manipulate the batter to deep-fry things like chicken, Grimes said, through a combination of whole wheat flour and avocado oil.
“We’re kind of using the fried stuff as more strategic, kind of morale. Like we’re trying to keep them happy,” the chef said.
Grimes said he gave the players a suggestion box when he was building the menu, and the first selected suggested dish that came back was Oxtail. Thus, Oksehale has become a recurring favorite in the team cafe, and a critical game of the staff.
Famed Kansas City Chiefs former head dietitian Leslie Bonci used similar strategies when putting together food to keep the Chiefs healthy through the start of the Patrick Mahomes era and their first two Super Bowls in the last decade.
“Hide the health. Start with the familiar and then amplify the nutrition for the intuition in the kitchen,” Bonci told Pakinomist Digital in response to UNC’s strategies.
Cheating game
The university’s credit card statements for Rinestine-Ressa, during the 2025 season and training camp (July 1 to Dec. 4), were obtained by Pakinomist Digital via a public records request.
Of the $129,644.38 spent on fast food or fast casual, the team spent the most money at Al’s Burger Shack, at $15,803.
“Al’s Burgers, they use 90-10 meat with me,” said Rinestine-Ressa, adding that they often bought the burger place for postgame meals last season, for up to 260 people. “So I can influence what they use because we buy it in such large quantities.”
Chick Fil-A was second at $13,092.03.
“Chick Fil-A is only ever done when we’re about to get on a plane, because it’s heavy, they’re about to get on a plane, they’re about to sleep, and we have no activity for the rest of that day. So I don’t really care.”
Jersey Mike’s was third at $12,613.51 and Mission BBQ was fourth at $12,598.52. Other big spending on the statements was made at popular national chains such as Zaxby’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Dave’s Hot Chicken, CAVA and Panera Bread.
Still, there were no transactions for US fast food items McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC or Taco Bell. This is where Rinestine-Ressa draws the line.
“Hell no, those are hard no’s because I can’t manipulate them, I can manipulate anywhere else,” she said.
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As UNC looks to improve on its 4-8 record from 2025, it will lean on the creativity and discipline of its chefs and nutritionists to ensure players are fueled to do their jobs.
