Sports Special Edition: Athletes and their strange food fetishes
Athletes are supposed to be the fittest and most healthy people on the planet. However, sometimes they can be known to consume some strange foods. We all have our food fetishes, and we all like to eat some weird things and athletes are no different. The
reason why athletes have to focus so much on what they eat is because their careers and performances depend on keeping their bodies in top shape. Out of shape athletes will not be able to work hard and they will end up losing matches to physically fittest
opponents. Fitness and training are the most important things in an athlete’s life, and the food they consume dictates their level of fitness and how long they can perform on the pitch.
Athletes are those people among us who are in their peak physical conditions. They have to be always healthy and strong in order to compete at the high levels. If normal people with average bodies try to do what athletes did, they would probably pass out.
In the quest to keep their bodies in tip-top shape, athletes have to carefully monitor everything they eat. There are diet plans laid out for them, medical teams measuring and monitoring what they put into their bodies and even their coaches keep an eye on
their dietary intake. Despite the controlled intake of food and immense hygienic measures, at the end of the day athletes are humans, and they sometimes have cravings and food fetishes just like the rest of us. Top sports stars have been known to dabble in
junk food once in a while, consume massive amounts of chocolate and drink alcohol like champions. The difference between average people and athletes is the fact that because their training regimes are so gruelling, they burn off all the extra calories they
consume no matter what form it comes in.
There have been reports of the food consumption of several athletes in the past. Michael Phelps is known to consume 12,000 calories a day. His calorie count is shockingly high because he burns almost three times the amount of energy as compared to a normal
human being during his swimming workouts. He gets his calories from all kinds of sources, pizzas, meat, chicken, burgers and other high-calorie foods. Due to the insanely high amount of calories, he needs to sustain his training regime; he does not really
care where the energy comes from and in what form. There are other athletes with much stranger food habits. It seems Lamar Odom has a serious addiction to candy. It is said that the Los Angeles Lakers player eats the stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner;
that might be an exaggeration but he likes the stuff a lot. It got to a point where coaching staff started to get worried that it might affect his on-court performance.
Rumours abound when it comes to athletes and strange food fetishes. The former wrestler Andre the Giant had love of beer, and despite weighing 500 pounds he could consume unbelievable amounts of the beverage. It was once stated that he drank a whole keg
of beer all by himself. Apparently even one of the best basketball players ever was addicted to Gatorade. Michael Jordan was sponsored by the company but throughout the 90s, the Chicago Bulls star could be seen sitting on benches drinking the stuff by the
gallon. Other athletes have been addicted to eating steaks and even drinking iced tea, as fans continue to see more of them emerge revealing their love for a certain food.
Contrastingly, there is a type of food that nutritionists claim can actually enhance the performance of an athlete if eaten. Raw food is the latest super food to hit the world of sports, and studies by researchers in America have claimed that eating a diet
consisting of 85% raw foods actually help to increase performance in competitions. By eating raw fruits and vegetables as part of their daily diets athletes feel less tired and have more energy during the day. It seems science has shown that cooking foods
releases toxins and carcinogens that our bodies cannot digest, and eating raw food may be better for us, especially for athletes.
The food trends of athletes will keep on entertaining us. However, the good thing is that scientists and nutritionists are doing will keep on innovating new ways to help athletes increase their performance in sports by eating combinations of healthy foods.
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