5 Pro Athletes' Nutrition Tips - And Whether You Should Take Them Seriously
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It’s natural, to some extent, to take a professional athlete’s advice seriously when it comes to health and nutrition. We look up to such figures, sometimes almost to the point of idolizing them, and they excel at what they do, at least in part, because they’re remarkably fit. Thus, we often can’t help hearing fitness tips or health tricks from them and assuming they’re spot on.
As much as this makes a certain sense though, it’s also important to remember all of the conditions professional athletes are operating under that most ordinary people aren’t. For instance, an athlete might have a certain plan for protein and carb consumption, but might also be working out and practicing a sport some six or seven hours each day. Another athlete might have a six-meal-a-day program he or she credits with optimal health - but there might also be a nutrition expert or personal chef planning or preparing those meals.
In other words, we shouldn’t necessarily take pro athletes’ nutrition tips as perfect advice. However, that doesn’t mean some of them aren’t worth considering, which is what we’re doing with five examples below.
1. Roger Federer - Have Some Ice Cream Now And Then
We’ll start with exactly the sort of pro athlete nutritional tidbit that might give you pause. Roger Federer is considered by many to be the single greatest tennis player of all time, and is more remarkable with each passing year as he manages to keep winning at what is, for tennis, an advanced age. Federer is 38 now - once borderline ancient for an active professional tennis player - and he’s pursuing Olympic gold next summer. Clearly, there’s a lot to be said for the devotion to health and fitness that has gotten him to this point.
Among the details he’s revealed about his nutrition routine though is Federer’s devotion to ice cream treats on a regular basis. While he certainly doesn’t claim that ice cream specifically helps his health, he appears to subscribe to the theory that the occasional sweet treat is part of overall balance. There’s some debate over this point, and some would simply suggest that even if sweets in moderation aren’t harmful, they don’t need to be on the men. However, some nutrition experts also suggest that paired with portion control (100-200 calories’ worth), a sweet treat can certainly fit into a balanced diet. The actual benefit, to the extent there is one, is psychological, in that you allow yourself to eat something you really want even if you’re making sacrifices elsewhere.