For Championship Longevity, Eat Like Tom Brady
When you're 43 years old and still quarterbacking teams to Super Bowl wins, well, odds are you aren't filling up on potato chips and soda pop. As any nutritionist will tell you, not even the best training regime can overcome a crummy diet.
That leads us to Tom Brady, 43, and fresh off his seventh Super Bowl victory and tenth appearance overall. Like the rest of us mere mortals, Brady needs to eat. And he credits what he eats -- mostly plant-based foods -- as a large reason for his success.
Brady isn't secretive about his diet either. He actually explains his plan right on his TB12 website. Brady co-founded TB12 "on the belief that everyone can benefit from a smarter, more holistic approach to health and wellness," per the website.
The key to eating like a champion for Brady are the "anti-inflammatory" foods -- berries, broccoli, avocado, mushrooms, grapes, peppers, salmon and even sardines (sans the pizza). Medical experts blame inflammation from everything to achy joints to "brain fog" to certain types of cancer.
Brady manages to avoid those types of physical travesties by starting his day at 6 a.m. with ... a tall drink of water. Or more precisely, a 20 oz. glass of water with electrolytes. That's followed a few hours later with a scoop of plant-based protein powder in almond, flax or coconut milk. Mostly, he stresses the importance of hydration and drinks anywhere from 12 to 25 glasses of water each day.
Brady admitted on his TB12 blog that he does occasionally eat meat and partake in "cheat" meals. But he says he tries to stick to fruits and vegetables and avoid the negative side effects of processed foods. He encourages the idea of shopping on the "outside of the aisles" at the grocery store, where whole foods tend to be found.
Basically, plant-based doesn't mean only fruits and vegetables. It just means those are the focus of the plan.
“Many people have conditioned their bodies to a nutritional regiment made up of lots of white or pale-looking foods—french fries, potato chips, white bread, chicken nuggets—that don’t exist in nature," Brady wrote.
So while Brady doesn't have a plan that limits calories or carbs, he makes wise choices. Clearly, it can be that simple, as any 40-plus championship-winning QB can attest. With that, here are more details on anti-inflammatory diets.