Our special "anti-inflammatory" diet

Chipotle Le Burrito party Pau rest day For years bike racers have lived on pasta as their primary source of carbohydrates. Jonathan Vaughters has often said that he’ll never eat pasta again as long as he lives! At least the over-cooked pasta that is served in most of the race hotels around the world, the exception being the hotels at the Giro.

At this year’s Tour de France, we decided to make a change for our riders. Instead of having pasta and bread every night for dinner we asked our chef, Willy, to prepare rice. And we are giving the riders rice cakes and corn cakes instead of bread. Why? I believe that the high amounts of wheat products that are normally consumed by bike racers at the Tour have an inflammatory effect in the body. I believe that most people have either an overt allergy to wheat products (as Julian Dean demonstrates) or at least a sub-symptomatic inflammatory response to wheat products.

At the Tour de France, one of the biggest goals is to maintain as low a state of inflammation as possible. The amount of inflammation that the riders bodies accumulate during the day is so high that any little bit of help we can give them, and this includes dietary modifications, is essential.

So, our guys are eating very little wheat products (bread, pasta) and also very little red meat (which also has a pro-inflammatory effect on the body). Most of the meals consist of oats (Willy’s porridge in the mornings!), and in the evenings the guys are eating a lot of chicken, turkey and fish.

Yes, they’ve had a couple meals of pasta and red meat. We do need to give them a bit of variety, but the rule has been rice, oats, chicken, fish and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables! Even the foods that we give them on the bike are rice based.

There’s a bit of insight into what the guys are eating here at the Tour.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 3:47 am and is filed under Garmin Web Site, Home Page, Injured Reserves, Technology and Training and tagged with , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

  • http://www.highlonesomeplains.com ChrisB.

    Awesome! This is so great to read. I have a five year old daughter who serves as the “wheat police” at our house. She and mom are almost completely “wheat-free,” while I’m still a sucker for sprouted grain bread.

    If by chance there’s any cyclists left who love pasta, brown rice pasta can be pretty damn good, just as long as it’s rinsed well. My little wheat policewoman loves it. Note that she’s also a big fan of eggs and long grain brown rice. I’m pretty sure she’s not related in any way to Alan.

    -Chris

  • HopmasterSJ

    Re: Fish

    Are you concerned about mercury/PCB content in fish or do you stick to farm raised, etc…?

    Thanks

  • Marsha

    any chance you’ll share some recipes on the web site?

  • Don Carpenter

    How about a few recipes from Chef Willy.

    Thanks

  • Jennifer

    This is fascinating. I have Crohn’s disease/inflammatory bowel disease so I sort of follow a similar path with my diet, although I can’t eat whole grains/fiber, so oats and most fresh fruits and veggies are out. I’ve come to love rice pasta and I had to cut red meat out of my diet entirely because it irritated my digestive system.

  • HopmasterSJ

    I wonder of the rider’s food hovers toward bland – flatulence in the peloton does not sound fun, but maybe effective.

  • Arnold

    Me too on the recipe request. Gotta try the brown rice pasta.

  • http://www.patwoodsart.com Pat Woods

    No Cilantro Lime Rice? Maybe I eat too much of it myself.

    I saw in an earlier posting that you guys use Sushi rice, any other kinds of rice you might use?

  • Steven

    Is that a Chipotle Borrito their eating?

  • http://pams-part.blogspot.com Pam

    I hope there will be a book/cookbook. This is good information for those of us who don’t want to medicate but use food and exercise for optimum health.

  • chad

    “The Caveman Diet” by tracy jones, and “The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance”, co-authored by Joe Friel, both discuss the details about anti-inflammatory foods. try omega-3 (a.k.a. fish oil) supplements, which have an anti-inflammatory effect. Since cutting out pasta and grains from my diet (or drastically limiting them), and taking omega-3 supplements, my incidence of asthma (basically an inflammation of the airways) has been seriously reduced. big difference for me racing bikes in TX where we experience drastic temperature changes (except for the summer when it is always hot). not any more.

  • http://www.crca.net;www.trilife.org David Jordan

    Totally agree, reduce inflammation/allergic response from food and environment. Get yourself blood tested for allergies.

  • Joel Mailly

    I have been gluten free for almost a year now, and I’ve noticed a significant difference in my health and aerobic endurance ability. Yeah, it’s a little more difficult to go out to eat and find snacks, but the little sacrifice is worth it. My Cholesterol went down to 140 and I’m healthier than ever! I love to bike, I ride 5-6 times a week and I never feel bad afterwards! I was so happy to see this article come out so I can show my friends that I’m not the only crazy person not eating wheat anymore! Now the best pro cycling team in the world has stopped too! Thanks for the affirmation guys! Ride strong and safe!

  • ZiaBoulder

    Have you looked into quinoa pasta? It is great and nutritionally more sound than even brown rice. Just an idea and would love to see you guys again in Silver City.

  • Pingback: Go Gluten Free | dansheets.net

  • JamisCycler

    Being allergic to Gluten and an avid rider I have been eating Tinkanyada Pasta for years, and it is one of few that taste great and the texture doesnt send you into shock! There are some good products out there, as well as recipes……It is amazing how many companies are now making Gluten Free products. If you can get your hands on it, try Udi’s Gluten free Sandwich bread as well.

  • Pingback: Why I’m Gluten Free (Plus Tips and Tricks for Eating G-Free) « in training

  • Melinda

    This diet reeally works!

  • Melinda

    This diet reeally works!

  • Bev

    Oatmeal (if that is what you are using) contains gluten unless the packaging specifically states that the oats are gluten-free.

  • Bev

    Oatmeal (if that is what you are using) contains gluten unless the packaging specifically states that the oats are gluten-free.

  • Anonymous

    I never had any idea that bike riding for a professional level can be so hard when it comes to keeping a diet. Your article made me realize a lot of things likeL I never want to be a professional biker:)) Nice article.

  • OneChanceOneLife

    I never had any idea that bike riding for a professional level can be so hard when it comes to keeping a diet. Your article made me realize a lot of things likeL I never want to be a professional biker:)) Nice article.

  • Brian Damage

    Can you define what you mean by inflammation.

    Also, did the diet change make any difference to the performance of the team as a whole?

  • Barb Verson

    This year they have added The Gluten Free Bistro (www.theglutenfreebistro.com) to the menu. The guys are back to eating gluten free pizza and pasta. Love it!

  • Barb Verson

    This year they have added The Gluten Free Bistro (www.theglutenfreebistro.com) to the menu. The guys are back to eating gluten free pizza and pasta. Love it!