The 50-Meter Jungle Diet

In Sherman Chavoor's "The 50-Meter Jungle" he not only submitted his swimmers to countless hours of workouts he gave them a special diet that he expected them to follow to the letter.  When you are swimming 4 to 5 hours a day you need lot's of calories.  I am sure we all read about Michael Phelps reported 8,000 calorie a day meal plan.  Well here is what our Olympic hopefuls ate back in the 60's:

It consists of six meals a day.

First Breakfast (before morning workout)
Large glass of orange juice
Large glass powdered, high-protein, high-caloric preparation mixed with milk.

Second Breakfast (after morning workout)
Three eggs
Three strips of bacon
Large bowl dry or hot cereal
Two slices toast with jame
Large glass of milk

First Lunch (before afternoon workout)
Large glass fruit or vegetable juice
Large glass powdered high-caloric preparation mixed with milk

Second Lunch (after afternoon workout)
Hamburger, pork chop or any meat rich in fat
Cheese, generous helping
At least two vegetables
Potatoes
Large glass of milk

Dinner
Large portion meat, all kinds, preferably fatty
At least two vegetables
Potatoes or rice
Two rolls or three slices of break with butter
Ice cream, cake or pie
Large glass of milk

Mid-Evening Snack
Cookies, as many as desired
Ice cream, generous helping
Large glass of milk

That ain't so bad.  It's almost my diet plan if you replace the milk with wine and if by vegetable you mean ketchup on my french fries which counts as potatoes.  After reading this I do need to drink more milk and less soda.  Starting tomorrow.  When I get my quarter pounder meal I'm getting milk. 

Comments

[jim in LA]

This is so Old School. My college, back in the early 1970s (which also is when this guy was at his peak), used to have "game day" breakfasts for most of its sports teams, including swimming: it included steak and a mountain of eggs. Then, the swimmers would waddle through the snow to the pool. Three days later, of course, we'd finish digesting all that steak, and it probably helped our mid-week workouts. I figure the kids who swam for my college in 1980 were faster by a second on every 100 just because they didn't eat those meals.

Meanwhile, the Arden Hills diet, with all that fat and crap, didn't produce the lard-oohs that you'd expect. I grew up in Sacramento area and used to swim against (against, not with - the best of the Arden Hills kids were faster than me by a mile) them and, as my coach said at the high school section meet, "their kids look like a bunch of men."