‘Loads of milk, paneer, ghee… ’: Sneak peek into diet of India’s vegetarian wrestlers-Sports News , Firstpost

Kolkata: “Ji, apna to din doodh se suru hota hai, doodh pe hi khatam hota hai (My day starts with milk and ends with milk),” says wrestler Mohit Grewal when asked what’s the most essential part of his diet.

For a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, that too a heavyweight category wrestler, the dietary habit of two litres of milk per day won’t come as a surprise. Chatrasaal — the nation’s leading wrestling academy in Delhi and has been home to stars in Sushil Kumar, and Ravi Kumar Dahiya among others — has bred its wrestlers as vegetarians with milk and dairy products essential to their growth.

A further sneak into the dietary requirements of almost all the elite wrestlers reveals dairy products take a large chunk of their meals. In fact, the wrestlers’ — dominantly from the northern belts of India — affinity for milk is deep-rooted as it has been traditionally part of their meal and begins as early as eight-nine years old.

“Before moving from zonal wrestling to the elite level, a basic diet of a wrestler is loads of milk,” leading sports nutritionist Aradhana Sharma tells Firstpost. “It’s like liters of milk every day, which is a very good source of energy for them. Milk is a complete meal in itself because it has protein, carbohydrates, and minerals; everything that a wrestler needs for generating the energy for the heavy contact sport. Even in the old days, wrestlers were generally relying on a lot of milk and curd among other diet habits.”

For somebody who has worked eight years with over 100 Indian wrestlers at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, Aradhana got to take a close view of their eating habits, which had extensive attention to the quality of milk they consume.

“Coming from the rural areas, wrestlers grew up consuming the best quality of milk from the good breed of cows. And to ensure they get the same at the camp, they wouldn’t rely on the canteen to provide it to them and would find the nearby milk vendor for it,” says Aradhana, who currently serves as the chief nutritionist of the Directorate of Sports, Madhya Pradesh.

Not just milk, but other dairy products in paneer, ghee (cottage cheese and clarified butter), along with dry fruits and pulses, are also traditionally added to both genders’ regular diet to build up their muscle for the heavy contact sport.

“A young wrestler normally starts his day by eating fruits before starting their training in the morning,” says coach Mandeep, who has trained Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik. “Being a coach, I generally guide them what to eat but the wrestlers know what to eat and what to avoid. Masala in food, sugar, and anything fried is a strict no. Most of my wrestlers (at his training academy in Rohtak) are vegetarians and in order to build their energy, they consume milk without sugar, ghee, paneer, almonds and almond juice, soybean, kale chane (black chickpeas), and other pulses in their breakfast after the morning training.”

Apart from milk, there’s a special place for ghee among the wrestlers as they consume up to a glass of it in a day.

“Ghee always goes into our food and we often consume a glass of it in a day as well,” says CWG gold medallist Naveen. “We often eat this brown bread halwa and it has a lot of ghee in it. For those who are vegetarians, ghee is a good source of protein for them.”

Are all wrestlers vegetarian?

Expert Aradhna reveals that most of them before joining the camp are vegetarians but many do include egg whites in their diet while some turn to meat consumption for further protein requirements once they take on international wrestling. For some though, eating meat could be a cheat day.

“I mostly depend on a vegetarian diet but sometimes I do consume meat if I feel the urge,” says wrestler Mohit.  “It’s a personal choice and also in cases requirement of a wrestler. Since I am a heavyweight wrestler (125kg) I need a lot of protein so I consume up to four-five egg whites a day. But there are wrestlers in a camp, who won’t even eat eggs because they are sudh sakahari (vegetarians).”

One of the vegetarian wrestlers is CWG bronze medallist Pooja Gehlot, whose attacking game won many hearts in Birmingham.

“Mere se nahi ho pata hai non-veg khana (I can’t eat non-vegetarian food),” says Pooja. “Even during training camps and competitions abroad, I am willing to sleep empty stomach but won’t settle for anything non-veg because I come from a strictly vegetarian family. Plus, milk, paneer, soybean, and other vegetarian food give me all the protein I need.”

Too much of nothing is good

However, the extensive milk and dairy product consumption does have its long-term consequences as a balance in a wrestler’s diet is missing.

“After analysing data of over 100 wrestlers during my time at ASI, the overconsumption of dairy products and almonds for protein, means some of the micro-nutrients are missing as they don’t consume vegetables,” says Aradhna. “In general, if you ask them what did you eat in sabzi they will say ‘Paneer ka sabzi’. There’s nothing against milk consumption, even ghee in moderation is not a problem, and as the result shows it works for our wrestlers. But too much of anything is not good and for the wrestlers, one of many problems is lack of balanced diet.”

The ill effects of the imbalance become apparent when a wrestler calls time on his or her career or goes through a prolonged injury period.

“Till they are doing heavy training and competing, all the calories are getting burnt but when they give up the sports and don’t change their dietary habits, then the impact has been seen in their blood reports. Their triglycerides and cholesterol levels start to go up. Active wrestlers out of action due to injury also face similar issues as they gain weight quickly. In cases, we have also seen stress eating disorder among the injured wrestlers as eating often comforts them,” says Aradhna.

The Wrestling Federation of India also brought in the expert nutritionist to their respective men’s and women’s camps ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last year. However, asking a wrestler to ditch their regular diet habits for a balanced one by an expert is still a task.

“I don’t always find it comfortable to follow the nutritionist at the camp. I make my own arrangement for food from outside as per my requirement. I have a wrestler body, I don’t think a non-wrestler will always understand what a wrestler requires,” says Mohit.

Sports nutritionist Aradhna also said it was not always easy to explain to wrestlers what would be a more balanced diet for their growth but the approach has to be something that makes more sense to the wrestlers.

“It’s important to explain it to them in their own language. Jargons like carb level, and calorie intake won’t make much of sense to them, it’s something my team and I faced at ASI as well as it was too hard to make them ditch their old habits. But sooner many understood the importance and its positive outcomes and followed it,” says Aradhana.

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