EXCLUSIVE/ Paris Olympics 2024: Chief Nutritionist of Indian Contingent Emphasizes Athletes' Dietary Regimen

We yearn to witness Indian athletes attain glory at the grandest stage of them all and when the desire gets fulfilled we take that as a complete picture, seldom paying heed to the hard work that has bolstered the performance. There are a plethora of factors that contribute to the championing of an athlete. Among the many, a sine qua non is the food intake of the sportsperson. As many athletes engage in taxing physical workouts to build themselves as gladiator, nothing fructifies if they do not follow a proper diet plan. A heavyweight could fall on the floor if his/her body does not contain the required nutrient value. To make sure nothing of the sort happens with the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics, the Indian Olympic Association has brought on board a dedicated team which makes sure athletes' every need regarding nourishment will be met efficiently and effectively.

To delve deep into the subject of athletes' food intake, republicworld.com had an exclusive conversation with the Chief Nutritionist of Indian Contingent at the Paris Olympics, Ms. Aradhana Sharma. We posed several queries in front of Ms Sharma, and she gladly addressed all of them. From explaining her role as the Chief Nutritionist to how the professionals of different sporting disciplines require varied nutritional value, she expressed and elaborated all the pressing queries in great detail.  

Without further ado, here are the excerpts from republicworld.com's conversation with Ms. Aradhana Sharma:

Q. Can you tell us about your role and responsibilities as the chief nutritionist for the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics?

I have in the field of nutrition and exercise, and fitness, I have about 25 years of experience. In India, I've been working for the last 13-plus years. Before that, I was in the US. So yeah, In India I had been working with all the high-performance sports with different organisations. I have worked with Mission Olympic wings, Tata Sports and all, and across almost 20 sports, if not more than that. So, right from Equestrian to water sports to Archery and Shooting. So, now talking about my role as the chief nutritionist for the contingent in the Olympics, it's mostly because you see all of the athletes have their diet plans set already, so it will be more of a supervision kind of thing there when they are in the Olympic village and they are picking up the food what's there. So, it's like more of the supervision. Also at the last moment, if they have any queries, we will just figure out if somebody is not able to eat certain kind of food we can give them certain kind of options and all that. So, last moment, there were no major changes in their diet because we had known about the menu for quite some time. So, it has been shared with all the athletes and the nutritionists who are working, some athletes are working with their own nutritionist, and all part is taken care of. So, it will be more like implementing the plan, whether they are picking the right food or not and fueling themselves well or not. And of course, if there a last-minute issue like a gastric issue or anything comes up, we'll be able to help them pick the right food and what to avoid and not to avoid.

Q. What are the main nutritional goals for the athletes leading up to the Olympics?

We have different sports but the nutritional basics are the same because we all need energy to work. So, the basics are the same but then there are certain power sports you would need to ensure that your protein intake is right there. For the endurance sport, you will have to make sure you are loaded with carbohydrates, at least your carbohydrate intake is good. Similarly, we have skill sports like archery and shooting, which don't need a lot of calories but they need nutrient-dense food. So, the quantity of food, what time they are eating, and what food they are eating. So, it is what, when and how much, that depends on different sports disciplines and according to their energy requirements, their event timings and how much they have been training. Some may train for two hours, some may train for one hour, so depending on that the nutritional goals differ for each athlete and especially when they are into weight-specific sport because some of them would be trying to maintain the weight some of them have to gain a little or loose a little, so based on their requirement, we do tweak here and there.

Q. How do you tailor nutritional plans for athletes in different sports?

We have to take the basic data in account- Age, Height, Weight. Then there is training timing. As I said, some may train once, some may train twice, then another thing that comes in is their body composition, we need to know what is the muscle mass in their body and what is the fat mass. The lean mass and fat mass. So, based on that we decide the tergets for different athletes and according to that then we change the percentage of carbohydrate protein and fat in their diet, and of course, we take care of micro-nutrients as well. So, depending on all this, the basic information, age height, weight, gender, training time, where they are training, and how much they are sweating because hydration also we need to take care of, and their fitness as well as the body weight goal. Based on that we modify the diet for each athlete.

Q. How do you address the dietary restrictions or preferences of athletes from diverse backgrounds?

Restrictions Yes! But when they are into sports, the first thing we tell is, athletes generally are disciplined, because they have discipline for their training, sleeping and all. So, we generally tell them when you come into active sports, when you are performing at that level, elite level, you need to keep the taste buds aside and think. I generally tell them, use your brain for food not your heart. It's not like, I don't like this, and I am not going to eat it. If you use your brain you would know how it is going to affect your performance, and luckily, most of them, at elite level, when they are performing high, most of them understand. Now comes another thing, we are all human after all, there are certain comfort food, and if I want to eat them before my tournament, I'll feel good. We take case by case, I mean if there is something that is not going to harm their performance, if it's a comforting thing for our athletes we let them eat certain food, but certain food like if they want to eat very heavy fried stuff and all that then we are quite equipped with counselling skills. We know, I won't say brainwash, how to make them trust us. Then we kind of strike a deal that okay before competition let's not have it but as soon as you are done with your competition you can have that. Like you know just the comfort that they need to see in it.

Is there a list of cheat meals under your dietary plan?

Yes! Generally, whenever we work with athletes, we generally give them cheat meals depending upon their fitness goals. If somebody has to lose fat in a certain amount of time, then we cannot give them too many cheat meals. So, depending on how the athletes are performing, what is their current fitness goal, what is the target for their fitness and performance, usual is once a week cheat meal, when they are not training on that day, at times we stretch it once in ten days. Sometimes, it's like twice a week, depending. So, totally, it's like tailor-made for every athlete.

Q. Is Samosa a cheat meal as well?

Yes! Because it's Maida, the refined flour, which is the covering of samosa and then it is deep fried. So, these two things, I am not so much against Potato and peas, and anything that goes in the samosa because it has its nutritional value but we cover it with refined flour and we fry it, that's where we go wrong, so, yes that is part of a cheat meal. If somebody wants to have a cheat meal, they like Samosa, we tell them "Okay" once a week when you are not training on your off day, maybe around lunchtime or maybe in your snack time, you can have the cheat meal.

Q. What are some common nutritional challenges athletes face during the Olympics, and how do you address them?

Common nutritional challenge! A couple of things. Once when they travel to a new time zone, they have to adjust to sleep and their digestive system, their whole body process has to adjust according to the time, so that is one thing. For that challenge, what we generally tell, I  tell the athletes before going to the new location and or in Paris in three, three and a half hour difference, so we ask them to shift their meal time here in India by at least one hour, so when they are there it will not be huge, now if they are travelling from India to totally to the US, where there is a gap 10-11 hours, then again we have to see. So, small-small changes we  start making before they travel. That's one challenge, second challenge is, a lot of our athletes are vegetarian, the third is they are very used to homemade food, the Dal Chawal, Roti Rajma, Sabzi, etc.

Q. Being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian, does it make any 

It does not, it's only that if you are vegetarian, we need to vey closely plan your diet and you have to follow it really well. So, it does not matter if a vegetarian or vegan as long as they have a plan in hand. They get almost all the nutrients to their vegetarian diet also. So, that is but that's a challenge for some of the Indian athletes, luckily many of them are not vegetarian but some of them are. Now the good part here in Paris is that they have sustainable, green food and lot of vegetarian and vegan options are available this year for the athletes in their Olympic village menu. So, we won't face so much of that challenge. But there are atheletes who are so used to having rice and chapati, and all that, that we won't be getting there every day. There are certain Indian dishes in the Olympic menu, it's not like every day. So, for that this challenge that why it is always always recommended to prepare yourself beforehand, that if tour familiar food is not available you should be able to eat a different kind of food.

Q. What is the menu like in Olympic village dining facilities

It's a beautiful menu I should say. They have divided the whole meals into four different districts, one is Asian, then French, then Halal and world, so these four districts are there and you will have, I mean what not, it's a huge spread of different kind of meals. So, you will have right from your vegetarian vegan stuff to your seafood and you know a different kind of salad bars and soups and all that. Loads of stuff, I mean I can't even tell all those things but I was so happy to see, it was wow, looking at the menu, it's really good.

There is veg biryani, there is Butter Chicken, there is some cauliflower curry and a Paneer dish. So, these are going to be there, again it's not every day but now and then our athletes are going to get a taste of it.

Q. What efforts are done to ensure our athletes are comfortable with the food provided in Olympic Village?

We started working with the athletes a few months in advance, another thing is there are many athletes who are supported by different organisations they have their own nutritionists. So, as a chief nutritionist, my job was to get everyone on the same page, if someone is already working, we didn't want to interfere with their work. So,  we reached out to those nutritionists and athlete, we provided them with the menu, and requested them to prepare the plan accordingly and guide the athletes accordingly. So, our athletes are well prepared because they know what is going to be available, they have a plan in hand what they need to eat before training or before their event and after event. So, that's the main thing that we did and in couple of places we even, in the sports mess, we even, tried few dishes which are part of the menu, so, that out athletes know how it's going to taste. So, those are the things we have already exercised here to make our athletes comfortable and familiar.

Q. How do you assess that you dietary plan is reaping right results?

To measure there are a few things, one is that the athlete feels recovered after their training and all. We pay a lot of attention to their recovery meal or snack, whichever time it is. We divide it either it has to be a recovery snack or a meal. they should feel recovered when they go for their next training session and they should not be low on energy because of course no matter how good you are being coached, no matter how well you sleep, if you are not feuling your body right, you cannot run any bike or any car on a reserve. If the petrol is in reserve you cannot run it long so fuel is really really important. So, we make sure the energy they are taking in are matching with their energy expenditure. So, one thing is their energy level, second thing is they are not feeling low or they don't have cramps and all that because if they are very dehydrated or not nourished when they start feeling pains and cramps and all that. And the third thing is that they feel well recovered. So, if an athlete is feeling well recovered, that is when a wonderful thing for us, we know whatever we are doing is doing the job at the right place.

Q. Since you have worked closely with these athletes what do you think, who according to you are the favourites for a podium finish?

That's very tricky and won't be a straightforward answer. The first one is the champion we all know, Neeraj Chopra. People want to see him again at the podium. He's been consistently doing well. Athletes see ups and downs in their career but Neeraj Chopra has been consistently doing well. So, he is one of the favourites for the podium finish. Then we have of course, Pv Sindhu, this is her third Olympic, she already has two medals, there are lot of eyes on her. I mean the whole Badminton team, the Badminton players are travelling there. Boxers are there, and this time there is a lot of podium finish hopes put on the shooters also. We have 21, who have qualified. So, these are the poster people I would say.

Q. Your message to the Indian athletes ahead of the start of Paris Olympics?

Do well and Chak De is the word, because we have this time, The sports ministry, the Indian Olympic Association, and the TOPS scheme left no stone unturned and this is the first time, there will be a recovery room for our athletes, first time Indian Olympic Association is sending a whole medical team to assist the athletes. I think they are very well taken care of. They will be more relaxed having their own people around to take care of them. So, the hopes are high, just want to wish the whole team all the best and let's see where we head.

Q. What do you think how many medals can India win at the Paris Olympics?

I won't be commenting a lot on that, as IOA president Dr Usha has also said it can be double digits, we are trying our best. So, let's see, this is sports, nobody can predict exactly how it will be but we are trying our best to do better than the last one.