Hunger games: France withholds high-quality protein from Olympic athletes, pushes plant-based foods

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Screenshot from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday featured a mostly naked man painted in blue performing a song with the backdrop of a drag queen rendition of DaVinci's Last Supper.

The organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics have not provided enough high-protein foods for the athletes attending, and the team from Great Britain has been forced to fly in its own cook, after shortages of chicken and eggs and even the serving of uncooked meat added to the problem of poor food quality.

Andy Anson, the British Olympic Association’s chief executive, told The Times of London that the food in the village “is not adequate” and “a dramatic” improvement is needed.

“British athletes have even taken to bringing back to the village packed lunches for their evening meal. In one of the gastronomic capitals of the world, catering organisers admitted to some supply issues and have promised to rectify the situation,” the Times wrote.

“There are not enough of certain foods: eggs, chicken, certain carbohydrates, and then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to athletes,” Anson said. “They have got to improve it over the next couple of days dramatically.”

“They are saying the Games are more sustainable and there is way more plant-based food but sometimes if you go at peak times it’s challenging to even get a piece of chicken,” said one athlete, who asked to be kept anonymous.

The news of the lack of high-quality food comes as the United Nations and the Paris Climate Agreement has reworked the expectations of the host country to make this year’s Olympics the first-ever “carbon neutral games.”  

Read the story at The Times of London.

93 COMMENTS

  1. I feel bad for the athletes who trained most of their lives for this moment.

    France and the Olympics? Could care less. Let Hamas have them.

  2. Protein protein protein, not plant based food. WEF, Olympics Committee, and the woke crowd strikes again!!!! What a disaster this is turning into!!!

    • Lentils, beans and rice, broccoli, tofu, potatoes, garbanzos, peanuts, almonds, peas, hemp seeds, chia seeds, quinoa, mushrooms, tempeh, are all examples of plant protein.

      • And yet high performance athletes seem to prefer animal sources like eggs and meat

      • Yes but I suspect that to get the amount of protein that a 4oz pc of chicken has, takes a lot of plant based foods. Those foods are filling so I’ll bet that it’s harder to ingest the amount of protein in one sitting that an elite athlete needs.

      • Not all the examples you gave are complete proteins.
        Also, a lot of animal-based proteins simply have more protein per serving.
        I’d have to eat like 5 cups of hemp seeds to get the amount of protein in a single chicken breast. It’s simply more convenient to consume animal-based protein for most people.

        • And it tastes much better……..
          Maybe they should hang a PETA sign up, People Eating Tasty Animals……

  3. You do realize you can get all of your protein requirements from plants, right? The amount of dietary ignorance in this article is staggering.

    • As you stagger around with your new certification of dietary science, do remember that elite athletes are different from you and me, and that they train with very specific diets. The needs of gymnasts are different from the needs of wrestlers. You swap out pea protein for chicken or eggs and it’s going to have a digestion issue for some people. Some may even be allergic to some of the compounds that contain the needed amino acids, and there are many who have nut allergies, so combining plant sources can be adverse for athletes who are used to a different diet. It would also be wrong to suddenly add cayenne to all of their meals, for the same reason. While it’s true that the diets of ancient Greeks and Romans were primarily vegetarian, meat protein has led to bigger and stronger humans — this is indisputable. Now, go back to eating your bugs and your gas-inducing legumes.

      • you are scientifically correct. Radical change in diet is supposed to be a process, not an overnight thing! You cannot force anyone…particularly an Olympic athlete to become a vegetarian right before competition. Makes me wonder what the French Olympic Team eats???

        • Maybe industries should not force feed us their factory farmed animal products through “culture”, relentless ads, school meals and political banning of alternative foods. Why is it such a problem for you to not support the appeasement of slaughterhouses and factory farming?

          • Slow down there Brian, are you implying you are some innocent bystander being force fed by these entities? Really? What you put in your body is your choice and yours alone!
            Sounds to me that you have a problem with free will and choice, not only for yourself but everyone else. You think that everyone should support your demand, but you can not accept other people making different choices. If you want to be vegan or whatever do that, but you have NO RIGHT to force YOUR eating lifestyle on others, especially individuals, who have trained all their lives and are there to compete with other nations on a physical plane. Your politics are unimportant in this venue and I suggest if you believe that you can do better go out and compete yourself!

    • Sure, Inntheory.. As practical matter, for humans at the far end of metabolic needs,it doesn’t work well. Like feeding your ww2era fighter plane fuel wth added ethanol, t all burns, right??? That makes it al! The same right???

      • Can you imagine the incredible fuel leakage and part failures by introducing ethanol into the fuel system of high lead gasoline carbureted aircraft engines? Not to mention the valve train failures. The plant based preachers and climate change idiots are decimating our way of life.

    • Knock your self out, vegan, it figures you would focus on fruits and nuts. Maybe have some ground bug ice cream for dessert.

        • Oh, look, there is already a case of an Olympic athlete going into anaphylactic shock from accidentally ingesting tree nuts just before competing. Probably something she ate at the Olympic Village. But gosh, you cman, all buff and smug, just can’t imagine that anyone would have such a reaction to your Whole Roach diet.

    • cman, obviously someone here runs rich with dietary ignorance! Proteins are not all the same. Plant proteins are incomplete and take longer to absorb than animal proteins which are complete and absorb faster. Why would you expect Olympic athletes to change their diet to incomplete proteins just before they compete. It would take some time to adjust and learn how to make the inferior plant proteins work with a new/different type of diet.

      • I eat between 160 and 180 grams of protein a day, lift weights 5 days a week And I’m in the best shape of my life at 55 years old. I’ve done it all eating a Whole Foods plant-based diet. The idea that you can’t get enough protein eating a plant-based diet is ridiculous. I get all of my essential amino acids in a varied and healthy diet.

        • I have serious issues? I said you focus on fruits and nuts and called you vegan, which you validate here. Appears I left out the all important snowflake. Eat a bug.

        • cman, I am happy to hear that you are so fit and in shape, good for you!

          It seem though that your caloric needs with your weightlifting routine can not compare to the caloric needs of these athletes. Michael Phelps for instance could easily burn through about 12,000 calories per day while training. You would need A LOT of plant based foods to come up with a balanced meal plan to satisfy that need. Animal products are calorie dense and faster to digest than plant based products, as they have less bulk in general.

          It also strikes me that your stated protein intake numbers are high, as the Cleveland clinic recommends 0.8-1.0 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, which would mean that a man weighing 100 kg (220lbs) should consume 80-100 gr of protein a day.

          In the end I find it interesting that you think it acceptable to force these athletes to change their entire diet DURING the event they spent every waking moment training for, so you can proof some point. Sounds more like sabotage to me.

    • Right. Humans require some type of animal fat to be part of their diet. Plant fats are not as efficient. Protein and carbs are good, but fats are for endurance. If you want to suffer from anemia, gastritis, stroke, Crohn’s disease, and Celiac disease, by all means enjoy the veggan diet. Don’t be a Karen and tell the rest of us that we need to follow your flawed logic.

      • Karen Carpenter, the singing voice of an Angel, we miss her so.
        Seward Alaska Rocks 😉

      • I’ve eaten a Whole Foods plant-based diet for 12 years. I’ve lost 60 pounds of fat and gained 12 pounds of muscle. You’re assertions or ludicrous.

        • Follow the sheep. Your body works better by eating meat proteins as your digestive system works better doing. Fats burn faster then veggies. Look at those on meat only diets, they lose weight faster and gain muscle mass quicker. I dont buy your vegan diet story.

          • Follow the sheep? What nonsense are you talking about. Do you even read what you write while you’re writing it? You’re talking like a crazy person. Fats burn faster than veggies? Total gibberish.

            • Have ever watched the tv show alone? The people who do not consume animal protien, because they either are unable to hunt or fish. They generally are the first ones to tap out. Human beings require animal fats and oils to survive.

        • You are missing the point…you can’t accept facts, so it is pointless to even bother eith you. You do you, bless your tiny little heart and arrogant self.

        • So? Not every human operates the same. Just because your body does well doesn’t mean another will. Why do you want everyone to act, think and eat like you? What about freedom of choice? Do you care about freedom or are you too smug arrogant. You talk like a narcissistic freak 100% of the time by the way.

            • Cman…lol…you troll this site constantly, telling everyone your narcissistic views on everything. I read your smug comments daily, narcissistic to the core….lol.

        • Ironic. I went on a “Cro-Magnon” diet.. Lost a boat load of weight. The diet? MEAT and vegetables (bubba burgers and brussel sprouts/green beans/broccoli) . No carbs, no starches. Works great! So.. Your logic is flawed.

        • “I’ve lost 60 pounds of fat and gained 12 pounds of muscle.” That seems to be a longer way of saying “I’ve lost 48 pounds.”

        • “…I’ve lost 60 pounds of fat and gained 12 pounds of muscle. …”
          Numbers without context are meaningless.
          .
          How much did you weigh before you started eating nothing but vegs? Easy to lose weight going veg if you are obese to begin with. And, it takes a small amount of exercise for a morbidly obese person to gain measurable muscle.
          .
          Pony up some useful info there cman. What you provided (anecdotal evidence at best, if not an outright lie) is useless, and proves absolutely nothing.

    • You do realize it takes a much, much larger quantity of food to get all of your protein requirements from plants, right? The amount of dietary ignorance in your statement is staggering.

      • I get 160 to 180 grams of protein per day and eat between 2000 and 2200 calories a day as well during a cut and around 2600 calories a day when bulking. I suggest you learn something about nutrition.

        • You and Bill Clinton have so much in common, it must be nice to hang out at barbecues with you and talk about how ripped you are. On the other hand, studies show that children who are raised vegan have less B-12, vitamin D, bone density, and they were shorter. Anyway, so glad you are leaving more of that wild-caught Alaska salmon and moose for the rest of us. Please continue being yourself.

        • Tofu is one of the more familiar forms of high content vegan protein. You’d need to eat 11-12 cups (5.5-6 pounds) of tofu to get to around 2000-2200 calories and about 125 grams of protein. Most Olympic athletes are consuming far more than 2000-2200 calories a day.

          A cup of tofu and a cup of beef weigh about the same but the calorie and protein content differ radically. While it takes about 11-12 cups (5.5-6 pounds) of tofu to get around 2000-2200 calories and about 125 grams of protein, it only takes less than 4 cups (less than 2 pounds) of beef to get around 2000-2200 calories and almost twice as much protein as 5.5-6 pounds of tofu at 235 grams of protein.

          If athletes weren’t athleting it up they could probably spend all day intaking the volume of food required to athlete it up all day at the highest levels of sport, but then they wouldn’t need to intake up to 10-15% of their body weight on a daily basis to meet the calorie and protein intake required to perform at those levels.

        • “I get 160 to 180 grams of protein per day…”
          No, you do not.
          Calling BS on that one.
          .
          The vegetable considered highest in protein is spinach. It has 2.9g of protein per 100g serving. In order for you to get 160g of protein from vegetables a day, you would have to eat 5.5kg of spinach. If you are eating other veg, the amount required goes up.
          .
          If you are taking in 160+ grams of protein a day, you are supplementing with some protein powder, or other item that you will not find in Whole Foods.

          • And, because I think you might need the assist, 5.5kg is about 12 pounds. Somehow I doubt you eat 12 pounds of anything a day. That is a massive amount of food.

          • I just noticed that you said you get your proteins (somewhere between 160-180gm a day) from plants (original comment), not specifically vegetables. Which, I guess could include things like tofu. (plant based, but technically not a plant. Then again, beef is plant based in the same manner.)
            .
            So, doing the math, if you want to get 170gm of protein from tofu, you would have to eat a kilogram of it. That 2.25 (approx) pounds of tofu a day.
            .
            Not believable, not even realistic.

    • Excuse me, but I am one of those people whose body NEEDS animal based protein! You are obviously not a doctor or trained dietician, so please step off and stop trying to present your OPINIONS as fact.

      • Yeah, you don’t need animal protein nor does anyone else. If you choose to eat it, that’s great. You do you. Just don’t make stupid claims.

        • Cman is now a doctor, dietician, political genius and gifted editorial writer…bwhahahahah! Or maybe just another baby boomer narcissist? Who knew he is right about everything he speaks and thinks of…lol…what a joke…lol…I wish I could laugh at you to your face….lol…that would be hilarious to watch you meltdown…lol 😆 🤣 😄

      • cman gets his info from uninformed bloggers, like the Food Babe and her ilk who just read the summary from a study and ignore all the words they do not understand. More likely, he just reads the headline.

    • Actually cman your particular diet isn’t the end all be all on nutritional science/knowledge here either. Humans are omnivores!

      So let’s turn this around for you.
      You are invited to a prestigious weightlifting competition. You train daily for over a year, you tweak your plant base food intake to maximize your performance. Then you arrive at the venue and you discover that there is nary a lettuce leaf, garbanzo bean or celery stick in sight anywhere. The venue only offers eggs, bacon, dairy and breads. What do you do? Do you acquiesce to your hosts offered food choices, knowing full well that it will cost you the competition, or do you raise objections and demand foods acceptable to your digestive history and plan?
      This is the dilemma these Olympic athletes face and instead of acknowledging their issue, you make it all about you and your political philosophy!
      I suppose expecting a little empathy from you for their plight, would be too much to ask.

    • Enlighten us, cman.
      Exactly how much plant based protein does one have to eat to equal that in a 10 oz. steak? Please how many ounces (pounds actually) of spinach one would have to eat to get the equivalent amount of protein.
      .
      Oh, and because you are such a nutrition expert, I am sure I do not have to say this, but not all proteins are equal. The amino acids that make up proteins vary by product, and those acids are what is really important. But, you already knew that, right?

      • I’ll save cman the trouble, since he is probably out collecting bugs and leafy green vegetables for breakfast. You need 1/4 cup cooked beans, green peas, or tofu to equal 1 ounce of steak. So a 10-ounce steak, you’d need about 2-1/2 cups of legumes, but you have to mix those legumes with rice or wheat/barley/grain to get the complete proteins of the steak. And spinach….oh, an average person would need to eat 12 cups of cooked spinach every day — but also combined with other amino foods to get complete protein. You eat that much spinach and you’ll probably get a kidney stone due to the oxalate levels. It can be done, but it’s not that easy. Then there’s the B12 deficiency aspect…

        Come to think of it, ol’ cman probably is suffering from B12 deficiency. Vegetarians have to watch that carefully. Someone should do a welfare check on the poor guy.

        • More likely, cman is getting all of his info from websites run by influencers. People like the Food Babe, who’s total volume of research consists of reading other websites, and repeating what appeals to her.

  4. Isn’t there any road kill around Paris? Some dead cats or something to feed the needy athletes?
    Veggie burgers, French onion soup, and croissants are so boring.

  5. Wow! The clowns rolled into paris! Anybody want to bet the athletes will sneak out of the “village” to get some real protein? Like sizzling cow?

  6. A friend that was on the 88 & 92 Olympic rowing teams told me the food was terrible at the tennis venue

  7. 1. Deleted all stations, networks who air or support the Olympics
    2. Printed a list of All sponsors and advertisers and will no longer buy or support them
    3. Will no longer buy Moet & Chandon or any product made in France
    4. Just like Anheuser-Busch
    Dylan Mulvaney
    Colin Kaepernick and the NFL
    Anchorage and the Marxist gov.
    They have NOTHING I NEED

  8. A long time ago when I was young, I was a multisport athlete. Because of my high level of activity between training, playing, and practice I burned through calories faster than I could replace them. I required a massive input of protein and carbs daily just to maintain weight. More to bulk up.

    I suppose soy boys who sit most of the day, drink overpriced/overhyped coffee, and only sweat thinking about Trump becoming president can get by on plants and bugs. But not superior athletes.

    If we’re lucky, this woke farce will kill the Olympics.

  9. I tried the veggie diet for quite awhile, but I didn’t have the amount of energy I needed, so I went back to meat, potatoes, fruit and veggies. That combo works for me. Maybe some people can adapt to the veggie diet, but I wasn’t one of them. As for the French insisting on highly tuned athletes suddenly switching their diets, maybe it was just a ploy to win more French medals? lol Really, they can’t be serious. Also plant made to look like meat does not taste like meat.

  10. Why is there an “Olympic food service” at all? Just let the athletes provide their own food. Let everyone eat the diet they choose. Americans have the right to choose animal-based diets. Meanwhile, heart disease remains our leading cause of death. Just like 2+2=4. The Mediterranean diet includes mostly plants and a sparce amount of fish and results in long, healthy life-spans.

    • Yeah not so fast here Wayne, the Mediterranean diet does include lean meats and dairy along with fish. It simply reduces the amounts of these items and has a greater emphasis on vegetables.
      It is also annoying when people make blanket statements like:
      “The Mediterranean diet includes mostly plants and a sparse amount of fish and results in long, healthy life-spans” as it ignores the genetic component to any diet and nutritional adherence to this diet does NOT guarantee a “long healthy life-span”!

      “Although dietary cholesterol was once singled out as a contributor to heart disease, the 2019 science advisory said studies have not generally supported an association between dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular risk.” American Heart Association
      Cholesterol is produced by our bodies and that production is influenced by stress and many other factors. Lipids production and effect are much more complicated that “eat this and live forever”

    • No Wayne; you’re wrong. The leading cause of death in the USA is liberalism. Like letting violent criminals out of prison; like letting violent criminals enter our country freely; like tacitly encouraging drug trafficking across our southern border; pick your poison: You’ll find that mostly liberal policies are behind the aggregate death counts in America.

      The real thrust of this article is that ‘changing the diet of a finely tuned machine’ is a travesty. Anybody that enters this fray and starts preaching the benefits of a plant-based diet is simply missing the point; or willfully ignoring it.

      Bye…🥓🍳🥩🍗

  11. Bet ya a buck, Billie Gates has his paws on the food being served at Olympics:
    Alt-Meat Investor: Gates, a well-known advocate of plant-based food and alternative meat solutions, owns stakes in multiple companies in the space either personally or through his Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Some of the names he directly or indirectly invested in include Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ: BYND) and a handful of private companies including Impossible Foods.
    Bill plus W.E.F. will control the world sooner than later

  12. I think that this issue of changing the foods of the athlete’s diets during the competition without notice is something that should have been discussed in advance of the competition. Any person disrupting his/her diets during strenuous competition could possibly have some adverse effects on the individual. Everyone should have been notified of what was going on. Or, are the athlete’s being used as some “great experiment” by the World Elites????

  13. Pretty sure top athletes at the Olympics bring their own food. They are professionals and know how to counter risks to their performance … like unknown food. As for the countries with ‘tourist Olympians’, the equivalent of Jamaican bobsledders … sure, they probably have to eat the Olympic village insect-based food.

  14. My kinda plant based protein … Cow eats grass in free range pasture and I eat cow, preferably at Club Paris (Anchorage), Double Musky (Girdwood), Channel Club (Sitka) or Turtle Club (Fox)!!!

  15. The Olympics have become vile, degenerate, blasphemous and openly demonic. Pushing vegan diets, without options available to the athletes to decide what is best for them, is in line with the authoritarian methods used to destroy the west. The concepts of personal choices, expressing opinion, and citizens able to vote in confidence that elections are free and fair are gone. Fitting that the Olympics are so politized and tainted that Russian athletes are unable to compete. Most likely an alternative Olympics, like an alternative world trade system will develop.

  16. It had nothing to do with vegetarianism.This was a Dionysus ritual which Marina Abramovic was advisor she is known for symbolic cannibalism.
    As a matter of fact The entire opening was ritual! “Débarrassez-vous de la tête”

  17. Oh and by the way, it was The Feast of Dionysus, not The Last Supper. So you can all chill out a little.

    • So instead of supposedly not insulting Christendom, they managed to insult Muslims and other denizens of countries in which, lewd public displays, drag, transgender and gay are seen as abominations and treated accordingly. Is that any better?
      (I suppose the Last Supper was chosen precisely to avoid that impression, knowing full well that these nations to not take kindly to such affront and make that clear in actions)

      These activists abused this venue to selfishly pushed their own agenda, taking away the focus from the athletes and sporting events. Instead of honoring the communal spirit these games are supposed to portray, it is a good dose of alienation all around! Great job there!

    • At this point the leftist mantra is that people can’t believe their lying eyes, even when it is blatantly obvious. No really Joe Biden is running circles around everyone in the Whitehouse…

      I wonder what it’s like to believe the narrative, or simply parrot it, even when you know the narrative is completely wrong.

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