In restaurants there is dog meat, in the Olympic Village there is sushi and fast food. What's on the menu in Pyeongchang

Many ladies who dream of losing weight envy not only the excellent figure of the athletes, but also their mythical ability to eat, as they say, from the belly.

They say they train a lot, which means they can afford any excess. However, this is not at all true. To keep themselves in proper shape, athletes have to limit themselves no less than mere mortals, and some even more.

Firstly, in certain sports - for example, in wrestling or equestrian sports - the athlete's weight is critical. Plus or minus 200 grams, and you’re already in a different weight category. And secondly, even regular intense training does not save either men or women from common weight problems. Our body’s ability to adapt to difficult conditions plays a cruel joke on athletes: they are rebuilt in such a way that not everything they get from food is wasted during intense exercise.

Some athletes generally gain weight steadily because the body gets used to training,” admits Ilona Korstin, a player of the Russian women’s basketball team. - Personally, I try to comply balanced diet: eat a lot of vegetables and fruits - so that there are more vitamins - and more protein.

Protein is a truly essential element in a sports diet. However, most champions place the main emphasis on carbohydrates: they give them a boost of energy for tiring workouts, while protein is the building material for muscles. So the weightlifters lean on the meat and eggs; the rest try to consume more vegetables and whole grain bread, rich in fiber and vitamins.

Some nutritionists say that an athlete’s nutrition is almost the primary factor in his success. At the same time, most do not have a constant, clear diet: the daily menu depends on what kind of load the athlete faces today. Those who are far from big sports can follow this example: by balancing the amount of food with your activity, you can, if not lose weight, then at least maintain a weight that suits you. Eat vegetables and lean meats if you plan to spend the day sitting in the office, but treat yourself to something like ice cream during a walk in the park.

Also, read the labels. Sports diet does not tolerate large amounts of sugar and salt, so experienced Olympians always check all the components of a product before buying it. Try to look more closely: sugar may even be there,

where, it seems, it cannot be, and in fairly decent volumes. Manufacturers especially love to “sweeten” supposedly healthy breakfast cereals: muesli, porridge, cereal, etc. Because of this, many athletes even prefer not to trust manufacturers and cook for themselves: you don’t need to be a chef to soak dry cereal in milk. cereals and add pieces of fresh fruit to them.

In general, you need to pay special attention to breakfast. Not only athletes, but also nutritionists agree with this. There are several studies in this area at once Last year showed that greatest number The human body should receive calories in the morning. Therefore, some athletes even have breakfast twice: a little before training and a lot after. The most common morning dish is porridge from several cereals and yogurt: this way the body receives a sufficient amount of nutrients,

In the program “Time for Lunch!” Joseph Kobzon's wife Nelly Kobzon prepares her favorite home-cooked dishes. And the chef of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Igor Golubev, shares recipes for treats for Olympic guests.

Nelly Kobzon.

press service materials.

Recipes Nelly Kobzon

Soup “Luring Grooms”

Ingredients: 10 pcs frozen porcini mushrooms, 1 sprig of sage, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 parsley root, 100 g butter, 1 tbsp. flour, 2 eggs, 300 g chicken liver, 200 g green pot, 50 g sour cream, ½ lemon, parsley, salt, pepper.

Cooking process: cover the mushrooms with cold water, cook for 30 minutes, then cut into cubes and fry on butter. Dice the onion, carrots and parsley root and sauté. Add mushrooms, roasted vegetables, and sage leaves to the broth. Cook until done, then add chicken liver, cut in half. Salt and pepper.

Beat eggs into flour, boil with boiling water, add salt and mix. Form dumplings with your hands and add them to the almost finished soup. Also add peas and greens. Cook for 5-10 minutes and remove from heat. Serve the soup with sour cream and squeeze a little lemon juice into it.

Chopped herring

Ingredients: 3 herrings, 2 onions, 8 eggs, 300 g of white bread, 50 ml of vinegar, 200 ml of sunflower oil, salt, ground black pepper, ground red pepper.

Cooking process: hard boil the eggs. Cut off the crusts of the bread, chop the crumb and soak in water. Also soak the herring fillets in water. Squeeze out the water and grind the herring with bread, eggs and onions through a meat grinder. Add fragrant sunflower oil, vinegar and pepper to taste. Mix.

Chef's Recipes

Cabbage soup with fresh tomatoes

Ingredients: 400 g beef fillet, 300 g cabbage, 200 g potatoes, 100 g onions, 100 g carrots, 200 g tomatoes, 200 g sour cream, dill, parsley, cilantro, salt, pepper.

Cooking process: cook beef broth, remove the meat and cut into cubes. Chop the cabbage, cut the potatoes, carrots and tomatoes into cubes, finely chop the onion. Put all the ingredients into the boiling broth, add salt and pepper, and cook until tender. At the end add chopped meat and herbs. Serve with sour cream.

Herring rolls a la “Herring under a fur coat”

Ingredients: 400 g lightly salted herring fillet, 200 g boiled beets, 200 g boiled carrots, 100 g onions, 100 g mayonnaise, 100 g sour cream, 10 quail eggs, 100 ml fresh beetroot, 20 pieces of leaf gelatin, 150 ml olive oil, green onions, dill, parsley.

Cooking process: boil quail eggs. Cool, peel and cut into halves.
Cut the herring into thin strips. Cut the boiled vegetables into small cubes, mix with mayonnaise and sour cream. Place herring slices on the film and prepared vegetables on top. Wrap it in a roll and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Soak gelatin in cold water, then add to the heated fresh beetroot, stir and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Stir the mixture every five minutes. Cut the finished jelly into cubes.

Combine dill and parsley with olive oil and grind in a blender until smooth.
Serving: Cut the roll into 2 cm thick pieces and place on the edge of the plate. At the same time, arrange cubes of beet jelly and halves of quail eggs. Garnish the plate with olive oil, chopped herbs and green onions.

Olympic diet

From strict diet to vegetarianism

One cannot underestimate the enormous role that proper nutrition plays in the life of a professional athlete. Just one extra kilogram (or even several hundred grams!) can separate him by seconds, centimeters, points from his cherished victory. Read about how famous Russian athletes limit themselves in food in the material of VTBRussia.

Hockey players often admit that afterward they want to eat more and more fatty foods. Gymnasts are often forced to calculate the amount of food per meal by grams. Genetic predisposition to being overweight or thin, the established level of metabolism, as well as the body's ability to cope with stress and formed habits - all these factors influence the approach to nutrition. There is no universal scheme that would work for absolutely everyone. And the athlete has to more closely monitor his body on his own in order to be in shape. Under the close guidance of sports doctors and nutritionists, of course.

Strict regime of Elena Isinbaeva

Every athlete has his own secret to success proper nutrition depending on the type of sport, the period of preparation and many other factors that are sometimes known only to the athlete’s personal doctor or nutritionist. They have only one thing in common - strict restrictions and deprivations for the sake of a cherished goal. So, according to two-time Olympic champion Elena Isinbaeva, a pole skater must first of all have self-control, there must be full dedication, constant restraint, regimen, control in everything - with nutrition, with sleep. Just like in the army, maybe even tougher towards yourself. Then you can achieve results.

In one of her many interviews, Isinbayeva shared the secret of her nutrition. She doesn't have breakfast, but at lunch she eats whatever she wants. Mainly meat, fish and vegetables. The iron rule is to not eat anything after six in the evening. Sometimes during the day, before the second workout, I can eat chocolate with tea, because the food that is prescribed is not enough. Otherwise everything is very strict. But, according to the athlete, it’s impossible to keep in shape otherwise. At the same time, on vacation, which she always looks forward to, she also does not allow herself to relax. And if you eat a pancake, then, according to Elena Isinbaeva, you then have to run for an hour to burn it extra calories. The Olympic champion is convinced that there is only one way out of this regime - it will be possible to stop limiting yourself only after completing your career.

Injuries change everything

Injuries occur in every athlete's career. This is part of their life and nothing can be done about it. It is natural that during the recovery period the diet changes dramatically - bed rest and gentle training have an effect. It is not surprising that during this time many people gain extra pounds. The fight against excess weight is another challenge for every athlete.

So, for example, gymnast Tatyana Nabieva, who won team gold at the World Championships in 2010, and in 2011 a personal silver award at the World Championships in the uneven bars exercise, was expelled from the team... for being overweight. She did not participate in the Russian Championship, which took place in March 2013 in Penza - she was sent from the training camp to train according to her plan at home.

Nabieva hopelessly tormented herself in the gym in order to overcome the excess weight that had fallen on her after a long treatment of injuries, but did not have time to get in shape for the Olympics in London. She was very worried, and when she watched her friends’ performances on Olympic Games oh, I reproached myself for trading my opportunity to compete at the Olympics for fast food.

To the World Championships artistic gymnastics Nabieva arrived in China already very thin. She herself assessed her form as satisfactory. I just noticed that I need to “dry out a little” - that is, lose weight without losing muscle mass. In VTBRussia, the gymnast noted: “I’m now moving very little away from the competition weight. And I feel comfortable working this way. In general, I seriously tried to lose weight only before the Olympic Games in London, and then it fell into place on its own, and now everything is more or less.”

With the support of VTB Bank, Tatyana Nabieva, together with her teammates Maria Kharenkova, Aliya Mustafina, Daria Spiridonova, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Alla Sosnitskaya, won bronze at the World Championships in the team all-around.

Vegetarians are champions too

Surprisingly, there are a large number of vegetarians among athletes. Although it would seem that a professional athlete needs animal protein in large quantities. But such fantastic athletes as the winner of nine Olympic gold medals, the best athlete of all time Carl Lewis, tennis players Martina Navratilova and the Williams sisters, boxers Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, and even world chess champion Viswanathan Anand, have a different opinion.

Among the famous vegetarian athletes is two-time Olympic biathlon champion Anna Bogaliy-Titovets. In addition to meat, she also does not eat White bread, butter, cakes, chocolate, pasta and potatoes. But the biathlete’s daily diet includes porridge, vegetables, salads, muesli and low-fat dairy products. The athlete’s favorite drink is goat’s milk, which she drinks when she visits her grandmother in the village. Anna Bogaliy-Titovets sometimes thinks that there is nothing tastier than this.

Firstly, in certain sports - for example, in wrestling or equestrian sports - the athlete's weight is critical. Plus or minus 200 grams, and you’re already in a different weight category. And secondly, even regular intense training does not save either men or women from common weight problems. Our body’s ability to adapt to difficult conditions plays a cruel joke on athletes: their metabolism is rearranged in such a way that during intense exercise, not everything that is obtained from food is wasted.

Some athletes generally gain weight steadily because the body gets used to training, he admits player of the Russian women's basketball team Ilona Korstin. - Personally, I try to maintain a balanced diet: eat a lot of vegetables and fruits - so that there are more vitamins - and more protein.

In general, some nutritionists say that an athlete’s nutrition is almost the primary factor in his success. At the same time, most do not have a constant, clear diet: the daily menu depends on what kind of load the athlete faces today. Those who are far from big sports can follow this example: by balancing the amount of food with your activity, you can, if not lose weight, then at least maintain a weight that suits you. Eat vegetables and lean meats if you plan to spend the day sitting in the office, but treat yourself to something like ice cream during a walk in the park.

Also, read the labels. A sports diet does not tolerate large amounts of sugar and salt, so experienced Olympians always check all the components of a product before buying it. Try to take a closer look: sugar can appear even where it seems to be impossible, and in fairly decent volumes. Manufacturers especially love to “sweeten” supposedly healthy breakfast cereals: muesli, porridge, cereal, etc. Because of this, many athletes even prefer not to trust manufacturers, and cook for themselves: you don’t need to be a chef to soak dry oatmeal in milk and add pieces of fresh fruit to them.

In general, you need to pay special attention to breakfast. Not only athletes, but also nutritionists agree with this. Several studies in this area over the past year have shown that the human body should receive the greatest amount of calories in the morning. Therefore, some athletes even have breakfast twice: a little before training and a lot after. The most common morning dish is porridge of several cereals and yogurt: this way the body receives a sufficient amount of nutrients, and the stomach remains full for 5-6 hours.

According to the official Olympic food supplier, 3.5 million meals will be served throughout the Olympics to athletes, coaches and Olympic Village staff. To prepare them they brought to Beijing:

more than 1 million apples,
936 thousand bananas,
312 thousand oranges,
684 thousand carrots,
42 tons of seafood,
118 tons of meat,
17 tons pasta,
61 tons of rice,
265 thousand liters of milk,
400 thousand boxes of oatmeal,
more than 800 thousand eggs.

Marala Charyeva is vice-president of the Organizing Committee of the XXII Winter Olympic Games and XI Winter Paralympic Games 2014 in Sochi. In her book, she describes in detail the mechanisms of functioning of the public catering system and related services of the hospitality industry in the context of major world-class sporting events, and also talks about the lessons that the organizers of Sochi 2014 learned from their activities.

“For the Olympic family, meals were organized on a buffet basis with elements of self-service, including a breakfast menu and a main menu, which offered a wide range of dishes on a 7-day rotation. The best waiters were always present in this VIP area, who tried to serve important and distinguished guests as quickly and cordially as possible.

At the sports facilities of the Coastal Cluster, so-called concessions (in other words, buffets) were open for spectators and athletes, and buffet meals were organized in the recreation areas for athletes and members of official delegations. Each sports venue offered a wide variety of food and beverage options, including barbecue, hot dogs, pies, pizza, sandwiches, waffles, doughnuts, chips, nuts and chocolate. Also on the premises there were cafes, cafeterias, canteens for staff, cafes for the press, catering areas for the Olympic family, and vending machines selling snacks, hot and cold drinks.