Fabio Capello needs a history lesson. The retired Italian footballer and current manager of England’s seeded – and now soundly defeated – World Cup team banned butter as part of the team’s rigorous training regimen. (1)
Big mistake. Â Â Big, huge mistake.
A study of traditional cultures from around the world as performed by Dr. Weston A. Price in his epic work Nutrition and Physical Degeneration showed that, without exception, a strong correlation exists between diets rich in animal fats, robust health, and elite athletic ability.  Traditional Swiss athletes, for example, were fed bowls of cream before competition.
In Africa, groups that ate lots of fatty meat, organ meats, and fatty fish consistently won athletic competitions. Â Tribes whose diets were largely vegetarian were athletically dominated by the animal fat/meat-eating tribes (or powned as my son would say – tween slang for punished and owned, in case you were wondering).
Mr. Capello apparently recommended that Team England follow a Mediterranean style diet in preparation for World Cup competition. Â While the common people in Ancient Greece may have focused on bread, fruit, and vegetables, the integral parts of a Mediterranean diet, the elite athletes at that time did not eat this way.
In fact, Ancient Olympians ate a mostly meat-based diet, and it wasn’t lean meat either! (2)
Banning butter (and probably fatty meat, cream, and other sources of blood sugar steadying and stamina producing saturated fats) from the diet of England’s World Cup team was truly a very foolish thing for Mr. Capello to do.
Athletes that “carb load” prior to competition have significantly less endurance than athletes that “fat load” prior to athletic events (High Fat Diets Help Athletes Perform, Science News, 1996, 149:18:287).
Given that England’s level of play at the World Cup was consistently less than inspired and definitely lacking in spirit, it is clear that Mr. Capello could have used a crash course in history before issuing his short-sighted diet edict.
You know the old saying that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it? Â In Fabio Capello’s case, England’s flameout at the World Cup illustrates this adage perfectly.
When I do an organized bike ride (30-50 mile) I fat load before I go. Eggs, cream, coconut oil… My hydration of choice is coconut milk cut with water and coconut water. When everyone else is carb'n up at the rest stops, I just add more water to my container.
Sometimes when I see kids on their first long ride with mom and dad, they admonish the kids to eat the bananas, oranges and cookies because they "can't do a long ride like this without lots of carbs for energy".
Stacy, that is so funny! One my kids told me it was spelled "pwned" and I told him that couldn't be right as a "w" can never come after a "p". Ha, ha, will have to tell him. I can hear a "told you so, Mom" coming!
Side note – "powned" is actually from "pwned" which is a typo for "owned". It has been around about 10 years or so, maybe slightly less.
That really explains the lack of energy shown by the Brits.
As somebody who has done an intensive and ongoing study of traditional cooking, I am convinced that the so-called "Mediterranean diet" was never eaten in that area until very modern times. This diet was created by the anti fat forces in the US, based on the propaganda that fat and cholesterol cause heart disease.
I first realized this when I read "The Silver Spoon", a cookbook that had been commissioned by the Italian government to preserve the cooking traditions of Italy. I was astonished to learn that butter and cream played a huge role in traditional Italian cuisine, while there was an incredible range of meat dishes, often using the fattiest cuts. Lard was a favorite fat, used in everything. My study of the European countries in that area showed that everybody prized fat meat,lard,and butter, and ate as much of it as they could get. Every country had a number of traditional sausages stuffed with animal fat as well as meat.
Homer's Iliad, a story that may have been written over 3,000 years ago, describes the meal prepared by the Greek heroes before an important battle. They ate a meal consisting of "Loin of sheep, loin of Goat,and the chine of a fat hog". I might add that these were some of the fattiest cuts available. These were men preparing to fight a hand to hand battle, while wearing heavy bronze armor, knowing their lives would depend on their strength and endurance. And fatty meat is what they chose to prepare for the battle.
Fascinating! I am pro-butter (and anti-butter substitutes) so I'm always eager to read something that doesn't tell me I'm crazy. Not that I am a World Cup caliber athlete that needs that much fat or anything…
I wonder if the USA Team did the same dumb thing? They sure couldn't make it happen on Saturday.