Michael Phelps fuels his performances with pancakes, chocolate, chips and fried egg sandwiches
August 13, 2008 8:30 PM
In New York breakfast is mostly something that comes two ways. There is the weekday event that is grabbed on the run. You get it at a local deli or a street vendor and it takes the form of a bagel, muffin, egg sandwich or a bewildering variety of pastries. On weekends there is the more leisurely brunch: an omelet, pancakes, bacon and eggs.
Either way, though, the city must have collectively caught its breath when the New York Post revealed just what Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been putting away for his first meal of the day.
Dubbed the ‘Breakfast of Champions’, the tabloid revealed that Phelps eats three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes, fried onions and mayo. Then he has a five egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast and three pancakes with chocolate chips. The total calorie weigh-in: 4,000 calories, or roughly twice what a normal man should eat all day.
Now that is a power breakfast. He consumes another 4,000 calories at lunch and again at dinner. While New Yorkers are worrying about having eggwhite only omelets for brunch or fretting over the new calorie count menus printed next to the muffins at Starbucks, Phelps is not only breaking the rules of healthy-eating, he is tearing them up, flushing them down the loo and composting them.
