No other quarterback in NFL history has won more Super Bowls (5) and Most Valuable Player awards in a Super Bowl (4) than Tom Brady.
Brady just entered his 18th season in the NFL, 17 of them as a starter. Now age 40, Brady is still playing at an exceptionally high level.
At an age when most NFL quarterbacks would be long-retired and already feeling the debilitating effects of weekly violent collisions for several years, Brady has kept himself in incredible shape.
His notoriously strict diet is one large reason for his impressive durability. In fact, Brady credits his nutrition protocol as a critical factor for why he feels better at age 40 than when he did at 25.
TOM BRADY’S ANTI-INFLAMMATION DIET INCLUDES BONE BROTH
And guess what one of Brady’s top superfoods is? Yup, bone broth. According to this article on EatThis.com glucosamine from bone broth decreases serum CRP (an infamous inflammation biomarker) levels by almost 25 percent. In addition, the amino acids in bone broth such as glycine and proline help fight inflammation. Furthermore, bone broth helps repair your gut lining. And by doing this, the bacteria in your gut are better able to perform anti-inflammatory function.
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is perhaps the biggest key to longevity and living free of pain.
That means avoiding the usual culprits: anything with white flour, added sugar, beer, wheat. It also means, for Brady, having about 80% of your diet coming from organic, low-starch vegetables.
WHEN WATER ALONE ISN’T ENOUGH FOR HYDRATION
Brady’s new book reveals his obsessiveness with staying hydrated. Immediately upon waking up, he drinks about 2 1/2 cups of water. But Brady also mixes in an electrolyte solution (his own branded product). You’re probably already aware of the importance of staying hydrated, but does this mean you, too, should be using electrolytes in your water?
Well, you probably don’t need to replenish as many electrolytes as Brady does unless you yourself exercise at a high intensity. Water alone does not replenish the cells with electric cellular conductors such as sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, which our trillions of cells require to keep us alive. So maybe Brady’s right? Maybe we should all make sure that we’re resupplying our bodies with electrolytes more often.
But guess what’s one of the best ways to supply your cells with electrolytes? That’s right … BONE BROTH.
So it turns out you don’t need to buy a bunch of Tom Brady’s line (TB12) of electrolytes. All you need are some LonoLife bone broth stick packs or K-Cups (or bulk tubs, like this Thai Curry Beef Bone Broth tub).
But we can all be better aware of the importance of hydration, not just with water, but with electrolytes. In fact, Brady claims he drinks up to 25 glasses of water a day. You’ll probably spend half your day in the bathroom if you drink that much water, but many of us need to be reminded to drink more water (and regularly consume bone broth to refuel our cells with electrolytes).
However, one time Brady doesn’t drink water is when he’s eating. He wisely avoids diluting his stomach acids. A tiny sip here and there during a meal is fine. Wait at least an hour or so after eating to drink a full glass of water.
BRADY BILL OF HEALTH: OTHER LESSONS LEARNED
After an intense workout, Brady stresses the importance of refueling the body with protein. He has a protein shake (with his own line of protein powder, of course), with almond milk and perhaps some blueberries and nuts and seeds. Brady makes sure to down a protein shake within 20 minutes after the workout. Brady, in his book, claims that if you wait any longer, your body will use up its own protein (your muscles) to repair the damage from weight lifting.
Twenty minutes sounds a little exaggerated, but we’re not going to argue with Brady because anyone who can best 350-pound monsters half his age probably knows what he’s talking about.
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Brady’s also a stickler with food combining. He doesn’t eat heavy proteins like grass-fed steak with starches. Instead, he combines proteins with vegetables. And as part of his anti-inflammatory diet, Brady avoids nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers). These vegetables may not necessarily contribute to arthritis, but they apparently lack anti-inflammatory properties.
The Tom Brady Bone Broth Diet
Is bone broth the biggest contributor to Brady’s remarkable longevity and success? It’s not the only one, of course. But ever since he started incorporating bone broth into his diet, and following other golden rules of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, this golden boy of the NFL is the poster child for a new paradigm of healthy eating for athletes and armchair quarterbacks alike wanting to stay healthy for the long haul. This new paradigm isn’t really new. We’re just rediscovering that eating traditional foods like bone broth can keep us healthy and functioning at a high level well into our advanced years.
