The Famous Kenyan Runners Diet: Veggies + No rubbish
The diet of the athletes in Kaptagat, Kenya (the home of many of the world’s fastest marathoners) was a bit of a surprise to us.
Like many aspects of the life of an athlete in rural Kenya, it was simple, frugal and repetitive.
It seems as though so many Western athletes obsess over macros, supplements and exorbitant protein consumption, tailoring their diet to allow a peak performance in training and rapid recovery.
Not so in Kenya, during our month in Kenya we ate with the athletes on multiple occasions; what we observed will be a bit of a surprise to you as well.
The diet is predominantly a whole food plant-based diet.
Most of the food is locally grown, organic, straight from the surrounding farms.
The protein consumption of the athletes is quite low. Most athletes rarely eat meat more than once a fortnight; it is an expensive luxury, especially for the athletes who aren’t under management.
So, what is it that they are mainly eating?
There are several staples which most meals seem to revolve around.
Ugali: made from maize meal, it is cooked in water to form a sort of corn cake. High in starch, very plain flavour.
Managu: a dark leafy green somewhat like spinach.
Eaten after being sautéed in water and some oil normally, however some athletes we spoke to even cooked the leaves in milk!
Cabbage: prepared in a similar way to manage.
Beans: a type of red bean, probably the most protein-rich food that we frequently saw athletes eating (other than milk, eggs and occasional meat).
Bread: the athletes seemed to eat bread quite a lot, as well as chipati (an indian style bread similar to naan).
They would frequently eat plain white bread for breakfast, including immediately after finishing the weekly long run (30/40km).
Rice: frequently combined with beans.
Eggs: often eaten alongside a dish of managu and ugali.
Snacks: the most frequently consumed snacks were fruits such as bananas.
Many athletes also had a daily rendezvous at 5pm to drink a cup of porridge (millet, water and sugar) and hang out as the day was finishing.
Drinks: Water, sodas – occasionally, chai – several times per day (black tea with lots of milk and sugar)
In an average day, the athletes that we were living in close proximity with would rarely consume foods outside the above list.
A couple of the athletes in Eliud’s group (Global Sports Management) would consume electrolyte powders following long runs, however other than this we did not see anyone consuming supplements, protein powders or recovery products.
It could be argued that the reason that a lot of the runners ate this way is because they cannot afford to buy more expensive foods; a lot of them are living on only a couple of dollars per day.
However, when we discussed the topic they insisted that ugali and managu is one of the secret weapons of the Kenyan athletes.
Many people would be alarmed by the simplicity of the dietary regime followed by the athletes, how low the protein content is and how little meat is consumed by the athletes, but with such a large number of elite long-distance athletes subsisting on a very similar formula, it’s hard to argue with the results.
by Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite
