Brady gives Leafs food for thought

But New England QB’s healthy diet not everyone’s cup of tea

SAN JOSE— When Tom Brady’s personal chef revealed details of the five-time Super Bowl champion’s dietary habits to Boston.com this week, the information was a curiosity to be mocked by some.

Regular folks made fun of the short list of things Brady eats — 80 per cent vegetables and 20 per cent lean meats — and the long list of things he avoids.

No white flour. No white sugar. Heck, not even white salt (he demands Himalayan pink). And the list went on. No coffee. No fungus. Hardly any tomatoes. No dairy. So, presumably, no salsa and sour cream when pal Donald Trump comes over for taco night.

Certainly it was easy to mock the multimillionaire athlete and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, for employing a chef who described a favourite on the Brady family menu as wilted beet greens over quinoa with garlic toasted in coconut oil.

“That’s just comfort food for them,” said the chef, Allen Campbell. Or, as one of Brady’s 330-pound lineman might call it: Garnish.

Still, for a more fastidious, less corpulent sort of professional athlete, the article wasn’t an object to be spoofed — it amounted to vital intelligence. James van Riemsdyk, the Maple Leafs’ leading scorer, was among those who devoured it with interest.

“It’s no secret why (Brady has) been playing so long at the level he’s at,” van Riemsdyk said.

Sports, as Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly explained, is a copycat business: “When the best guys are doing something, everybody wants to do it.”

Which is not to say Rielly and the handful of teammates who mulled over these matters with a reporter this week were ready to adopt the Patriot quarterback’s regime.

Nazem Kadri, the Toronto centreman, called the diet “a little extreme.” Leafs goaltender James Reimer considered Brady’s list of no-nos and smiled.

“I could probably say I don’t eat some of those things but it wouldn’t be entirely true,” said Reimer. “I’m sure everybody goes for a McDonald’s here and there. Everybody goes for a beer.”

Reimer said he’s a proponent of an everything-in-moderation lifestyle. Still, more than one player said they fully understood why Brady, who is 38 and has spoken of his desire to play deep into his 40s, is so consumed with the nature of his consumables.

“I’ve noticed that as I get older I have to pay more attention to what I eat,” said Joffrey Lupul, the 32-year-old Leafs forward.

Said Reimer, 27: “If you eat really well now, you might get an extra two years on your career. Is that worth it to you? Probably, right?”

For Reimer, eating well has meant paying attention to what works best for his body. He’s found certain unnamed carbohydrates eaten in the morning make for a “lethargic” practice. He avoids those now.

“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have known that,” Reimer said.

For van Riemsdyk, 26, it has meant undergoing tests to determine which foods agree with him and which don’t.

“It turns out I was sensitive to weird things. I think it was cranberries, pineapples and eggs,” van Riemsdyk said.

Eggs had previously been a staple of his workplace breakfasts. After cutting them out for about six months, van Riemsdyk said his sensitivity to them “went pretty much away.”

“Now I don’t have (eggs) all the time, but I’ll have them once a week,” he said.

For Rielly, eating well doesn’t have to mean depriving oneself of the things one loves.

In his case, a cherished recent meal at a Toronto restaurant involved the eating of two pizzas, solo. Professional duty being what it is, mind you, Rielly said he often pairs healthier fare like quinoa and kale in a salad topped with organic chicken and dressing.

“It actually doesn’t taste too bad,” Rielly said. “But if eating a meal is a chore for you, I don’t think it’s good in the long run.”

Hockey players expend enough calories on a daily basis that even their employers — who typically oversee a large portion of their athletes’ intake by supplying preand post-skate meals — seem to encourage an occasional indulgence. This week the Leafs enjoyed post-practice treats from popular chain restaurants In-N-Out Burger and Chipotle.

Brady may or may not have been appalled as the Leafs inhaled the spreads. Then again, as an NFLer, Brady has the luxury of playing just eight regular-season road games a year. The Leafs, currently grinding through a Pacific Coast swing that includes three of their 41road dates, don’t always have the luxury of home-cooked organics hand-selected from the farmer’s market.

“It’s easy to pack on a few pounds quickly on the road,” said Kadri.

Said Rielly, 21: “I might not be able to eat pizza when I’m a bit older, I don’t know. But it’s not like you make the NHL and you can’t have a carb anymore because there are certain people who don’t eat carbs. You’ve got to do what works for you.”

Brady-esque extremism has caught on with some hockey players. Rielly cited David Booth, who played in Toronto last season, as a recent teammate whose diet most closely resembles Brady’s. Rielly recalled being invited over to the Booth residence for an afternoon of football on TV last season.

“Me and JVR went over. I said, ‘Should we eat before we go?’ JVR goes: ‘No, he’s going to cook for us,’ ” Rielly said. “So we got there and I hardly ate anything. Because everything was, like, organically dried crazy stuff. I can’t even tell you what it was. Like, eggplant dried in a dehumidifier or something.”

Rielly said he and his fellow dinner guest had a solution for their teammate’s plant-based hospitality: “Me and JVR went to Hero Burger — after dinner.”

For Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, eating well doesn’t have to mean depriving oneself of the things one loves