DNA Exclusive: Champions` platter comprises food of `determination` not of supplements

New Delhi: Out of the seven medals that India has won in the Olympic Games, the players who have won six of those come from the villages and poor families of India. All through their childhood, they had a very modest lifestyle with a very simple ‘desi’ diet. Still, they were so powerful that they went on to defeat the top players of the world who have all the modern facilities at their beck and call.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Thursday (August 12) explained how India’s medal winners, despite having little resources, managed to defeat the best players of the world. They made it happen by relying on desi home-cooked food, rather than artificial health supplements.

These players grew up eating home-cooked food. Their families did not even have enough money to buy expensive energy drinks for their children or bring them supplements. Yet they overcame all obstacles that came their way through sheer determination.

In India, a cricketer is selected in the team only when they pass the Yo-Yo test. This is a test done to check the fitness of a player. Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli's Yo-Yo Test score is 19. This is the highest in the team. The average Yo-Yo score of the rest of the players of the cricket team is around 17.

Now let’s see the score of hockey players in this fitness test. According to the strength and conditioning coach of India's women's hockey team, the Yo-Yo score of most of these girls is between 19 and 21. The Yo-Yo score of some players is even 22. That is, the average Yo-Yo score of the players of the women's hockey team is more than the score of the fittest cricketer of India.

It is said that some of the Indian cricketers only eat brown rice, some eat expensive foreign fruits, some drink energy drinks, and some even drink water that is imported and costs from Rs 600 to Rs 36,000 per litre.

On the other hand, these Olympic players who come from poor families, achieve extraordinary things drinking normal water.

The stardom that cricket players enjoy in India is not achieved by the players who won medals in the Olympics. Sports industry in India is worth about Rs 6 thousand crores. This includes sponsorships to players, commercial deals with players, and advertisements in newspapers and on TV. But only cricketers account for 87 percent of this market. That's why you will hardly see any of these Olympic-winning players advertising for big brands on TV.

Energy Drink, Multi-vitamin Pills, Herbal Capsules, Immunity Boosting Products and Probiotic Drinks - all these sound fancy. Companies spend thousands of crores of rupees to sell them and earn enormous profits.

Every year the people of our country spend Rs 30 thousand crore on food supplements and Rs 15 thousand crore on immunity boosters. Whereas, these Olympic heroes have shown that by drinking milk, ghee and eating home-cooked food such as lentils, roti, vegetables and chutney, medals can be won at the highest level of sporting competitions.

It proves that an expensive supplement-rich diet is not what makes champions, but it is their passion and determination which makes them so.