What's the best diet for an athlete?

I'm thinking about tweaking my diet.

I eat healthily, but noticed today I haven't had real live vegetables for about a week. My standard dinner is often a tin of tune and a can of beans. OK, so i mix oilive oil, turmeric, oregano and rosemary in the tuna... but eve so. This is like convenience wholefood eating.

So I may give the Stone Age eating style another go. I'm naturally inclined that way, and the latest stimulus comes from Dr Loren Cordain - author of The Paleo Diet and co-auhtor of The Paleo Diet for Athletes.

Dr Corain's latest e-newsletter reports

"Athletes use the Paleo Diet while training: As an athlete training for London 2012, Ursula James is following the Paleo Diet with the help of The Paleo Diet Implementation Program. On Ursula's blog she talks about being inspired to hear that Bryan Volpenhein, 3-time Olympian rower and chef, also followed Paleo while training and he felt leaner and recovered quicker. The Paleo Diet for Athletes has helped athletes achieve breakthrough performances, improve endurance, train more intensely, increase muscle mass and leanness, recover more quickly, and eliminate upper respirator y infections. Ursula also shares some the changes she made in her choice of foods, such as a great source for alternative flours like almond meal flour, on her blog."

Naturally I bombed over to Ursula's blog to check this out. "The big push for a change in diet is ultimately athletic performance, but also changing to become a healthy lightweight for rowing", she says. Now that hit home; in running, the quickest way to improve your time is to lose 4lb or so :) . Look how lean our running Gods the Kenyans are.

"Watching Michael Phelps eat so much ‘take away’, junkie-food was unbelievable! That he could perform at such a level eating that! All us athletes should be so lucky. But lightweight rowing requires more attention to have you get your calories." Same for us runners.

So.. let's, see if I can do this...it's basically fruit, veg, lean meat/fish and nuts. No bread, no milk.