Tom Brady on Coca-Cola and Frosted Flakes: 'That's Poison'
Tom Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen. (Photo: Instagram.com/gisele)
A run-of-the-mill post-game radio interview with Tom Brady ended up being a lot more than that, when the Patriots quarterback took a swing at the processed food industry — calling out Coca-Cola and Frosted Flakes, specifically.
Brady’s been known to stick to an extremely healthy diet — avocado “ice cream,” anyone? — but this interview revealed the passion behind his healthy habits. (Also in the interview: Brady defending his partnership with Alex Guerrero, who’s gotten in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission over health claims.)
Check out some highlights from the interview:
On standing up to food companies: “I think we’ve been lied to by a lot of food companies over the years, by a lot of beverage companies over the years. But we still do it! That’s just America, and that’s what we’ve been conditioned to. We believe Frosted Flakes is actually a food. And you just keep eating those things and wondering why we do have incredible rates of disease in our country. And no one thinks it has anything to do with what we put in our body.“
On soda: “You’ll probably go out and drink Coca-Cola and think, oh yeah, that’s no problem, why? Because they pay a lot of money for advertisements. … I totally disagree with that. And when people do that, I think that’s quackery. I think that the fact that they can sell that to kids — that’s poison for kids! But they keep doing it.”
On donuts: “Of course they taste very good. All those companies make lots of money selling those things, they have lots of money to advertise. When you go to the Super Bowl, who are the sponsors? That’s the education we get, that’s what we get brainwashed to believe. That all these things are just normal food groups that you should eat. And these are the things you should take when you get sick. I like to try to avoid those things.”
On the food pyramid: “I disagree with that. I disagree with a lot of things that people tell you to do.”
On his diet: “I try to eat really well, I try to have a clean diet … so that I can play for long periods of time…
There’s a lot of things that are the norm that are very systematic that just don’t work. So much of my diet is based on an acid/alkaline principal. Which does reduce inflammation in my body, and when you’re running around and taking hits, that’s a really positive thing for me.”
On prevention: “So much of what [my business partner Alex Guerrero and I] talk about is prevention. It’s probably a lot different than most of the Western medicine. … In any sport in general, you play the game until you basically get hurt. And then you go to rehab and you try to come back and then you try to play your sport again. And I think so much for me, and so much of what we try to accomplish, with what my regimen is and my methods and my belief system is trying to do things proactively so that you can avoid getting injured.”
On taking a different approach to health: “There’s a lot of things that I see on a daily basis in Western medicine that I think, wow, why would they ever do that? That is crazy, that doesn’t work. That’s just how life is. There’s a lot of things that are the norm, that are very systematic, that just don’t work.
I’ve had doctors with the highest and best education in this country telling me that I wouldn’t be able to play football again. That I would need multiple surgeries on my knee for my staph infection. That I would needed a new ACL, a new MCL. That I wouldn’t be able to play with my kids when I’m older… It’s interesting because, like I’ve said, I’ve chosen a different approach, and that approach works for me.
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