Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic See the Whole Gluten-Free Thing Differently

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Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic See the Whole Gluten-Free Thing Differently

By Chris Oddo, Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Novak Djokovic believes that to be healthy is to be happy. Rafael Nadal believes the opposite. Who's right?

Photo Source: Chris Levy

Novak Djokovic claims that it has changed his life and career. Rafael Nadal says that like any fad diet, it's good for some and not so good for others. They are good friends off the court (well, depending on who you ask) and fierce rivals off of it, but when it comes to the kitchen, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic might be better off keeping that part of their lives completely separate.

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“It's not a secret,” said Rafael Nadal on Monday after his first-round victory over Ryan Harrison, when asked of the gluten-free diets that seem to be taking the world by storm these days. “And is not only one way to be a good tennis player or to be fit. Not all the players who had success in the history had the same diet or had the same style of play.”

“If you have the gluten-free diet, or have the perfect diet or these kind of things [that are] supposed [to] change [you] or [are] a big sacrifice for you, and that produce you not being happy the rest of the day, not being fresh mentally, because that's a lot of effort for you, better don't do it,” Nadal added.

Nadal, who adores the pasta y gambas that is traditional fare in his home island of Mallorca, and is probably thankful that he doesn't have to give it up, believes that to be happy is to be healthy. Djokovic, who has undergone a strict, well-documented diet transformation that many believe has been the key to his remarkable success since 2011, believes that to be healthy is to be happy.

So, who is right? Or is it to each their own?

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Djokovic, who released “Serve to Win,” a book which touts itself as “a 14-day gluten-free plan for physical and mental excellence,” earlier this summer, wants to share some of the positive experience he's had with changing his diet. It's not about who's right or who is wrong, he says. Instead, it's about being open to new experiences and new perspectives. The quirky, world-beating Serb, who drinks shakes with pea protein concentrate, eats loads of manuka honey and consumes loads of warm water because cold water slows digestion, believes in what he is preaching.

“This particular diet changed my life really in a positive way and affected positively my career and my overall feeling on and off the court,” Djokovic told reporters at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. “So I particularly wanted to share this kind of food regime and this kind of change that affected my life positively with the people, just present them my own experience.”

The six-time Grand Slam champion suffered from a litany of health and breathing related issues before he made the switch to gluten-free, but since then he's been remarkably fit and symptom-free. Still, he doesn't want to tell anybody what to do. He just wants to share what he knows for people who are also searching for answers like he was.

“I am not trying to, through the book, influence somebody's life and tell the people how they should eat or live or maybe, you know, treat their food,” he says.

But if you do listen, or, even better, buy the book, it will make Djokovic happy.

“To hear that somebody reading from my book felt positively,” says Djokovic, “and effected a positive change in their life, is something [that is] really nice to hear.”

Nadal, meanwhile, still isn't buying it. “Now seems like the gluten-free diet is great,” he says. “After three years or four years we will find another thing that will be great, too. Then the gluten-free will not work anymore. So all these kind of things that are news, personally I am not doing. I am happy with the normal diet.”

But feel free, Nadal says, to make the trend your friend. “I don't say is negative,” he says. “I will say everybody's free to do what he wants.”

So, who is right and who is wrong?

Perhaps these two might just want to decide it on the court on the final Monday of the U.S. Open.

If Djokovic wins, buy the book. If Nadal wins, eat whatever you want.