Novak Djokovic won his fifth Australian Open on Sunday, yet just a few short years ago his career was headed due south. That changed after he made radical lifestyle changes in 2010, including a gluten-free diet. It is one of key ingredients in the “magic” that has transformed Djokovic’s health in body and mind – and his tennis. Here’s a look at the gluten-free magic and other lifestyle changes that have made him arguably the greatest tennis player of all time. – MS
By Marika Sboros
Picture: FACEBOOK
You don’t have to know much about tennis to love watching Novak Djokovic on court. The athleticism, speed, and skill of the World Number 1 in action are mesmerising.
Djokovic, 27, claimed his fifth Australian Open title in Melbourne on Sunday – his eighth Grand Slam win that ties him with a group including Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall. It is his 49th career tournament title overall.
It’s hard to believe Djokovic’s career was in precipitous decline just a few years ago. His on-court performance was inconsistent, punctuated by mid-match collapses; he was plagued by non-specific ailments that included chronic fatigue, chest pains, stomach spasms and breathing difficulties diagnosed as sports-induced asthma.
Back home in Serbia in 2010, Djokovic consulted nutrition specialist Dr Igor Cetojevic who diagnosed gluten intolerance and overhauled his diet. Cetojevic told Djokovic to reduce sugar, and stop eating dairy and all foods containing gluten – a gluey protein composite found in wheat and related grains, including barley and rye.
Cutting out gluten wasn’t easy for Djokovic. It is in bread and pasta that are staples of the Serbian diet, and other foods. It’s also in pizza, one of Djokovic’s favourite foods. It didn’t help that his parents ran a popular pizza restaurant in Serbia. His family now runs a chain of gluten-free restaurants in Serbia appropriately called “Novak”.
Game-changer
Djokovic was desperate enough to follow doctor’s orders to the letter. Results were a game-changer practically overnight, transforming his health in body and mind, and of course his tennis.
Aches and pain vanished. He started sleeping better, he felt more mentally alert, his energy levels soared. Within a year, he became the World Number 1. He has stayed at that lofty height ever since 2011, except for a short stint as Number 2 in 2014, after Swiss champion Roger Federer dethroned him.
In Serve to Win, the book he wrote documenting his remarkable journey, he says that path has involved learning to “listen” to his body.
“Once I did everything changed,” he writes. “You could call it magic. It felt like magic.”
It looked just like magic on court, precipitating the winning streak that has taken him to World Number 1.
Djokovic eats simple meals these days, based on white meat, fish, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, chickpeas, lentils, fruits and healthy fats. And while he admits to finding it difficult at times to maintain gluten-free eating on tour, he does so with what has been described as “extraordinary dedication”.
Of course, it isn’t only dietary changes that make a tennis champion. Djokovic’s team includes his coach – German former tennis champion Boris Becker – a fitness trainer, hitting partner, physiotherapist, psychologist and nutrition therapist. He practices meditation, yoga and tai chi to centre himself.
Deeper meaning
Djokovic also became a father in October, which he says has given his life “deeper meaning”, and a “more intrinsic value now”. In his victory speech after lifting the Australian Open trophy, he said: “Getting married and becoming a father in the last six months was definitely something that gave me a new energy, something that I never felt before.”
Media reports have sometimes stated that Djokovic has coeliac disease, and called him the “world’s most famous coeliac”. That’s vastly overstating the case.
One problem is that coeliac disease has become “a generic blanket term not unlike how Kleenex today signifies no more than a box of tissue paper of any brand”, as one expert put it.
The term covers just about “everything connected to a reaction to gluten”, says US nutrition, natural medicine and auto-immune disease expert Dr Rivka Roth on the Greenmedicine.com website, which is unhelpful – and inaccurate.
Roth says there needs to be a proper distinction made between coeliac disease, non-coeliac, and/or coeliac gluten sensitivity.
Gluten-free eating is also often touted as a weight-loss aid. Certainly, Djokovic returned to the court in great streamlined shape, after cutting gluten and dairy from his diet. But is gluten-free really all it’s cracked up to be for weight-loss?
“Not necessarily,” says Johannesburg dietitian Celynn Erasmus.
Lucrative industry
Gluten-free is “essential for a segment of the population” that has gastrointestinal conditions such as coeliac disease, and that can’t tolerate even small amounts of the protein gluten, Erasmus says.
A lucrative industry has grown around gluten-free products, but these are “not always good for slimming”, she says.
When manufacturers make products such as gluten-free bread, they remove the wheat protein from the food by swopping it for another flour such as almond, rice or corn, she says. This “missing gluten” makes it difficult for breads and bakery products to retain their shape and softness as they bake. To solve this, manufacturers introduce additives such as corn starch, xanthum gum and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose. They also pack products with added sugar and fats to products to make them tastier, says Erasmus.
“Ironically, the result is that gluten-free bread can make it harder to reduce your waistline,” she says.
Gluten-free eating requires people to become “gluten detectives”, scouring food labels and looking for hidden gluten because it is “in everything”, says Erasmus, including products in you’d least expert to be: from frozen vegetables to soy sauce and medication.
Gluten-free clearly works well for Djokovic, but he makes clear in his book that it’s not a one-size-fits-all dietary solution. It has taught him that in his case, “nothing is impossible”.
And as he says on his Facebook page: “Preparation – both physical and mental – is the key to success.”
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