If you’re a basketball fan, you know who Dwight Howard is. He’s an eight-time NBA all-star, won the 2008 slam dunk competition, and led the league in blocks two years straight. He’s also won Olympic gold.
But what you may not know about Howard is his insane diet. In an ESPN The Magazine feature from back in March, a nutritionist who used to work for the Los Angeles Lakers said that Howard had a major sweet tooth, eating 24 candy bars every day—possibly, for 10 straight years.
Howard is now with the Charlotte Hornets, and recently talked with GQ about what he’s eating these days. RealClearLife has teased out some of the, er, sweetest bits.
-About that story from ESPN … “I don’t even know how they’re that accurate about me eating so much candy, but everybody likes candy,” he says. “People love different types of sweets, and what I liked to do was eat candy. Was it hard to get off of it? Yeah, at first. Now I’m pretty much cool with it. It doesn’t really bother me. I don’t have to have any type of candy in my diet to feel a certain type of way. But there was a point in time when I just loved eating candy.”
-Howard’s candies of choice at the time were “Skittles, and honey buns, and any chocolate … I had a busload of candy in my pantry.” He was also a big fan of moon pies and oatmeal pies.
-On the benefits of cutting candy out of his diet: “Usually when you eat candy, you have a good rush. It hits you and it feels great, but then once you crash, you crash. Once I took that out, I was able to play longer.”
-His advice to players who think they can eat anything as soon as they enter the NBA: “There’s a time and place for everything. There are times during the season when you want to eat the crazy foods, and I think the best time to do that is right after the season. Get you a good month in where you’re eating whatever you want,” says Howard.
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