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Quick – name your favorite events in the Summer Olympics. Gymnastics? Track and field? Diving? Well, if T.G.I. Fridays gets its way, you may soon be adding bartending to that list. The fast casual chain has petitioned the International Olympic Committee to name “flairtending” the restaurant’s signature style of bottle juggling, glass-slinging bar skills, an Olympic sport. Fridays is urging bartending fans to support the request by signing online petitions on the restaurant’s Facebook page and on the Friday’s sponsored World Bartender Championship website.

Read more: Bartending the Next Olympic Sport?

You probably think the typical Olympic athlete’s big nutritional concern is eating enough to make it through the day’s workout(s). That’s certainly true for some. Cross-country skiers, particularly women, have a difficult time consuming the 4,000 or 5,000 calories they may need to replace what they’re burning off, says Susie Parker-Simmons, a sports dietitian with the United States Olympic Committee.

But then there’s the poor Olympic ski jumper.

The full article is Winter Olympic Nutrition Plan.

Olympic Ring Cookies are the perfect way to curb a snack attack while watching coverage of the Winter Olympics — wouldn’t you agree?

Find recipes here: Olympic ring cookies: perfect Winter Games sweets.

The food supplied for the athletes at the Olympic Village needs to cater for a diversity of sports, cultures, ages and special dietary needs. Here is some information about the Olympic Village food menu for Vancouver in 2010, the details taken from an article by USOC Sports Dietician Susie Parker-Simmons. See more about Olympic Village nutrition and links to information about the menus at other Olympic Games.

As for previous Olympic Games, the Vancouver Olympic Village menu has to cater for a wide range of sports, cultures, ages and special dietary needs. The dietitians preparing the menu for Vancouver are catering for the special needs of halal, gluten free, vegetarian (vegan), nut free and lactose free diets.

There will be some food selection available all day (24-hours), such as fruit, salads, yogurts, cereals, breads, sandwiches, beverages, and desserts. Specific menus will be available at the major meal times throughout the day. Breakfast is on between 4am and 10am, and includes cereals, egg dishes, breakfast meats, potato dishes, rice, assortment of breads and other hot items such as waffles. Lunch is from 10am to 4pm and dinner from 4pm 12am. Both the lunch and dinner meal will include soups, international entrees, an Asian section, grill/carvery, a Native Canadian section, pizza and pasta, halal and various vegetables and starches (rice, noodles, pasta). Late night eating will include soups, pizza, salads, omelets, pasta, salads and a Native Canadian section.

For those who have to eat away from the village, for example on days that they are competing, they are able to pre-order box lunches. All menu items will include nutritional labeling, with common food allergies also identified. The catering company for the Vancouver and Whistler Olympic Villages is Sodexo.

Also see:

• Olympic Village nutrition, includes links to info about the menu at other Olympic Games.
• Nutrition at the Olympics
• the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games
• about the Olympic Games

Food at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler will be provided by Sodexo and McDonald’s. There will be fresh food stations at various points in the Athletes’ Village and so called ”food nannies” will keep dishes at a constant, safe temperature in order to prevent food borne illness.

At the 2008 games in Beijing, the Americans had meat flown in from the U.S. in order to stop just that. However, somewhere between the U.S. and preparation in China, the food developed pathogens and made quite a few of the athletes very ill. Food borne illness is caused when food sits in the danger zone at an improper temperature.

The two main elements of food poisoning are moisture content and temperature. Therefore if one is cooking a food whose moisture content is high (think potatoes, pasta, rice.) and it is left to stand at room temperature or at a temperature that is not sufficiently high to kill bacteria, one will have a wretched and dangerous case of food borne illness on one’s hands.

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By Judy Creighton, THE CANADIAN PRESS

When watching our stalwart winter Olympian athletes tearing down the slopes or speed skating the oval like there was no tomorrow, have you ever wondered where they get that supreme energy?

“The key is in what they eat,” says Rose Reisman, a Toronto nutritional consultant, cookbook author, restaurant and catering business owner and mother of four.

“And non-Olympians can learn from those athletes because no matter what you do in terms of an active lifestyle we should all be eating the same as they,” she says. “The only difference with an Olympian is that they are going to consume double the calories we are because by nature they are more active.”

With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics just over two months away, Reisman thought it a good time to put a challenge to not-so-active Canadians to get fit not only through exercise but when choosing meals as well.

“The old days where the belief was protein, protein and more protein or maybe a bowl of pasta before a run are past,” she says. “Now it’s a matter of following Canada’s Food Guide and snacking every two to three hours five times a day so you can fuel your body properly.”

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