Bizarre Food Bans Imposed By Sports Teams

It's surprising but true: When it comes to what their players can consume, coaches give plenty of foods we commonly associate with sports the red card. Some nibbles, like pizza and french fries, make some sense. Others, like mushrooms, are downright puzzling. Across the pond, there have also been massive blanket bans on foods and drinks that Americans almost exclusively link to sports.

Take Gatorade, for example. According to HITC, the European Union cracked down on the jewel-toned athletic beverages in 2012, thanks to brominated vegetable oil (or BVO). Per the Chicago Tribune, the American appetite for BVO and other questionable additives soured, too, after a viral online plea to remove the ingredient forced Gatorade to reexamine its drink contents. The company eventually phased it out altogether. While Gatorade was sent to the penalty box thanks to an EU ban on BVO (via European Parliament), some coaches have taken dietary restrictions into their own hands, with mixed results.

While banning soda might seem to make a lot of sense, banning ice in drinks is a real head-scratcher unless you're Paolo Di Canio. This Sunderland coach warned his players that they must avoid all sorts of strange things, including popular condiments, coffee, and phones (via The Telegraph). He also had an issue with amateur singers, believing that belting out a tune in the communal showers would mess with pre-game concentration. One of his most famous banned substances was a little something we pop into our iced lattes and Coca-Cola daily.

According to The Telegraph, Di Canio wanted to revolutionize the locker room, recreating it in his own image by restricting phone use and bubbly drinks like Coca-Cola. As for the ice cubes, Di Canio asserted that excess ice caused indigestion and messed with gameplay. Although craving ice could be a sign of pica and cause dental problems (via Healthline), sipping cold drinks with ice doesn't seem to be a major no-no — except in Di Canio's locker room.

According to Radio Times, Arsène Wenger's tenure at Arsenal was marked by a healthy overhaul of players' dietary habits, swapping out their calorie-saturated junk food for more nutritious fare. Although Arsenal's players seemed to grin and bear the loss of their fries and burgers in lieu of veggies, there was one thing that Wenger did that definitely crossed the line: his chocolate ban.

Wenger himself notes that the chocolate ban prompted a near-mutiny on the team, with players calling for their favorite Mars bars (via Radio Times). Wenger isn't alone in his hasty chocolate ban. Other coaches like George Graham had similarly stringent rules. The Daily Mail notes that nixing chocolate from players' diets was simply one way to keep their blood sugar steady. On the other hand, it's probably fair to say that Arsenal players perhaps experienced a massive spike in their blood pressure once they learned about it.

According to Planet Football, Tottenham Hotspurs coach Antonio Conte waged a dietary war on popular condiments, specifically mayo and ketchup. The two sauces got nixed from the field as a way to improve players' fitness, a common trend with food-based bans. But, as with most dietary prohibitions, this one may not have had the desired effect.

Planet Football notes that limiting condiment consumption makes little, if any, difference in the overall scheme of things and can actually add a little zest to otherwise lifeless and unappealing meals. Fortunately, Tottenham players got their zing back thanks to Harry Redknapp, who brought the era of condiments back into action by providing the team with some ketchup (via Talk Sport). We may never know if embracing bland, condiment-free food is the ultimate key to athletic success, but we can make the educated guess that the Spurs rejoiced in having access to their favorite sauces again.

According to Talk Sport, Tottenham coach Juande Ramos had some pretty strict rules about food, including banning players from consuming basic spices like salt and pepper. In the interest of keeping players slim and fit, Ramos' idea of an epic athletic diet involved unseasoned proteins and sauceless noodles, an unappetizing concept at best. It only gets worse when you consider that salt was entirely off the dining table.

Not only did Ramos ban basic seasonings, but he also denied Tottenham some of the players' favorite sauces, including ketchup. He banned junk food of any kind, punishing players for the crimes of sneaking some McDonald's to satisfy their cravings (via Talk Sport). Between the flavorless carbs, steamed veggies, and dry proteins, Tottenham players were hungry for change — and happy when a new coach let them have their favorite goodies. We're willing to bet that they never take essential seasonings for granted again.

Carnivorous Chinese athletes craving meaty treats were out of luck in the 2012 London Olympics when their home country banned meat from the competition. According to The Telegraph, fear in the Chinese General Administration of Sport stemmed from clenbuterol contamination — a prohibited substance that could compromise the athletes' eligibility in the games. Reuters notes that while the meatless meals were deemed necessary, there was some concern amongst coaches that depriving participants of meat could lead to worse performances.

According to Reuters, all-veggie diets are convenient scapegoats for Chinese coaches, with the country's volleyball team attributing a string of defeats to their meatless fare. Unfortunately, there was nothing that on-the-ground coaches could do except grin, bear it, and serve up some hearty veggies. The Chinese Sports Ministry ban left athletes to make do without pork, lamb, or beef throughout their tenure in the 2012 games (via Reuters).

The Indian men's cricket team made some waves when it vetoed all non-halal meat for its players. According to India Today, the dietary decision was not handed down from the Board of Control for Cricket in India but came straight from management. Under the rules, the team could not consume any beef or pork, and what meat they did ingest had to be fully halal.

According to the BBC, halal refers to meat or other foods prepared according to the Koran's customs and laws. These laws specify how animals are to be killed for human consumption and involve a specific process where all of the blood is drained from the animal. Non-halal foods are strictly forbidden in Islamic tradition, and all foods must be certified as halal to make them safe to eat (via Halal RC). While other bans on our list are specifically designed to help players lose weight, this one seems to be a sign of respect for the Indian cricket team's Muslim players.

The NCAA used to have some convoluted rules revolving around what its athletes could eat, including one affectionately known as the "cream cheese rule," specifying that bagels and other snacks were okay, but cream cheese was a big no-no. This widely derided rule applied to full-scholarship students in particular, lumping in cream cheese with a host of other toppings that the NCAA decreed could not adorn bone-dry bagels, the logic being that a bagel was a "snack," but a bagel with toppings was a "meal."

Fortunately, the cream cheese rule is no longer in effect. According to CBS Sports, athletes can eat virtually anything they want. That doesn't keep the cream cheese rule from popping up in all corners of the internet, including Reddit, where the lore lives on that popping a smear of cream cheese on your bagel will transform it into something wholly different and prohibited.

The Golden State Warriors coach Lachlan Penfold sparked a furious controversy when he banned his star players from eating one of their childhood faves (via ABC7 News). While the Warriors won their right to consume all the sandwiches they wanted, eventually, this still goes down in sports history as one of the most contentious bans ever. Per The Comeback, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were just one of the many foods the NBA team banned, but they were almost certainly the ones that hit players right in the heart.

The Warriors embarked on a mission to get their PB&J back, with the interim coach stepping in to rally for the players (via The Comeback). Clearly, there are just some things that you leave well enough alone. So if you're not banned from eating PB&J to your heart's delight, check out these secrets to making the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich.